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CINCINNATI CONVENTION, 
 
 OCTOBER 18, 1864 
 
 , x^^i, 
 
 the OE,c3-^nsrizA.Tio^r op :jl peace ^^ldbtit; 
 
 UPON 
 
 STATE-RIGHTS, ' JEFFERSONIAN, DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES 
 
 AND FOE THE 
 
 PROMOTION OF PEACE AND INDEPENDENT NOMINATIONS 
 
 FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT 
 
 OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 FIRST DAY— October 18, 1864. 
 
 The Peace Convention met at the Lecture 
 Room in the Catholic Institute, October 18, at 
 10 o'clock. About fifty delegate? were pre- 
 sent. A temporary organization was effected 
 by appointing Hon. Win. M. Corry, Chairman, 
 and John Cahill, Secretary. 
 
 On motion of Hon. Alexander Long, of Ohio, 
 a Committee of three was appointed by the 
 Chair, on permanent organization, consisting 
 of Oliver Brown, Esq., Geo. F. Hoeffer, Esq., 
 and B. P. Churchill, Esq. 
 
 On motion of Hon. James W. Singleton, of 
 Illinois, a Committee of seven was appointed 
 by the Chair, on resolutions and address, con- 
 sisting of Hon. J. W. Singleton, of Illinois, 
 I. J. Miller, Esq., of Ohio, Josiah Snow, Esq. ( 
 «f Illinois, Hon. Alex. Long, of Ohio, Hon. 
 Lafe Devlin, of Indiana, Hon. Wm. Cornell 
 Jewett, of Pennsylvania, and by action of the 
 Convention, Hon. Wm. M. Corry, of Ohio. 
 
 On motion of Hon. Wm. Cornell Jewett, — 
 That in view of the important responsibility 
 upon the Convention to make independent 
 nominations, for the purpose of organizing a 
 Peace party upon sound State-Rights, Demo- 
 cratic principles, be it 
 
 Retolced, That a Committee of three he appointed to 
 report to thia Convention suitable candidates for Tresi- 
 lent and Vice-President of the United States. 
 
 Pending thia motion, which was discussed 
 
 at length, the Convention adjourned until 2 
 P.M. 
 
 Upon the reassembling of the Convention 
 at 2 P. M., the Committee on organization re- 
 ported for permanent officers, Hon. Wm. M. 
 Corry, Chairman, and S. A. Miller, and Daniel 
 S. Dana, Secretaries. 
 
 The discussion on the subject of nominations 
 was then resumed, pending which a motion to 
 adjourn until 9 o'clock, A. M., the 19th inst., 
 was carried for the purpose of giving the Com- 
 mittee on resolutions and principles time to 
 report. 
 
 SECOND DAY— October 19, 1864. 
 
 Pursuant to adjournment, the Peace Con- 
 vention assembled at the Catholic Institute at 
 9 A. M. 
 
 By unanimous consent, action upon the reso- 
 lutions for a Committee on Candidates for 
 Ti-esident and Vice-President, was postponed 
 for the purpose of hearing the report of Com- 
 mittee on resolutions. 
 
 The resolutions of the Committee were re? 
 ceived and read. 
 
 Action was then taken section by section 
 and they were all passed. 
 
 On motion of General Singleton it was 
 
 Resolved, That wo approve and indorse the action anl 
 resolutions' of the Democracy of Franklin county, S?w 
 Tork, on the 11th of October, 1804, as published in tliq 
 Franklin Gazette of the 15th inst., and pledge to soiJ 
 DetnocrucT our h?arty eo-ooarariou. Carried. 
 
 \ 
 
.C.65. 
 
 z-« 
 
 On motion of Hon. Amos Green, of Illinois, 
 
 it was 
 
 Resolved, That for the purpose of perfecting this or- 
 ganization a Committee to consist of two members from 
 each State be appointed as an Executive Committee, and 
 that the President of this Convention notify the gentle- 
 men so appointed, and request an acceptance upon their 
 part of such appointment. Carried. 
 
 Convention adjourned to 7 P. M. 
 
 EVENING SESSION, Oct. 19, 1864. 
 
 Convention re-assembled at 7 P. M. The 
 Committee on resolutions reported an address, 
 ■which was received and adopted. The Con- 
 vention then discussed the propriety of nomi- 
 nations under the resolution introduced by 
 Hon. W. C. Jewett. The resolution was adopt- 
 ed and a Committee appointed consisting of 
 Hon. W. C. Jewett, Hon. J. W. Singleton and 
 Lafe Devlin, Esq. 
 
 The Chairman of the Committee reported 
 that they were unanimous in favor of Hon. 
 Alex. Long, for President and unable to pro- 
 cure his assent or to harmonise upon another 
 candidate, but asked for further time to report. 
 
 This elicited a debate upon the propriety of 
 dispensing with nominations, and presenting 
 to the people the resolutions and address, with 
 the proceedings of the Convention, as the basis 
 of an organization of the peace party. 
 
