Year: 1866




Letter In It's Favor.


WASHINGTON, d. @. July IA, '66.
TO Hon. J. r. Doolittle, Chairman, de-:


Sir; l have the honor to acknowl-
odge the receipt of your note of the
10th inst, with printed copy of q
call for a National Convention, to be
held at Philadelphia on the 14th day
of August next. You request, in case
the call and principles enunciated in
it meet my approval, that reply at
my earliest convenience. This lam
guage would seem only to imply that
10 answer is desired, if l do not APP
prove the call and the principles avow-
ed in it. In other words, that a fail
ure to reply may be interpreted as a
disapproval not only of the call but Of
each and all Of the principles announc-
ed in it.


This is a position in which l am un-
willing to be placed, when l Iapprove
of many Of the principles set forth in
the call, and yet do not approve ofthe
call itself. l will briefly state my rea-
sons, first promising that I do not re-
cognize the very respectable gentlemen
who have made this call, as the ac-
knowledged organs of the great Union
party of the county. Since the out
break of the terrific struggle, from
which the country has now emerged,
we have had a National Union party
that has exhibited more devotion, made
greater sacrifices, and manifested more
unselfish patriotism, than any party
ever did previously in the history Of
the world. That party is still in be-
ing. with its organization intact and
its organs known; and as that party, by
its faith, its doctrines and its exertions,
has, in the face of the prophecies of
half of the New and all the Old World,
saved the Government and tho repub-
lican institutions of our common coun-
try from decentralization, and indeed
from utter ruin, by vindicating at all
hazards the primordal theory OF the
eternal indissoluble union Of the States,
through which only can particle of
the theory Of State Rights ever be main
tanned and carried out, it would appear
to me TO be still the only, or at any
rate the most effectual means, as far as
party can do it, of finally adjusting all
the remaining minor and unsettled
matters of reconstruction, consistently
with the requirements of tho theory
mentioned. This party is the samcto-
= day as il was in the days of its trial ;
the same party now as when, but few
short months 40, it elected Lincoln
and johnson and the majority of the
present Congress and as | acted with
it then for paramount reasons, my
sense of duty demands that l remain
and act with it now.


The pith and marrow of the present
call, should say, tend toward con-
vention to form party for sustaining,
not the Government in its entirety, as
has been the mission of the Union par
ty, but department of the Govern
ment and here l must take the liber
ty Of adding that can hardly conceive
of any sadder spectacle under the cri-
sis of present circumstances than that of
the tried Union party of this country
becoming dislocated and broken up bv
diversions or that Of one branch of
the Government of the country taking
an isolated position upon questions of
deep and common interest, and plac-
ing itself in hostile conflict with co.or-
dinate departments. For these, and
other reasons which might be men
tioued, can not join in the call for
the Convention in Philadelphia.


/ have said that many of the pfinci-
piles stated in the call, are, in my view,
unobiectionable. | will not stop to
criticise those which are Objectionable,
but content myself with stating that
the call fails to take any notice of one
of tho great issues now before tho
american people. / allude to the ques-
tion whether the several States shall
ratify or reject the last amendment,
proposed by Congress, to tho Consti-
tuition Of the United States. This is a
grave and all important question the
issue upon it can not be avoided. 1t
should be placed fairly and squarely
before the people. The failure to take
ground upon SO important and allah.
sorbing question, must be attributed
either to a desire to avoid the issue or
as declaration of belief and policy
against the adoption of the amend
ment, Being myself earnestly, and de-
cidedly in favor of the adoption of the
amendment by the States, l cannot
90 into an organization that would
either openly oppose that measure, or
would smother it by avoiding its dis
cussion. must also add, that no man
is more desirous than l am, to attain
the entire restoration of tho American
Union, with its practical workings in
moro perfect harmony and concord
than ever, and the surety, rs far as
mortal affairs can be made sure, of
endless perpetuity in the future.


The blessings TO flow from such a
Union are countless and inestimable.
But such Union. consistent within
itself, maintained by the universal con-
sent Of all classes and sections, and
laughing to scorn both the assaults of
foes internal or external, and the raw
ages of time and change, will only be
obtained by sternly retracting every
departure from or compromise with
the supreme and general idea of the
American fundamental law-the Con-
stitution. That general idea consists,
in brief, Of the political liberty and
equality Of mankind under the law.


Such, and such only, can be the
HMM the nationality that will put