Year: 1868

Il
R,air defines the real issue to be tried in
the approaching Presidential canvass


WASHINGTON, June 80, 1868
roIoneI James o. Breadhead:


Dear Colonet-In reply to your inqui-
ries. beg leave to say that leave you
+o determine, on consultation with my
friends from Missouri, whether my name
shall be presented to the Democratic
Convention, and to submit the following
"a what consider the real and only issue
in this contest:


The Reconstruction policy of the Rad
icals will be complete before the next
election; the States SO long excluded will
have been admitted, negro suffrage es-
tablished and the carpet baggers install
ed in their seats in both branches of Con-
gress. There is no possibility of chang
ING the political character of the Senate,
even if the Democrats should elect their
President and majority of the popular
branch of Congress. We cannot, there
fore, undo the Radical plan of Recons
truetien by Congressional action; the
Senate will continue bar to it's repeal.
Must we submit to it! How can it be
overthrown? 1t can only be oyerthrown
by the authority of the Executive, who
is sworn to maintain the Constitution,
and who will fail to do his duty if he
allows the Constitution to perish under
a series of Congressional enactments
which are in palpable violation OF Its
fundamental principles.


IF the President elected by the demo-
craey enforces or permits others TO en-
force the Reconstruction acts, the radl-
Gals, by the accession of twenty spurious
Senators and fifty Representatives, will
control both branches of Congress, and
his administration will be as powerless
as the present one of Mr.. johnson.


There is but one way to restore the
Government and the Constitution, and
that is for the President elect to declare
these acts null and void, compel the
army to undo its usurpations at the
South, disperse the carpet bag State
Governments, allow the white people to
reorganize their own Governments and
elect Senators and Representatives The
House of Representatives will contain a
majority of Democrats from the North
and they will admit the Representatives
elected by the white people of the South,
and with the cooperation of the Presi-
dent it will not be difficult to compel the
Senate to submit once more to the obliga-
tions of the Constitution. It will not be
able to withstand the public judgment, if
distinctly invoked and clearly expressed,
on this fundamental issue, and it is the
sure way to avoid all future strife to put
this issue plainly to the country.


repeat that this is the real and only
question which we should allow to con-
troll us Shall we submit to the usurpa-
tions by which the Government has been
overthrown, or shall we exert ourselves
for its full and complete restoration !!
1t is idle to talk of bonds, greenbacks,
gold, the public faith and the public
credit. What can Democratic Presi-
dent do in regard to any of these with a
Congress In both branches controlled by
the carpet baggers and their allies! He
will be powerless to stop the supplies
by which idle negroes are organized into
political clubs-by which an army is
maintained to protect these vagabonds
in their outrages upon the ballot. These,
and things like these, eat up the revenues
and resources of the Government and
destroy its credit, make the difference
between gold and greenbacks. We must
restore the Constitution before we can
restore the finances, and TO do this we
must have President who will execute
the will of the people by trampling into
dust the usurpations of Congress, known
as the Reconstruction acts. wish to
stand before the Convention upon this
issue, but it is one which embraces every
thing else that is of value in its large
and comprehensive results. It is the one
thing that includes all that is worth a
contest, and without it there is nothing
that gives dignity, honor or value to the
struggle. Your friend.


FRANK p. BLAIR.