 Hon. James W. Singleton, Mr. I. J. Miller, 
 Mr. Josiah Snow, Mr. Lafe Devlin, Hon. Alex- 
 ander Long, Hon. William Cornell Jewett, Hon. 
 W. M. Cony, Committee on resolutions and ad- 
 dress, reported the following resolutions, com- 
 plete, as adopted by the Convention. 
 
 PREAMBLE. 
 
 Whereas, The Chicago Convention has distinctly repu- 
 diated Democratic principles, and nominated General 
 McClellan, who has responded to the platform by his war 
 record, but the Peace and State Rights Democracy scout- 
 ing the whole proceedings, have no idea of surrendering 
 their doctrines ; Therefore, this Convention of the party 
 is determined to place our cause on its principles, so as to 
 keep before the people, the great question of Peace or 
 War, and the vital matter of State Sovereignty, Which is 
 tho ultimate and omnipotent power of the federal system 
 and our only protection for liberty within the United 
 States. 
 
 That as our fathers did, so do wo stand by the first 
 Kentucky Resolutions of 17i)H, as written by Thomas Jef- 
 'i moii, which was the doctrine of the party for sixty-five 
 years, until rejected at Chicago. It saved the party of 
 that day from the Hamc consolidation which is now im- 
 pending over us, and which resolution is in these words : 
 
 1 Resolved, That tho several States composing the 
 United States, aro not united on the principle of unlim- 
 ited submission to their General Government; but that 
 by a compact, under the style and title of a Constitution 
 for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they 
 constituted a General Government for special purposes — 
 delegated to tho Government certain definite powers, re- 
 serving each State to itself, tho residuary mass of right 
 to thoir Belf-goverumeut ; and that whenever the General 
 
 Government assumes nndelegated power, its acts are cn» 
 authoritative, void, and of no force ; that to this compact 
 each State acceded as a State, and is an iutegral party, its 
 co-States formiug, as to itself, the other party ; that the 
 Government created by this compact Jwas not made the 
 exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers dele- 
 gated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, 
 and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers: but 
 that, as in all other cases of compact among powers hav- 
 ing no common judge, each party has an equal right to 
 judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and 
 measure of redress. 
 
 2. Resolved, That as Jefferson made the rugged issne of 
 doctrine with Adams, so must we make it with the Fede- 
 ral Administration, if we would resist effectually the 
 infinitely greater dangers which surround us. We do, 
 consequently, declare the wak wholly unconstitutional, 
 and on that ground we hold it should be stopped. If a 
 majority of the copartnership-States can retain a member 
 by force, they may expel one by force, which has not yet 
 been pretended by anybody. The Federal Agency, at 
 Washington, backed up by a majority of the StateB in 
 Congress, without right, in the vain attempt to subjugate 
 the minority of the States, is destroying their liberty, 
 and crushing the federal system to atoms by thus attack- 
 ing the Constitution. The Administration, and that 
 majority, are the real enemies of the Union, which can 
 not, and ought not to exist after its conditions are de- 
 stroyed. The Chicago Platform, and General McClellan 
 and his war-record letter, which he has laid over it, 
 must all be repudiated by Democrats for the same reason. 
 If we admit that tho war is constitutional, we must not 
 murmur at the monstrous abuses which attend it, for 
 they all naturally grow out of the original atrocity. 
 
 The evils of paper money, of protective tariff, of the 
 public debt; the military draft; the military governors; 
 the arbitrary arrest ; the provost marshals ; the fifteen 
 bastiles : the drum-head courts-martial; the bayonet 
 elections ; the padlocked lips ; the fettered press ; the 
 wholesale confiscation ; the constructive treason ; our 
 immense armies and navies, are mere incidents of the war 
 itself, and so are President Lincoln's futile proclamations 
 of slave emancipation, and his general amnesties. Half 
 truths and narrow issues, have been the bane of Democra- 
 cy for many years, and they have so contracted the minds 
 and hearts of Democrats that all sense of justice, and all 
 knowledge of constitutional law which sat there so long 
 enthroned, have departed, and left us an easy prey to the 
 violence of President Lincoln's Administration, and to 
 corrupt managers of our own party in State and National 
 Conventions. 
 
 3. Resolved. That wo are directly opposed to all schemes 
 of abolition and consolidation, and we not only adopt 
 Jefferson's first Keutucky Resolution as our political 
 creed — every word of it— but we declare that the time has 
 come, by agitation, organization and combination, to put 
 it in practice. The Abolitionists and consolidationists, 
 whether they call themselves Republicans or Democrats, 
 have a constitutional aversion to it, which proves, if 
 proof were wanting, that it should be our remedy for the 
 evils of the country, our plan for making the Federal 
 Constitution, instead of personal ambition, vengeance, 
 ignorance or audacity, the measure of Federal powers 
 over the States and the people. 
 
