CHAPTER XXIV.

THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.

THE National Democratic Convention met in Tammany Hall, New York City, on Saturday, July 4, 1868. Mr. August Belmont, Chairman of the National Executive Committee, called the Convention to order promptly at 12 o'clock, M., and after a few pertinent remarks, which frequently were interrupted with cheers, nominated Hon. Henry L. Palmer, of Wisconsin, as temporary President. Mr. Palmer, being unanimously chosen to preside, made a brief, well-timed speech before taking the chair, and called upon Rev. Dr. Morgan, Rector of St. Thomas's Church, New York, to offer prayer, which that clergyman accordingly did. The usual committees on permanent organization and resolutions were then appointed, and the convention adjourned until Monday morning.

On Monday morning the committee on permanent organization reported the name of Horatio Seymour for President of the Convention, the announcement of which was received with rapturous cheers. Mr. Seymour then took the chair, and acknowledged the honor thus conferred upon him in most suitable terms, closing his remarks with the following words :

"We meet to-day to see what measures can be taken to arrest the dangers which threaten our country, and to retrieve it from the evils and burdens resulting from bad government and unwise counsels. I thank God that the strife of arms has ceased, and that once more in the great conventions of our party we can call through the whole roll of States and find men to answer for each.

(Tremendous

and continued cheering.) Time and events in their great cycles have brought us to this spot to renew and invigorate that Constitutional Government which nearly eighty years ago was inaugurated in this city, (Loud cheers.) It was here that George Washington, the first President, swore to 'preserve, protect, and defend,' the Constitution of these United States. (Cheers.) And here, this day, we as solemnly pledge ourselves to uphold the rights and liberties of the American people Then, as now, a great war which had desolated our land had ceased. Then, as now, there was in every patriotic breast a longing for the blessings of a good government, for the protection of laws, and for sentiments of fraternal regard and affection among the inhabitants of all the States of this Union. When our Government, in 1780, was inaugurated in this city, there were glad processions of men and those manifestations of great joy which a people show when they feel that an event has happened which is to give lasting blessings to the land. (Cheers.) To-day in this same spirit this vast assemblage meets, and the streets are thronged with men who have come from the utmost borders of our continent. They are filled with the hope that we are about, by our actions and our policy, to bring back the blessings of good government. It is among the happiest omens which inspire us now that those who fought bravely in our late civil war are foremost in their demands that there shall be peace in our land. The passions of hate and malice may linger in meaner breasts, but we find ourselves upheld in our generous purposes by those who showed true courage and manhood on the field of battle. (Cheers.) In the spirit, then, of George Washington and of the patriots of the Revolution, let us take the steps to reinaugurate our Government, to start it once again on its course to greatness and prosperity. (Loud cheers.) May Almighty God give us the wisdom to carry out our purposes, to give to every State of our Union the blessings of peace, good order, and fraternal affection."

A delegation from the convention of the conservative soldiers and sailors of the Union army, headed

by Major-General Franklin, then appeared and presented an address announcing the determination of the Union soldiers and sailors to oppose radicalism to the last, and stand by the action of the Democratic Convention. The address, as well as those who presented it, was received with great enthusiasm, and in response to repeated calls, General Thomas Ewing, Jr., made a brief speech.

Hon. Henry C. Murphy, of New York, on behalf of the committee on resolutions, presented the following platform of principles, the reading of which was frequently interrupted with enthusiastic cheering:

THE PLATFORM.

The Democratic party in National Convention assembled, reposing its trust in the intelligence, patriotism, and discriminating justice of the people, standing upon the Constitution as the foundation and limitation of the powers of the Government, and the guaranty of the liberties of the citizen; and recognizing the questions of slavery and secession as having been settled for all time to come-( -(tremendous cheering)-by the war or the voluntary action of the Southern States in Constitutional Convention assembled, and never to be renewed or re-agitated, do with the return of peace demand:

First-Immediate restoration of all the States to their rights in the Union under the Constitution, and of civil government to the American people. (Cheers.)

Second Amnesty for all past political offenses, and the regulation of the elective franchise in the States by their citizens. (Cheers.)

Third-Payment of the public debt of the United States as rapidly as practicable; all moneys drawn from the people by taxation, except so much as is requisite for the necessities of the Government, economically administered, being honestly applied as such payment; and where the obligations of the Government do not expressly state upon their face, or the law under which they were issued does not provide, that they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in right and in justice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United States. (Thunders of applause.)

Fourth-Equal taxation of every species of property according to its real value, including Government bonds and other public securities. (Renewed cheering and cries of "Read it again.")

Fifth-One currency for the Government and the people, the laborer and the office-holder, the pensioner and the soldier, the producer and the bond-holder. (Great cheering and cries of "Read it again.") The fifth resolution was again read and again cheered.

Sixth-Economy in the administration of the Government; the reduction of the standing army and the navy; the abolition of the Freedmen's Bureau-(great cheering)—and all political instrumentalities designed to secure negro supremacy; simplification of the system, and the 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 yet promote and encourage, the great industrial interests of the country.

Seventh-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 usurpation of Congress and the despotism of the sword may cease. (Cheers.)

Eighth 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. (Loud applause.)

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 Constitu

tion, it has repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge, under which alone was rallied that noble volunteer army which carried our flag to victory. (Cheers.) 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 nas 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; has established a system of spies and official espionage to which no constitutional monarchy of Europe would now dare to resort--(cheers)--it would abolish the right of appeal on important constitutional questions to the supreme judicial tribunal, and threatens to curtail or destroy its original jurisdiction, which is irrevocably vested by the Constitution, while the learned Chief-Justice-(loud cheering)--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 every 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 subjected and conquered people amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered fragment 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 pretense 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 in which the