Year: 1866

At the State Convention, Nay oath, lSo0.


GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION u
am very sensible Of the honor conferred
upon me BY being called upon to preside
over your deliberations. And I am the
more bound to make my acknowledge
ments, that it comes unsolicited and with
out even q wish on my part. return
my thanks to you, gentlemen, and will
endeavor to merit the confidence you
have reposed in me. And to do so, l
am sure. will not be difficult task for
never did greater harmony prevail in our
grand and time-honored party, and never
did its Delegates assemble in Convention
with more Of fraternal feeling or with q
frmer resolution to stand by the pTinci-
ples that have made the name Of the
party a synonym of whatever expresses
GOOD government, and that will in the
future secure to our organization an ex-
istence as enduring as time. Where all
are aotuated by the same noble motives,
and neither envy, jealousy or selfshness
fnds a place, the duties Of a presiding
officer are so simple that it is scarcely
possible to err.


Gentlemen, we have very often met in
Convention before and under the most
various circumstances-at times when all
was so bright around us that the most
farsighted and distrustful could perceive
no speck of danger in our political sky ;
and again, when that sky was so over
cast and menacing that even the most
| lion-hearted and hopeful could scarce re-
| frain from despair We have seen our
country, under Democratic rule, the
abode of the most free, prosperous and
happy people on earth and, again, we
have seen it, under the dominion of our
opponents, a prey to all that human
nature has ever developed OF despotism,
horror and calamity.


But, whether in sunshine or in dark
ness, in calm or in tempest. our party
has ever followed the path of duty accord
ing to its honest convictions. To say
that it has never erred would be to claim
for it a more than human intelligence
To say thatit has seldom erred and never
intentionally, is but TO speak the verdict
Of history. at is 65 years since the in
auguration of Mr. Jefferson. During AZ
years of this period, the Government was
in the hands of the Democratic party
During nearly eight of the remaining
seventeen years, though presided over by
Presidents not of our choice, it was ad
ministered, in the main, upon Democratic
principles. In this long lapse of time
there was witnessed, what had never
been witnessed before, total absence Of
civil connections, and a profound peace
for fifty out of ffty-six years. And not
peace alone, but also, unexampled free
dom. growth, prosperity and happiness.
No man ever lost life, liberty or property,
for a political offense, under Democratic
administration. No man was ever de-
prived by such an administration, of life,
| liberty or property, without due process
of law. No political Bastile ever then
darkened and disgraced the face Of the
land. No prison doors were ever then
closed against the sacred writ of hG6eaS
corpus. No military commission, organ
lied to convict, ever then usurped the
functions of The aw-maker and of the
civil courts. No tongue or press was
ever then silenced by arbitrary power
And never, no never, was such thing
then heard of as an American exile.


Who can look at this picture Of liber-
t7, security, happiness and national glory
feebIv though it be drawn, without feel
ing his heart swell with an honest pride
at the thought that he bslongstO to a party
that has such history? What sad
reverse the last few years present, 1 need
not say. Their events are too fresh in
our recolleetions to require recital.


And now, gentlemen, we are again as
sembled in council to consult and to act
for the common welfare. The storm Of
war has passed by but we are yet far,
fear. from the haven of peace and safety
Indeed, it may well be doubted, whether
We have seen time of more peril than
the present. After four years Of bloody
war to preserve the Union, as We were
told. we see the party that arrogates to
itself exclusively the name of Union,
practically dissolVing what it pretended
to preserve. We see eleven States that
have laid down their arms, are obedient
to the Constitution and the laws, and are
anxious to resume the exercise of their
constitutional rights, forcibly deprived
of them, heavily taxed without represen-
tation and ruled by laws in the making
of which they have not the slightest
voice. And this is done by party that
calls itself Union and Republican. Pray,
gentlemen, if this be Union what is dis
solutionP if this be Republicanism what
is despotism? Did any one ever hear
ENGLISH rule over Ireland, Austrian rule
over Hungary, or Russian rule over
Poland called republican I fancy moi
and vet wherein do they differ in prin.
eipIe from that rule which our Abolition
so-called Congress exercises and is striv
ling to consolidate over the Southern
States? And who does not see that i


the precedent be set and approved, o


Congress excluding a State, or State,
from representation, there never will b'
wanting a pretext for like exclusion o.
any State obnoxious to majority of tht
Congress, or whose representation would
oppose a bar to the schemes of that ma


ioritv or to the perpetuation Of its power
lIf the representation of a State is to de


pend upon the will of Congress, instea;


Of the provisions of the Constitution, o


IL. Na,.A141&ioD or mho