 4. Resolved, That the enormous and accumulating pnb- 
 lic debt is coming down like an avalanche, to bury our 
 property with our liberties, and to make the lives of 
 millions of poor men, women ami children an intolerable 
 burthen. The time has come to sound the alarm to all 
 producers, the mechanics and laborers, but especially the 
 farmers. Agriculture is the employment of three-fourths 
 of the American people, and by far the most important 
 of all others; the characters of those engaged in it con- 
 form entirely to free institutions, and likewise to light 
 taxes, peace measures, peace pclicy, and peace establish* 
 rneiits, responsible rulers and strict construction of the 
 Constitution. Self-], reservation for them, requires a 
 Peace and State-rights Platform, and Peace and State- 
 rights candidates, but, as indispensable to those, an im- 
 mediate separation of the federal from the financial 
 power, by the election of a President who will have jus- 
 tice done to all pursuits and sections in respect of the 
 public debt. Five billions have already been spent for 
 prosecution of the war, and some of it is funded and non- 
 taxable, much of it is still to be funded, and the struggle 
 in Congress will be to exempt the most luxurious and 
 
s 
 
 idle means of living from taxation altogether, while the 
 rich man's field is fattened by the sweat of the poor inau's 
 hrow. Laud and tabor are thns overcharged with public 
 expenses. Much of the debt was incurred in paper money 
 <it two for one, so that it will double in eight years ; and 
 all the special legislation it asks of Congress will be ap- 
 proved by Lincoln or McClellan. The result will surely 
 be to deliver over the agricultural States to bondage, and 
 their people to serfdom, even changing the titles in fee 
 simple to leaseholds, containing covenants for rendering 
 an annual yield to ttie Government of every third bushel 
 at grain, and every third stack in the field, and every 
 third animal of the increase of the herds and flocks, to 
 pay public officers and public creditors. 
 
 5. Resolved, That the universal interests of the people 
 of all the States require that the Democracy should abso- 
 lutely deny the fanatical charges of Abolitionists against 
 negro slavery and slave-holders , and that for the welfare 
 of our own laborers, as well as the cause of truth, we de- 
 clare that negro slavery among the mingled millions of 
 Southern whites and blacks is the only possible condition 
 of prosperous society. The slave-holder is wise and just 
 in his organization of his thought and labor, for tho 
 presence of his helpless slaves compels him to set tasks 
 for them, and to require obedience from a childish and-in- 
 ferior race, that must be subsisted ; but have not the 
 laculty of seif-preBervatioii in contact with their supe- 
 riors. 
 
 That the Democracy should also denounce and deride 
 the protective tariff system, by which New England 
 fleeces all tho other sections ; and the kindred imposition 
 of papor money, issued in contempt of the Constitution 
 by the Treasury and by private banks on the basis of the 
 public stocks, which is another disastrous monopoly of 
 capital overlabor; but above all, the forcible conscrip- 
 tion of the State militia, by millions, for war on the 
 South; all which unconstitutional, demoralizing, and 
 degrading measures have aggravated, ten-fold, the con- 
 summate wickedness and folly of the attempt at subjuga- 
 tion of the seceded States. 
 
 Resolved, That in presenting to the people these reso- 
 lutions and principles, we do appeal to the Almighty for 
 the rectitude of our purposes and the purity of our mo- 
 tives, and do proclaim that our reliance for sttccess is 
 upon God. 
 
 Resolved, That utterly repudiating all selfish, partisan 
 and factious views; convened to promote the peace and 
 welfare of tho Dniled States of America; deeming the 
 people of the Confederate States brothers in blood, and 
 as an indispensable means to perpetuate State rights and 
 free institutions, we should make all possible efforts to 
 join them in a mutual policy of unconditional negotiation 
 for the attainment of peace, and that in view of the peril 
 of our institutions, the people should sanction this course. 
 
 Carried. 
 
 At 9 P. M., the discussion was resumed upon 
 the report of the Committee on Nominations, 
 that they had been unable to harmonize on can- 
 didates for President and Vice-President of the 
 United States, and asked for further time. The 
 argument was participated in by Hon. Alex. 
 Long, of Ohio, Hon. \V. M. Corry, of Ohio, Hon. 
 James W. Singleton, of Illinois, Hon. W. C. 
 Jewett, Hon. Lafe Devlin, of Indiana, Mr. Miller, 
 « Mr. Thomas, Mr. Dana, Mr. YV. M. Peters, and 
 others. 
 
 Hon. Alexander Long, of Ohio, addressed the 
 Convention at length, explaining his position, 
 and his desire to harmonize upon a platform, un- 
 der strict Democratic principles, on the basis of a 
 peace party. He said he desired the indulgence 
 of the Convention for a few moments. 
 
