Year: 1866

!


10 the People of fMe United States.


Having met in Convention, at the city Q
| Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania
this 10th day of August. 1866 as the repre-
sentatives of the people in all sections, an
all the States and Territories of the Union
to consult upon the oneition and the want
of our common country, we address to 20,
this dec aration of our principles, and Of tn
political purposes We seek to promote.


! THE LATE WAR.


Since the meeting Of the last Nationa
Convention, in the year 1860, events hay,
occurred which have changed the characte
| of our internal politics, and given the Unit
States new place among the nations of th
earth. Our government has passed through
the vicissitudes and the perils of civil wa
"a war which, though mainly sectional il
its character, has nevertheless decided 20
litical differences that from the very begin
ming OF the government had threatened the
unity OF our national existence, and has left
its simpress deep and ineffaceable upon al
the interests, the sentiments, and the desti
ny of the republic While it has inflicted
upon the whole country severe losses in lite
and in property, and has imposed burdens
which must weigh on its resources for gen
erations to come, it has developed degree
OF national courage in the presence of ma
tional dangers-a capacity Tor military or.
ganization and achievement, and devotion
on the part of the people to the form Of
government which they have ordained, and
to the principles of Ii 3erty which that govern
ment was designed to promote, which must
confirm the confidence of the nation in the
perpuity of its republican institutions, and
command the respect of the civilized world.


Like all great contests which rouse the
passions and test the endurance of nations,
this war has given new scope TO the cmbl-
tion of political parties, and fresh impulse
to plans of innovation and reform. Amidst
the chaos of conflicting sentiments insepara-
BILE from such an era, while the public heart
is keenly alive to all the passions that can
sway the public judgement and affect the
public action; while the wounds of war are
still fresh and bleeding on either side, and
fears for the future take unjust proportions
from the memories and resentments Of the
past, it is difficult but an imperative duty
which on your behalf we, who are here as
scmbled, have undertaken to perform.


AssEMBLAGE IN AMITY.


For the first time after six long years of
aliantion and of conflict, we have come to.
gcther from every State and every section
of our land as citizens of common coun-
try, under that flag, the symbol again OF a
common glory, to consult together how best
to cement and perpetuate that Union which
is again the object Of our common love, and
thus secure the blessings of liberty to our
selves and our poSte rity.


In the first place, we invoke you to re-
member, always and everywhere, that the
war is ended, and the nation is again at
peace. The shock of contending arms no
longer assails the shudderidg heart of the
republic. The insurrection against the su-
preme authority of the nation has been
suppressed, and that authority has been
again acknowledged, by word and act, in
every State and by every citizen within its
jurisdiction. We are no longer required or
permitted to regard or treat each other as
enemies. Not only have the acts of war
been discontinued, and the weapons of war
lain aside, but the state Of war no longer
exists, and the sentiments, the passions, the
relations of war have no longer lawful or
rightful place anywhere throughout our
broad domain. We are again people of the
United States, frllow-citizens of one couh-
try, bound by the duties and obligations of
a common patriotism, and having neither
rights nor interests apart from common
destiny The duties that devolve upon US
now are again the duties OF peace, and no
longer the duties Of war. We have assem-
blcd here to take counsel concerning the
interests of peace; to decide how we may
most wisely and effectually heal the wounds
the war has made, and perfect and perpet-
uate the benefits it has secured, and the
blessings which, under wise and benign
Providence, have sprung upin its fiery track.
This is the work, not of passion. but Of
calm and sober judgement; not of resent
ment for past offenses, prolonged beyond
the limits which justice and reason pre-
scribe, but of q liberal craftsmanship which
tolerates what it cannot prevent, and builds
its plans and its hopes for the future rather
upon community of interest and ambition
than upon distrust add the weapons of force.


POLITICAL RESULTS OF THE WAR.


In the next place. we call upon you to re-
cognize in their full significance, and to ac-
cept with all their legitimate consequences,
the political results of the war just closed
Ia two most important particulars the vic
tory achieved by the national government
has been final and decisive. First, it has
established beyond all further controversy,
and by the highest of all human sanctions,
the. absolute supremacy of the national gov
ernment, as defined and limited by the Con-
stitution of the United States, and the per-
manent integrity and indissolubility of the
Federal Union as necessary consequence;
and second, it has. put an end finally and
forever to the existence of slavery upon the
soil or within the jurisdiction Of the United
States Both these points became directly
involved in the contest, and controversy up
on both was ended absolutely and finally by
the result.


FRUITS OF VICTORY.


In the third place, we deem it of the ut
most Importance that the real character OF
the war and the victory by which it was
classed should be accurately understood
The war was carried on by the Government
of the United States in maintenance of its
own authority and in defense ofits own ex-
istence, both of which were menaced by the
insurrection which it sought to suppress. -
The suppression of that insurrection accom-
plshed that result. The Government OF
the United States maintained, by force OF
arms, the supreme authority over all the
territory, and over all the States and peo,
pie within its jurisdiction, which the Con
stitution confers upon it; but it acquired
thereby no new power, no enlarged jurisdic-
ton, no rights either of territorial posses
sion or Of civil authority which it did not
possess before the rebellion broke out. All
the rightful power it can ever possess is that
which is conferred upon it, either in express
terms, or by fair and necessary implication,
by the Constitution of the United States.
II was that power and that authority which
the rebellion sought to overthrow, and the
victory of the Federal arms was simply the
defeat of that attempt. The Government
of the United States acted throughout the
war on the defense. 1t sought only to hold
possession Of what was already its own. =