Year: 1871

ing address was referred by the recent
State Convention, now present the same
to you as embodying some of the reasons
which actuate and control the organization
they represent:


We here solemnly renew our often re-
peatcd declaration Of fidelity to the great
principles upon which our party has acted
from the time of its first organization. Our
ultimate objects arc those of our fathers
when they adopted the federal constitution,
viz: "To form more perfect Union to
establish justice, to insure domestic tran
guilty, to promote the general welfare, to
| provide for the common defense, and to
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves
and posterity." We sincerely believe that
the Government of the United States, ad-
ministcrcd as it was in former days, with
direct view to the advancement of these
principles. would do for us and for our
children all that any people can reasonably
desire from the political system under
which they live. We are equally sure that
if not carried out in the spirit Of those by
whom it was framed. it must become a
curse. instead of blessing. Situated as
we are, obedience to the fundamental law
means not only the honest performance of
sworn obligations, but freedom, peace and
prosperity to all classes Of the people. On
the other hand the usurpation of inter-
dicted or undclegated power is not only
crime in itself, but the fruitful parent Of
other crimes, and will lead, as it has al
ready led, to Indefinite lnisgovcrnment, cor.
ruption aud tyranny, subverting all liberty
and rendering the rights Of all men inse
cure.


When we speak of the federal conStitu.
tion, we mean the whole instrument, with
all its amendments, and acknowledge the
equal obligation of every part. Several Of
those amendments were carried by brute
force, and by frauds upon the public will
SO glaring y as to take from their authors
all claims upon our respect. But we can.
not deny that they have actually become
part Of the constitution; nor can we avoid
that fact, or get behind it, by showing the
corrupt misconduct of the men who at that
time controlled Congress and mastered the
State Legislatures. Whosoovcr swears to
support the constitution must perform all
that is . in the bond" Any change which
experience and reason shall prove to be de-
sirablc must be made in the prescribed
way, aud not by revolutionary or disorder.
ly means.


No candid person will deny that the
leading men in power at Washington have
been unfaithful to their duties. They have
broken the pledges they made to the pco,
pie, aud, in reckless disregard of their
oaths, they have violated the plaincst pro.
visions of the constitution. They have
deprived the States of their sacred right of
self government i'll matters purely local,
and disarmed them of the power to enforce
their own laws for the preservation of or.
der within their own boundaries they
have passed bills of pains and penalties
operating on millions at once, without re.
gard to the guilt or innocence Of the par
ties they have trampled on all the secur-
tiles of life, liberty and property; treated
the habeas corpus law with contempt, and
denied the right of trial by jury; they
have sent out swarms of their hirclng
agents with instructions to kidnap, impris
on, and kill free citizens for political of.
fcnses, without judicial accusation, without
warrant and without legal trial They
have not only trodden on the great princi-
Piles embodied in the original constitution
as it came from the hands of its trainers,
but even the amendments, which they
themselves interpolated, have been broken
without remorsc, whenever it suited their
interests. In defiance of the NIIIth, they
have doomed many persons to the worst
kind OF "slavery or involuntary scrvi.
tude" in the public prisons, without the
pretcnce of any crime whereof the party
was legally convicted;' in the face of the
XIVth, they have abridged the "cqual
rights" of the whole masses of white citi-
zcns; without the least respect for the
right of universal suffrage, guaranteed by
the XVIII, they have interfered both fore.
IDLY and fraudulently to prevent fair elcc.
tions, and to set them aside after they were
held.


These outrages upon justice, liberty and
law have been perpctrated, not during the
conflict of civil war-not in the M moments
of wild passion or heated excitement-but
in cold blood, upon deliberate reflection in
o time of profound peace, in full view of
the onsequenccs-and their authors have
followed out this line of policy, step by
step, with persistency which shows their
fixed determination for the future. as in
the past. to be bound by no oath and held
by no promise.


The two last and most important of their
anti constitutional measures show more dis.
tinctly than others their settled design to
strangle the liberties of the nation, and
take perpetual power into their own hands.
The force bill authorizes the President not
only to invade the States at his pleasure.
but by declaring martial law, to subvert
all government, except what consists of his
mere will. Under the election law his
cannon is planted directly against the
freedom Of State elections. Already the
bayonets of the executive have cleaned
around the polling places Of the people in