 He had declined to unite in an independent 
 movement at Chicago, immediately after the 
 nomination -of General McClellan, upon the 
 ground that having remained in the Convention 
 and participated in its deliberations, much as 
 
 he was opposed, both to the platform and nom- 
 inee, he considered himself bound by its, action. 
 The letter of acceptance (so called) of Gen- 
 eral McClellan, repudiating the platform and 
 proclaiming one of his own, by which he pro- 
 posed to commit the Democratic party, not only 
 to his war policy, but also to his infamous 
 record, had absolved, not only him, but the 
 whole Democratic party, from any obligation to 
 his support. Hence he had favored an indepen- 
 dent nomination at Columbus, upon true demo- 
 cratic principles, and had in like manner co- 
 operated with the advocates of a nomination in 
 this convention. But while he fully appreciated 
 the high compliment proposed to be conferred 
 upan him; willing as he was to make almost any 
 sacrifice in the cause of peace and for the promo- 
 tion of State Rights and the security of personal 
 liberty, he felt justified in declining the compli- 
 ment, and he had resisted, during the past two 
 days, the most urgent and persistent appeals of 
 his friends to accept a nomination. He did not 
 believe that any representative man could be 
 found, at this late day, who would be willing to 
 accept a nomination. The Convention had with, 
 perfect unanimity adopted a platform of prin- 
 ciples, and an address to the people. He be- 
 lieved they had, accomplished all that could be 
 done until after the election, and he was, there- 
 fore, in favor of discharging the committee, and 
 adjourning the Convention, sine die. 
 
 Hon. W. M. Corry called Hon. Jas. W. 
 Singleton to the chair, and in a speech of 
 great force and power, opposed the views as 
 expressed by the honorable gentlemen from 
 Ohio, and favoring a nomination. Mr. Corry 
 said he was a determined, frank and earnest 
 man. He had taken part in the deliberations 
 of this body with pride, but he was not oon- 
 tent with the proposed conclusion of the Com- 
 mittee. The nomination of peace and State- 
 rights candidates was worth more than all be- 
 sides as a legitimate and powerful means to 
 secure the ultimate and complete success of 
 the objects of the Convention. He maintained 
 that it was the duty of all the subscribers to 
 the organic law of the Convention, to make 
 such nominations. If they were foregone, the 
 the exertions we had so bravely made to re- 
 construct American liberty upon the time- 
 honored principles of Jefferson, were fruitless. 
 1$; He urged at length the great advantages to 
 the country to be" derived from the bold, sound 
 and independent principles set forth in the 
 resolutions. The opportunity should now be 
 given to the sincere Peace and State Rights 
 men of the country to rally around an irre- 
 sistable doctrine, through our nomination. He 
 hoped the discordant element in the Conven- 
 tion which endeavored to defeat the earnest 
 and pure purposes of himself and other like- 
 thinking delegates, would not prevail. We 
 were all deeply interested in the organization 
 of the opposition to the Republican party, by 
 putting our own representative men in the 
 
field at once; not with any hope of election; 
 without much expectation of general support, 
 in consequence of the lateness of the hour, 
 but to send a thrill of delight through the 
 despondent bosoms of Democrats, whose lead- 
 ers at Chicago had abandoned the cause of 
 peace and State rights, to the corrupt advo- 
 cates of war and consolidation. 
 
 It would do more ; it would prevent these 
 name false leaders from soon again betraying 
 the party and the country. We ought now to 
 designate our standard-bearer by a unanimous 
 vote of confidence, so that after the approach- 
 ing defeat of the Democratic party, he could 
 push back from the leadership, the old and 
 vile betrayers of our true men and principles ; 
 otherwise, he expected the party to be victimi- 
 sed for the hundredth time by the same men 
 who had led them so often to defeat ; never to 
 victory: for even success with them cost us as 
 much as the triumphs of Pyhrrus. Let us, to- 
 night, seize the future government of the party, 
 with a view to the restoration of a cheap, 
 Bimple and responsible federal system for the 
 United States, no matter what became of the 
 is%ue of this terrible war. The time had arriv- 
 ed to choose our leaders and he wanted it done. 
 He gave to it his heart and hand. 
 
 Mr. Corry was followed by General Single- 
 ton, who, in an able, forcible and earnest sup- 
 port of the views, as expressed by Mr. Long, 
 said no man was more earnest in his desire for 
 a nomination of some man whose principles 
 and character would be in harnmny with the 
 platform we have just adopt ed-^-he would not 
 have attended the Convention if he had sup- 
 posed, before leaving home, that such a result. 
 as is now inevitable, at all probable — but the 
 distinguished and honorable gentleman from 
 Ohio (Mr. Long) to whom all eyes had been 
 directed, having been tendered and declined 
 a nomination, for motives and reasons which, 
 if not entirely satisfactory to all of his friends 
 present, are at least highly creditable to the 
 gentleman himself — we are driven to the ne- 
 cessity of canvassing the character and opin- 
 ions of others not present, and to secure their 
 consent, before we, can accomplish the much- 
 desired and important result. In view of the 
 fact that a majority present are unwilling to 
 protract the session beyond to-night, and the 
 utter impossibility of acting understandingly 
 to-night, and in consideration that great good 
 has already been accomplish^!, our happy and 
 harmonious results should not be tarnished by 
 hasty and inconsiderate action in making a 
 nomination of persons whose opinions and 
 wishes can not be consulted to-night. I am 
 ready to acquiece in the necessity of tempora- 
 rily foregoing such nominations, with a view 
 to further consultation with absent friends, 
 and a future meeting for such purpose after 
 M' - Lincoln shall have been re-elected. 
 
