Year: 1868

The Democratic party in National Con-
ven!ion assembled, repOsing its trust in the
intelligence, patriotism, discrimination and
justice of the people; standing upon the
Constitution as the foundation and limitation
of the powers of the Government, and the
guaranteeing the liberties of the citizen, and
recognizing the questions of slavery and
secession as having been settled for all time
to come by the war; or the voluntary action
of the Southern States in Constitutional
Conventions assembled, and never 10 be re-
newcd or reagitated, do with the return of
peace, demand


First. The immediate restoration of all
the States 10 their rights in the Union uader
The Constitution, and of civil government to
the American people.


Second. Amnesty Tor al past political of
fences and the regulation of the elective
franchise in the States by their citizens


Third. The payment of the public debt
of the United States as soon as practicable:
and that all moneys drawn from the people
by taxation, except so much as is requisite
for the necessities of the Government eco
nomically administered, be honestly applied
to such payment and where the obligations
of the Government do not expressly state
upon their face, or the law under which
they were issued does not provide that they





and in justice, to be paid in the lawful
money of the United States


In demanding these measures and reforms
we arraign the radical party for its disregard
of right and the unparalleled oppression and
tyranny which have marked its career. Af-
ter a most solemn and unanimous pledge of
both Houses of Congress to prosecute the
war exclusively for the maintenance of the
Government and the preservation of the
Union under the Constitution, il has repeat
edly violated the most sacred pledges under
which alone rallied that noble volunteer
army which carried our flag to victory; in
stead of restoring the Union it has so far as
in its power dissolved it and subjected ten
States in time of profound peace to military
despotism and negro supremacy; has strip
ped the President of his constitutional power
of appointment even of his own Cabinet.
Under its repeated assaults the pillars of the
Government are rocking on their base, and
should it succeed in November next to in
augurate its President, we will meet as a
subjugated and conquered people amid the
ruins of liberty and the scattered fragments
of the Constitution.


ReSOlUed, That in the future as in the
past, we will adhere with answering fidel-
ity to the Union under the Constitution as
the only solid foundation of our strength,



frame work of government equally condu-
Give to the welfare and prosperity of all the
States, both Northern and Southern.


ReSOLUed, That the Union established by
| the Constitution is Union of States, Fed
eral in its character, composed of States
| thereby united, and is incapable of existing
without the States as its continuing integral
| parts, and therefore the perpetuity of the
Union in its integrity depends on the pres
ervation of the States in their political in
| tegrity, the Government of the United States
being Federal Republic and not a consoli-
| dation of the whole people in one nation.
! ReSolred, That the perpetulty of the
| Union and the maintenance of the Govern
! ment as both were established by the Con-
| stitutiOn and as both under the Constitution
have been expounded in the foregoing resc-
Iutions in conformity with the venerable
teachings of jefferson, Madison and jack
| son, have ever been held as cardinal doctrins
of the Democratic party, and they are now
reiterated with increased earnestness, under
| the solemn conviction that constitutional
liberty can be preserved on this continent
only by bringing back the administration of
the Government to those time honored prin-
ciples on which for sixty years there was
such unparalleled happiness and prosperity,
and in rescuing it from the hands of those
| who have ever held the Constitution itself to
be no better than covenant with death and
an agreement with hell; whose revolution
ary policy and measures have brought suck
general discord, strife and war, with its at
tendent ills upon a large portion of the
country, and such wide spread demoraliza.
ton throughout the whole of it.


ResoEUcd, That the Democratic party in
sustaining the Federal administration in the
late unhappy conflict of arms did so in good
| F,;4 ha and TyiGb n
maintain the principles above set forth, and
with no view of waging war on the part of
the Northern States in any spirit of oppres-
sion against their brethren of the South, nor
for any purpose of conquest or subjugation,
nor purpose of oYerthrowing or interfering
with the rights or established institutions of
those States, but to defend and maintain the
| supremacy of the Constitution, and to pre-
serve the Union with all the dignity, equality
and rights of the several States unimpaired.
| The subjugation of these States or holding
them as conquered territory would be, in
the Judgment of this Convention, the desr
truction of the Union itself.


| ReSOIUed, That the highest NEED of
patriotism is due and should ever be extend
ed TO all those who in the recent war periled
life or fortune for the maintenance of the
Union and the bencfcent system of Ameri-
can Government thereby established upon
the fundamental principles set forth in the
foregoing resolutions but we have neither
thanks nor sympathy for those who entered
and carried on the contest for the subju-
CATION of States and for the subjugation by
Federal authority of the white race in any
of the States to the domination of the black
the right of suffrage, or who shall exercise
political power, is a matter that rests undei
the Constitution exclusively with the severa
| States: there il properly belongs, and therS
it should continue ever 10 remain