labourer and the officeholder, the pensioner and the soldier, the producer and the bondholder.

"6. Economy in the administration of the Government; the reduction of the standing army and navy; the abolition of the Freedmen's Bureau, and all political instrumentalities designed to secure negro supremacy, simplification of the system and discontinuance of inquisitorial modes of assessing and collecting internal revenue, so that the burden of taxation may be equalized and lessened, the credit of the Government and the currency made good, the repeal of all enactments for enrolling the State militia into national forces in time of peace, and a tariff for revenue upon foreign imports, and such equal taxation under the Internal Revenue laws as will afford incidental protection to domestic manufactures, and as will, without impairing the revenue, impose the least burden upon and best promote and encourage the great industrial interests of the country.

"7. Reform of abuses in the administration, the expulsion of corrupt men from office, the abrogation of useless offices, the restoration of rightful authority to and the independence of the executive and judicial departments of the Government, the subordination of the military to the civil power, to the end that the usurpations of Congress and the despotism of the sword may

cease.

"8. Equal rights and protection for naturalized and native-born citizens at home and abroad; the assertion of American nationality, which shall command the respect of foreign Powers, and furnish an example and encouragement to people struggling for national integrity, constitutional liberty, and individual rights; and the maintenance of the rights of naturalized citizens against the absolute doctrine of immutable allegiance, and the claims of foreign Powers to punish them for alleged crime committed beyond their jurisdiction.

"In demanding these measures and reforms we arraign the Radical party for its disregard of right, and the unparalleled oppression and tyranny which have marked its career.

"After the most solemn and unanimous pledge of both Houses of Congress to prosecute the war exclusively for the maintenance of the Government and the preservation of the Union under the Constitution, it has repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge under which alone was rallied that noble volunteer army which carried our flag to victory.

"Instead of restoring the Union, it has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten States in time of profound peace to military despotism and negro supremacy. It has nullified there the right of trial by jury; it has abolished the Habeas Corpus, that most sacred writ of liberty; it has overthrown the freedom of speech and the press; it has substituted arbitrary seizures and arrests, and military trials, and secret Star Chamber inquisitions for the constitutional tribunals; it has disregarded in time of peace

the right of the people to be free from searches and seizures; it has entered the post and telegraph offices, and even the private rooms of individuals, and seized their private papers and letters without any specific charge or notice of affidavit, as required by the organic law; it has converted the American Capitol into a Bastile; it has established a system of spies and official espionage to which no constitutional monarchy of Europe would now dare to resort; it has abolished the right of appeal on important constitutional questions to the supreme judicial tribunals, and threatens to curtail or destroy its original jurisdiction, which is irrevocably vested by the Constitution; while the learned Chief Justice has been subjected to the most atrocious calumnies merely because he would not prostitute his high office to the support of the false and partisan charges preferred against the President. Its corruption and extravagance have exceeded any thing known in history, and by its frauds and monopolies it has nearly doubled the burden of the debt created by the war. It has stripped the President of his constitutional power of appointment, even of his own Cabinet. Under its repeated assaults the pillars of the Government are rocking on their base, and should it succeed in November next and inaugurate its President, we will meet as a subject and conquered people amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered fragments of the Constitution.

"And we do declare and resolve that ever since the people of the United States threw off all subjection to the British Crown the privilege and trust of suffrage have belonged to the several States, and have been granted, regulated, and controlled exclusively by the political power of each State respectively, and that any attempt by Congress, on any pretext whatever, to deprive any State of this right, or interfere with its exercise, is a flagrant usurpation of power, which can find no warrant in the Constitution; and if sanctioned by the people will subvert our form of Government, and can only end in a single centralized and consolidated Government, on which the separate existence of the States will be entirely absorbed and an unqualified despotism be established in place of a Federal Union of co-equal States; and that we regard the Reconstruction. Acts (so called) of Congress, as such, as usurpations and unconstitutional, revolutionary and void; that our soldiers and sailors who carried the flag of our country to victory against a most gallant and determined foe must ever be gratefully remembered, and all the guarantees given in their favour must be faithfully carried into

execution.

"That the public lands should be distributed as widely as possible among the people, and should be disposed of under the preemption of homestead lands, and sold in reasonable quantities, and to none but actual occupants, at the minimum price established by the Government. When grants of the public lands may be allowed necessary for the encouragement of important public improvements, the proceeds of the sale of such lands, and not the lands themselves, should be so applied.

"That the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, in exercising the power of his high office in resisting the aggressions of Congress upon the constitutional rights of the States and the people, is entitled to the gratitude of the whole American people, and in behalf of the Democratic party we tender him our thanks for his patriotic efforts in that regard. Upon this platform the Democratic party appeal to every patriot, including all the Conservative element, and all who desire to support the Constitution and restore the Union, forgetting all past differences of opinion, to unite with us in the present great struggle for the liberties of the people; and that to all such, to whatever party they may have heretofore belonged, we extend the right hand of fellowship, and hail all such co-operating with us as friends and brethren.

Resolved,-That in the future as in the past we will adhere with unswerving fidelity to the Union under the Constitution as the only solid foundation of our strength, security, and happiness as a people, and as a framework of government equally conducive to the welfare and prosperity of all the States both Northern and Southern.

"Resolved, That the Union established by the Constitution is a Union of States, Federal in its character, composed of States thereby united, and is incapable of existence without the States as its continuing integral parts, and therefore the perpetuation of the Union in its integrity depends upon the preservation of the States in their political integrity, the Government of the United States being a Federal Republic, and not a consolidation of the whole people into a nation.