 I therefore move that this convention do 
 now adjourn sine die 
 
 Hon. W. C. Jcwett followed General Sin- 
 gleton in an impressive appeal in opposition 
 to Mr. Long and General Singleton, and iu 
 support of the chair, favoring nominations. 
 He stated the impossibility of his harmon- 
 izing with the Committee, in commending 
 that the Convention adjourn without nom- 
 inating. He admitted the difficulty of ob- 
 taining representative men and leading em- 
 inent advocates of true Democratic prin- 
 ciples, independent of the difficulty that 
 many who would support the action of this 
 Convention were just pledged to support Gen'l 
 McClellan. He believed, however, if time was 
 given for telegraphs, suitable nominations 
 could be made. He expressed his sincere and 
 earnest desire that, for the cause of liberty, 
 peace and the representation of a principle, 
 that a nomination should be made. He deemed 
 a nomination indispensable, not for immediate 
 victory, but as a standard around which the 
 now smothered peace sentiment and Jeffer- 
 sonian principles could gather for ultimate 
 success. General McClellan had deserted, in 
 his letter of acceptance, not only the time- 
 honored principles of our institutions, but 
 had repudiated the very power who had given 
 him the nomination at Chicago — for he was 
 pledged to a war platform. He conld not, 
 therefore, from principle, support General Mc- 
 Clellan, nor could he justify that portion of the 
 peace party who now allow themselves to be led 
 by a man who had been false to them, by not 
 refusing the nomination, without an indorse- 
 ment of their platform for peace ; and when 
 not indorsed, in their not making independent 
 nominations. He rejoiced in the success of 
 the Convention, through their declaration of 
 principles, while he regretted the disposition 
 now in the majority to postpone nominations. 
 
 He, in conclusion, desired to proclaim his 
 opposition to the proposed action of this body 
 to adjourn sine die to defeat nominations. He 
 said: "I do protest against it in the name of 
 humanity, in the name of liberty, in the name 
 of "God, from its fatal consequence, to Repub- 
 lican liberty." 
 
 The discussion was continued until after 
 midnight, resulting in the success of a motion 
 to adjourn, sine die, postponing further action 
 upon nominations. * 
 
 THE ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. Singleton from the Committee on reso- 
 lutions, platform, and address, submitted th» 
 following, which,was unanimously adopted ; 
 
 The Chicago Convention were a body'of men 
 professing to represent the great principles of 
 American Democracy. There could be no dif- 
 ference of opinion as to what those principles 
 were. They had been stamped upon every 
 Democratic platform from the organization of 
 the party to the moment of its fatal dissolution. 
 They had been borne upon the breath of every 
 Democratic statesman from Jefferson down. 
 
They had been proclaimed for near three- 
 quarters of a century by the merest tyros is 
 politics, from every stand and stump in our 
 land. 
 
 Hostility to the existing war, growing out 
 of a political education thus obtained, and utter 
 abhorrence of fraternal strife, was the pre- 
 dominating feeling of the Democratic masses. 
 The resolutions of 1798-9, prepared by Jeffer- 
 son and Madison, were cherished by them as 
 the organic law of their party. They con- 
 demned alike the war, its measures, its evils, its 
 excesses, and its advocates. 
 
 The masses without, and the delegates within 
 the Convention clamored for peace, denied the 
 power of the federal government to coerce a 
 sovereign State and continue a war of extermi- 
 nation against its people. No Democratic 
 speaker in or out of ihe Convention dared to 
 advocate a continuance of the war under any 
 leadership or pretense whatever. And yet the 
 result of its deliberations, is a war candidate 
 and a war platform. Deeds, and not profes- 
 sions, are the mirror reflecting political truth ; 
 and by applying this test to the Chicago Con- 
 vention, we shall be able to understand the 
 principles which lie at the bottom of the poli- 
 tical system represented by Gen. McClellan. 
 
 The Chicago Convention assembled after both 
 Lincoln and Fremont had been nominated 
 upon consolidation and abolition platforms 
 as war candidates, pledged to subjugate the 
 South and emancipate the slaves, which means 
 not only the annihilation of the Southern State 
 governments and the Southern State society ; 
 it means something quite as tragical, i. e. the 
 destruction of our federal system already 
 almost consolidated by repeated and extreme 
 violence, and the reorganizition of Northern So- 
 ciety, on the new basis of class distinction instead 
 of Democratic equality. While using the poor 
 young white men of the North to destroy the 
 South, the aristocrats have kept their sons out 
 of danger; and they have absorbed all the pro- 
 ductions of the country, sold them to be wasted 
 in war at great profit to themselves, and now 
 hold a creditor's claim on us for the whole 
 amount, probably five thousand millions or the 
 total value of all the North West. This claim 
 is funded or to be funded, permanently bearing 
 an interest of which producers, whether me- 
 chanics, farmers or laborers, will have the 
 expenses of collection as well as interest to pay 
 for about three hundred millions of dollars 
 per annum; or fifty millions for Ohio, five mil- 
 lions for this city. The public debt is owned 
 by the East; its principal weight will fall on 
 the West, and it will require on all hands the 
 most constant vigilance and perfect honesty to 
 preserve our institutions and do both sections 
 justice. This most alarming sum of five thou- 
 sand millions of wasted property already 
 threatens our system. It will far more than 
 tithe the fields; it will double tithe them: 
 «very third bushel will have to go for this dead 
 
 horse, and those who booted and spurred will 
 galvanize and ride him over the agriculturists 
 rough shod. For this debt the farmers have 
 not yet been directly taxed ; their time is at 
 hand, and they are most deeply interested ia 
 the question who shall be the next President. 
 
