Year: 1866

III The PEUPLE UF The UNITED


STATES.


Having met in convention, at the city
of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsy-
lvania, this 10th day of August, 1866, as
the representatives of the people of all
sections, and all the States and Terrific
res of the Union, to consult upon the
condition and the wants of our common
country, we address to you this declara-
ton Of our principles, and of the politi-
cal purposes we seek to promote.


Since the meeting of the last national
convention, in the year 1860, events have
occurred which have changed the charac-
ter of our internal politics and given the
United States a new place among the ma
tions of the earth. Our government has
passed through the visissitudes and the
perils of civil war-a war which, though
mainly sectional in its character, has new
erthless decided POLITICAL differences that
from the very beginning of the govern
ment had threatened the unity of our ma
tional existence, and has left its impress
deep and ineffaceable upon all the inter-
ests, the sentiments, and the destiny of
lhC iCpuUAiC. w ullC ~ luulCl6u upOu
the whole country severe losses in life and
in property, and has imposed burdens
which must weigh on its resources for
generations to come, it has developed
degree of national courage in the presence
of national dangers, capacity for mill
tary organization and achievement, and
devotion on the part of the people to the
form of government which they have OBJ
tanned, and to the principles of liberty
which that government was designed to
promote, which must confirm the conf
dence of the nation in the perpetuity 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 ma
tions, this war has given new scope to the
ambition of political parties, and fresh
impulse to plans of innovation and re-
form. Amidst the chaos of conflicting
sentiments inseparable from such an era,
while the public heart is keenly alive to
all the passions that can sway the public
judgment and affect the public action
while the wounds of war 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 assem-
bled, have undertaken to perform.


For the first time after six long years
of alienation and of conflict, we have come
together from every State and every Sec
tion of our land, as citizens of common
country, under that flag, the symbol a
gain of common glory, to consult toge-
ther how best to cement and pcrpetuate
that Union which is again the object of
our common love, and thus secure the
blessings Of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity.


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 shuddering heart of the
republic. The insurrection against the
supreme 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 re-
quired or permitted to regard or treat
each other as enemies. Not only have
the acts of war been discontinued and the
weapons of war laid aside, but the state
of war no longer exists, and the senti-
ments, the passions, the relations of war
have no longer lawful or rightful place
anywhere throughout one broad domain.
We are again people of the United States,
fellow-citizens of one country, 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 assembled
here to take counsel concerning the in
terests of peace-to decide how We may
most wisely and effectually heal the
wounds the war made, and perfect and
perpetuatc the benefits it has secured, and
the blessings which, under wise and be-
nign Providence, have sprung up IN its
fiery track. This is the work, not of pas
sion, but of calm aud sober judgment; /;
not of resentment for past offenses, pro-
longed beyond the limits which justice
and reason prescribe, but of liberal
states manship, which tOlerates whatit can