Year: 1864

To the People Of the United States.


After having labored Intellectually to de-
fer as far as was in our power the critical
moment when the attention of the people
must inevitably be fixed upon the selection
of a candidate for the chief magistracy of
the country: after having interregated our
conscience and consulted our duty as citizens,
obeying at once the sentiment of mature
conviction and profound affection for the
common country, we feel impelled on our
own responsibility to declare to the people
that the time has come for all Independent
men. Jealous of their liberties and of the ma
tional greatness. to confer together and unite
to resist the swelling invasion of an open,
shameless, and unrestrained patronage which
threatens to engrlf under its destructive
wave the rights of the people, the liberty
and dignity of the nation.


Deeply impressed with the conviction that,
in time of revolution. when the public at
tentior is turned exclusively to the success of
armies, and is consequently less vigilant Of
the public liberties, the patronage derived
from the organization Of an army OF a mil
lion of men, and an administration of affairs
which seems to control the remotest parts of
the country in favor of its supreme chief
constitute danger seriously threatening to
the stability Of republican institutions; we
declare that the principle ofone term, which
has now acquired nearly the force Of law by
the conSccration of time ought to be infcxl-
bly, adhered to in the approaching elections
We farther declare that we do not recognize
in the Baltimore Convention the essential
conditions Of tiul " national convention
Its proximity to the center Of all interested
Influences of the Administration, its distance
from the center of the country its mode Of
convocation, the corrIpting practices to
which it has been and inevitably will be sub
jected, do not permit the people to assemble
there with any expectation of being able to
deliberate ut full liberty. Convinced as we
are, that in presen Of the critical. .cirvam-
stances in which the nation is placed, it is on
" in the energy and good sense Of the pe0-
pie that the general safety can be found;
satisfied that the only way to consult is to
indicate a central position to which every
one may 90 without too much expenditure
of means and time, and were the assembled
people far from all administrative influence
may consult freely and deliberate peaceably
with the presence of the greatest possible
number of men whose known principles
guarantee their sincere and enlightened de-
votion is the rights of the people and to the
preservation of the true bases of Il repubG
can government; we earnestly invite our fcl-
low-citizens to unite at Cleveland. Ohio, on
Saturday, the thirty-lirst Of May next, for
consultation and concert of action in respect
to the approaching presidential election.


B. Gratz Brown, United States Senator
from Missouri, is the first signer to this call.
His name is followed by a long list of distn-
guished Republicans names, from Massa-
chutts, New York, Ohio, Maine Missouri,
Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Colorado,
Pennsylvania District of Columbia, New
jersey, and Iowa, who compose what is ter
mod thn paonla's Cammittea