 The interest and cost of the public debt; the 
 army expenses of J half a million of men, of 
 themselves, must make a wreck of our institu- 
 tions; for with the machinery of old countries 
 like England and France, we will soon arrive 
 at their despotic form of government. The 
 cause involves the effect; the premises the con- 
 clusion, and if we decide to carry on the war 
 according to Lincoln and McClellan, so as to 
 merge all our remaining property in public 
 stocks, bearing interest and exempt from taxes, 
 we are the most willing slaves that ever ex- 
 isted; we offer a premium for a master; and he 
 will be a military master of course. There are 
 other reasons why we are on the downward 
 road from the best government in the world to 
 the worst: from freedom to despotism. In this 
 suicidal war our officers have violated all the 
 provisions of the Constitution, as well as itg 
 spirit; we have no more free speech, free press, 
 free elections, and free people, or responsible 
 rulers; but we obey the military and semi- 
 military orders of a new set of lords, whose 
 sovereign will is the supreme law of the land. 
 It was a part of the system of southern subju- 
 gation to extinguish southern liberty, and it 
 has been far more faithfully achieved than its 
 counterpart. \ 
 
 What should the Convention have done ? 
 What was expected of them? What will the 
 people decide upon this most indispensable 
 appeal ? 
 •They should have done three things : 
 
 I. Declared the Jeffersonian doctrine of the 
 Democratic party as the platform. 
 
 II. They should have placed their standard 
 in the hands of a Representative candidate. 
 
 III. They should have applied the true inter- 
 pretation of the Constitution contained in ihe 
 Resolutions of 1798, to the crisis. 
 
 I. They should have declared plainly the 
 principles of the party. What did they do? 
 They contemptuously rejected them, spurned 
 them under foot. They pretended to refer the 
 first Kentucky Resolution for State Rights to a 
 committee, while they instantly adopted the 
 consolidation platform of New York. 
 
 For sixty-five years the Kentucky and Vir- 
 ginia Resolutions have been the basis of the 
 Democracy : they are the Scriptures of the 
 party. They have been announced as the 
 democratic creed as a matter of course, by 
 every statesman speaking at &uy time or place 
 or in any manner for his party. But to that 
 corrupt Convention, they were a charmed talis- 
 man to expose their fraudulent platform; lor 
 Thomas Jefferson the father of democracy had 
 organized them as a Peace party as well as a 
 
State Rights party, and forbade the cement of 
 blood in the federal structure, as the sound of 
 the hammer was not allowed by the builders of 
 the temple. The committee designedly sup- 
 pressed the Resolutions in order to establish 
 war and consolidation as the democratic doc- 
 trine, and Hamilton and New York instead of 
 Jefferson and Virginia, as the oracles of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 Fellow citizens, there is not only no provi- 
 sion for liberty, there is no hope of liberty in 
 a great territory like the United States, but by 
 the true federal system under which each State 
 has two constitutions, and two sets of officers, 
 one for domestic, and the other for foreign 
 purposes. If the federal officers at Washington 
 City control the whole consolidated system, we 
 have a despotism of the worst form, the despo- 
 tism of the mere majority ; which is worse, be- 
 cause more irresponsible than the despotism 
 of Russia: the Czar has but one neck, our 
 tyrant would be hydra-headed. Jefferson, the 
 democrat, taught the sovereignty, independence 
 and equality of the several states, and their 
 voluntary Union under the federal constitu- 
 tion. But Story and Webster, after the Adamses 
 and Hamilton, held that the sovereignty of the 
 States is a falsehood, and that a majority 
 federal government may do as it pleases with 
 the rights of the States and of the people. If 
 that were so, there would be no propriety in 
 having a solemn written constitution for the 
 protection of the minority, or the restraint of 
 the majority. If that were so, then the majo- 
 rity of Congress like the British Parliament 
 Would be omnipotent, which has hardly become 
 American doctrine. If that be so, that majority 
 could expel a member from the Union as well 
 as coerce one or more to remain by force, which 
 13 not yet openly pretended. The truth, which 
 science will at last vindicate against all old 
 and recent errors is, that the federal Constitu- 
 tion is the voluntary compact of Union for 
 each State which consents to it, each with all, 
 the co-states being the other party ; that it is 
 a continuing compact, and that all its powers 
 are government trust powers; and not rights, 
 tor sovereign powers ; and that they are dele- 
 gated only, and not inherent; nor do in any 
 wise impair the constitution making, altering, 
 and breaking power, which is the ultimate 
 power of the people of each State, over every, 
 part of the whole system, so far as its citizens 
 are concerned. " The people " of a State is the 
 organized totality of all its inhabitants, which 
 people alone is the depositary of the sovereignty. 
 