"Resolved,―That the perpetuation of the Union and the maintenance of the Government as both were established by the Constitution, and as both under the Constitution have been expounded in the foregoing resolutions in conformity with the venerable teachings of Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson, have ever been held as cardinal doctrines of the Democratic party; and they are now reiterated with increased earnestness under the solemn conviction that they can be effected only by bringing back the administration of the Government to the time-honoured principles on which for sixty years there was such unparalleled happiness and prosperity, and by rescuing it from those who have ever held the Constitution itself to be no better than a 'covenant with death, and an agree ment with hell,' whose revolutionary policy and measures have brought such general discord, strife, and war, with its attendant ills, upon a large portion of the country, and such widespread demoralization throughout the whole of it.

"Resolved, That the Democratic party, in sustaining the Federal Administration in the late unhappy conflict of arms, did so in good faith, with the hope and earnest wish to maintain the principles above set forth, and with no view of waging war' on the part of the Northern States in any spirit of oppression' against their brethren of the South, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjuga

tion, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of the States; but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired. The subjugation of these States, or the holding of them as conquered territory, would be, in the judgment of this Convention, the destruction of the Union itself.

"Resolved,―That the highest meed of patriotism is due, and should ever be rendered, to all those who in the recent war perilled life or fortune for the maintenance of the Union and the beneficent system of American government thereby established upon the fundamental principles set forth in the foregoing resolutions; but we have neither thanks nor sympathy for those who entered or carried on the contest for the subjugation of States, or for the subjugation by Federal authority of the white race in any of the States to the dominion of the blacks. The right of suffrage, or who shall exercise political power, is a matter that rests under the Constitution exclusively with the several States. There it properly belongs, and there it should continue ever to remain."

At the same time they nominated as the Democratic candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President Mr. Horatio Seymour, ex-Governor of New York, and General Blair.

A Bill was passed in July by Congress to prohibit such of the Southern States as should not have reorganized themselves under the Reconstruction Laws from voting in the Electoral Colleges for the President and Vice-President in the ensuing election. This Bill was vetoed by the President, but passed by the requisite majorities in both Houses, and became law. In his message to Congress, explaining his reasons for the veto, the President said that the mode of receiving and counting the electoral votes was plainly prescribed by the Constitution, and that Congress had no power to revise or reject the votes. He directed attention to a declaration in the Bill that none of the States whose inhabitants were lately in rebellion should be entitled to representation in the Electoral College, and said, if it was meant that no State was to be allowed to vote for President and Vice-President all of whose inhabitants were engaged in the rebellion, it was apparent that none of the States would be excluded from voting, since many of the inhabitants of every Southern State refrained from participating in the rebellion. He therefore concluded the true meaning to be that no State, a portion of whose inhabitants were engaged in the rebellion, should be permitted to vote in the Presidential election, except upon the terms prescribed, and asked, might not those Northern States, where a portion of the inhabitants were actually in the rebellion, be prevented at the discretion of Congress from having their electoral votes counted? It was well known that a portion of the inhabitants of New York and a portion of those of Virginia were alike engaged in the rebellion. If Congress could exclude Virginia from the Electoral College, it could exclude New

York or any other of the States. Thus the result of the Presidential election might be controlled and determined by Congress, and the people be deprived of their right under the Constitution to choose a President and Vice-President of the United States. It was a radical error to suppose that Congress had the power to prescribe terms and conditions to this right of the people of the States.

Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, issued a proclamation announcing that twenty-nine States having ratified the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution it had become part of the Constitution, "if the resolutions of the Legislatures of Ohio and New Jersey ratifying the aforesaid amendment are to be deemed as remaining of full force and effect, notwithstanding the subsequent resolutions of the Legislatures of those States, which purport to withdraw the consent of said States from said ratification.'

In July President Johnson sent a message to Congress recommending a constitutional amendment providing that the President be elected by direct popular vote for a term of six years, and be ineligible a second term, and that Senators be elected by the people instead of by a vote of the Legislature.

In July a resolution was carried in the House of Representatives instructing the Committee of Ways and Means to report a Bill for taxing the interest on the bonds of the United States at 10 per cent. The Committee accordingly did report the Bill, but stated that they did so only in obedience to the positive order of the House, and were themselves opposed to the proposal. They said, "In the argument made in the House in favour of the resolution the English income-tax law was referred to and quoted. There is a law corresponding to that English law in this country, imposing a tax of 5 per cent. on incomes, while the English law imposes 3. But your Committee have been unable to find on the statutebooks of England or any other civilized country a law that could be regarded in any way as a precedent for the Bill the House have instructed the Committee to report, which, if enacted, will be simply a law providing for the payment of a rate of interest on the Government debt 10 per cent. less than was agreed, for 10 per cent. less than is stated in the bonds, and 10 per cent. less than was pledged to be paid by the solemn enactment of Congress, when the money was required to carry on a war which threatened the life of the nation. The evil effects resulting to a nation, whether her national credit is guarded and protected, or whether, by legislation of the character now proposed, the confidence of all other civilized nations is forfeited, may not be felt or appreciated in time of peace, but the Committee desire to call attention to the consequences that would follow the passage of a Bill of the character now submitted in case we should ever hereafter have occasion to use our credit for the purpose of providing means either to sustain ourselves at home or to defend ourselves in any collision with a foreign Power."