 The Chicago Convention have left the true 
 narrow path of the Constitution, and followed 
 the broad road, trodden lately plainer than 
 ever by the armed feet of military forces, 
 downward into the Pandemonium of War; 
 almost civil war; war between brethren and 
 kindred States. 
 
 We can not be thus misled. We point out 
 the better way. We implore the people to 
 
 follow the old Jeffersonian standard of Peace 
 and State Rights. 
 
 II. That standard should be borne aloft by 
 a representative man. Instead of a represen- 
 tative man like the great statesmen of the 
 Revolution, we are asked to support a well 
 known but rather ordinary Major General, to 
 whose disabilities as a democratic candidate 
 for the Presidency, we intend to devote a large 
 part of this address. We do it with a formed 
 design of influencing democrats not to vote for 
 him, but rather to allow the election to go as 
 it may while they stay at home. The evil 
 counsels and the dictatorial doings of Gen. Mc- 
 Clellan have always led President Lincoln's 
 advance. Indeed, there is not one objection 
 that Democrats have made to Mr. Lincoln's 
 theories, not one malediction of Mr. Lincoln's 
 acts which is not true of Gen. McClellan. 
 Their records are as like as they could be; 
 and if thev had exchanged their positions in 
 this unhallowed strife, their failures would 
 have been identical. With what power of face 
 must any man be gifted to enable him to call 
 upon Democrats after four years specific curs- 
 ing of Lincoln and Lincolnism, to vote for his 
 right hand man McClellan, for President? 
 And that too, when the people's agony and in- 
 dignation had but one cry, peace, peace, peace, 
 immediate peace; and but one hope, on earth 
 as in heaven, in blessed peace : a peace which 
 among brethren is always honorable, and be- 
 tween brethren can always be made by good 
 will on honorable terms. Christ himself, in 
 the sermon from the sacred mount, called the 
 peacemakers the children of God. 
 
 Every member of the Democratic party had a 
 right to expect — yea, demand — that the Con- 
 vention should conform their action to the usages 
 and priuciples of the party they proposed to 
 represent. That their candidate should be chosen 
 from that party, and committed to its princi- 
 ples. That in making their selection of a can- 
 didate for the Presidency, the popular will in 
 reference to existing issues would be con- 
 sulted. Many months before the Convention as- 
 sembled, well grounded suspicions were indulg- 
 ed, that efforts would be made by the combined 
 power of foreign and domestic capital to con- 
 trol its action, and secure the nomination of a 
 military man committed to their schemes of 
 centralization. And it is with the deepest mor- 
 tification and regret that your Committee are 
 constrained to yield to the conviction that such 
 a result was fully attained by the nomination 
 of Gen. Geo. B. McClellan, who was then and is \ 
 now a Major General in the United States 
 army, holding the office for life with a salary 
 of $8,000 per year, which appointment was 
 conferred upon him by Mr. Lincoln, since the 
 commencement of the existing war, as hhpledged 
 and faithful friend. 
 
 Had a Butler, Stanton, Banks or Cameron, 
 been selected by the Convention, or even 
 
Mr. Lincoln himself, a greater antagonism be- 
 tween the principles of the party and its can- 
 didate could not have been produced. Like 
 Butler, Stanton, Banks and Cameron, Gen. Mc- 
 Clellan entered upon the present administration 
 in full fellowship and sympathy with Mr. Lin- 
 coln and his party. He followed Mr. Lincoln 
 as long and as far as Mr. Lincoln would permit 
 him to follow, and it is no fault of Gen. Mc- 
 Clellan's that he is not now acting in haranny 
 with Mr. Lincoln and his administration. The 
 fault is Mr. Lincoln's, who relieved him of his 
 command, and sent him in disgrace to report to 
 his wife in New Jersey. No man has ever done 
 so much to give to Mr. Lincoln's administration 
 its worst and most objectionable features as 
 Gen. McClellan. Every outrage of which the 
 Democratic masses have complained, and 
 against which they have so often resolved was 
 either originated*, recommended, or approved, 
 by Gen. McClellan during his connection with 
 Mr. Lincoln. Arbitrary arrests, the draft, 
 military interference with slavery, and the 
 ballot box, suspension of habeas corpus, are 
 all the pet offsprings of his military genius. 
 We shall not attempt to convince you of these 
 painful truths by our own arguments or decla- 
 ration : but will proceed at once to direct your 
 attention to the record of stubborn facts, made 
 by Gen. McClellan himself, and published by 
 order of the Congress of the United States. 
 
 In the first t>f£cial communication of Gen. 
 McClellan to Mr. Lincoln, dated 4th of August, 
 1861, he uses this language: "The purpose of 
 ordinary war is to conquer a peace, and make 
 a treaty upon advantageous terms; in this con- 
 test it has become necessary to crush a population 
 sufficiently numerous, intelligent and warlike, 
 to constitute a nation." Fellow-democrats, we 
 beseech you to pause and blush, if you do not 
 weep, for the honor of our cause. Our party 
 are the peculiar advocates of the great American 
 theory — that the people are the source of power 
 and that all governments derive their just au- 
 thority from the consent of the governed. And 
 yet it is proposed that we shall give our support 
 to a man for the Presidenc}', whose unsheathed 
 sword is still dripping with the blood of his 
 slain, who is booted and spurred for war, with 
 the declaration of a hellish wrath clinging to his 
 lips, that this war must be continued until we 
 " crush " eight millions of our kindred and 
 countrymen, because they are " sufficiently 
 numerous, intelligent and warlike to become 
 a nation." 
 
 Again, in the same communication to which 
 we have referred, this boasted apostle of De- 
 mocracy while professing to others, to be fight- 
 ing for the Constitution and Union, advises 
 Mr. Lincoln to equip an army in Kansas and 
 Nebraska, to be marched through the Indian 
 country into Texas ; there to be joined and 
 supported by another army to be equipped in 
 California, and marched overland through New 
 Mexico. For what? To maintain the authority 
 
 of the Constitution and restore the Union ? No. 
 But to abolish slavery and make a free State of 
 Texas. So anxious was he for the success of 
 this diabolical scheme, that he advises Mr. Lin- 
 coln to form an " alliance" with the despotic 
 government of Mexico to ensure its success ; 
 assuming and declaring that Mexican anti- 
 pathy to slavery would make such an alliance 
 acceptable to them. 
 
 The reader will bear in mind that the com- 
 munication with which we are now dealing was 
 written by Gen. McClellan to Mr. Lincoln 
 durins; the first six months of Mr. Lincoln's 
 administration, and contains the first sugges- 
 tion ever made to Mr. Lincoln, so far as the 
 public are informed, of armed military interfer- 
 ence zvith the institution of slavery. 
 
 Fellow Democrats be not startled ; we have a 
 solemn and painful duty to perform, and we 
 have entered upon it with the firm purpose of 
 removing the veil of hypocrisy from the face of 
 guilt, tearing the cloak of Democracy from the 
 shoulders of infamy, and exposing the schemes 
 of those who, under its sacred vesture, are plot- 
 ting the ruin of our country, and the extermi- 
 nation of liberty and free government. 
 
 Think of it citizens and soldiers — two vast 
 armies to be organized and equipped three thou- 
 sand miles apart, to be marched over dreary 
 deserts and uninhabited regions, at an incalcu- 
 lable cost of life and treasure, for no other 
 purpose than to make Texas a free State. The 
 schemes of Gen. McClellan against slavery, 
 recommended to Mr. Lincoln, were not confined 
 to Texas alone, but extended wherever the 
 tyrant's plea of military necessity could be mads 
 to prevail, as we shall presently show by refer- 
 ence to his subsequent communications on the 
 same subject in their regular order of time. 
 
 That you may understand the character of 
 the man who now asks your suffrages for the 
 Presidency, his duplicity and hollow pretences, 
 we beg you to keep in mind the important and 
 inconteslible truth disclosed by hi* own pub- 
 lished correspondence, that while h» was recom- 
 mending to Mr. Lincoln vile schemes for the 
 destruction of slavery, employing t^e military 
 power of the country to carry elections for the 
 Republican party, and asserting that our 
 brethren of the South should be '' crushed" be- 
 cause they are "intelligent and ivarlike," he is 
 with the same pen writing to Halleck, Burn- 
 side and Buell, and impressing upon them the 
 importance of making the people believe that 
 the war was prosecuted solely to restore the 
 Union and re-establish the authority of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 In his letter of instruction to Gen. Burnside, 
 Commanding Expedition to North Carolina, 
 dated 7th of January, 1862, he advises that 
 officer to " say as little as possible about poli- 
 tics or the negro," it would not suit in that 
 latitude, and at that time ; but in his letter to 
 Gen. Buell of the 7th November, 1861, he says, 
 '• It is possible that the condnct of our politico^ 
 
8 
 
 cfairs in Kentucky is more important than that 
 cf our military operations.'' 
 
 What political affairs did Gen. McClellan then 
 hare charge of in Kentucky that were "more 
 important than our military operations'"' Were 
 they the political affairs of the Republican 
 party of which he was then an active member 
 and willing tool ? or is it possible that they 
 were the political affairs of the down-trodden 
 "traitorous copperhead Democracy" as he and 
 his party are accustomed to call us? We leave 
 the answer to common sense if there be any 
 left in the country. 
 
 On the subject of arbitrary arrests and the 
 suspension of the habeas corpus, for which Lin- 
 coln and his advisers have been so severely cen- 
 sured, it is only necessary to examine the letters 
 and orders of Gen. McClellan to know that he is 
 the author of the system. He was the " Young 
 Napoleon" of the early days of Mr. Lincoln's 
 administration, across whose illimitable vision 
 no shadow dare flit. All the departments of 
 the government, State and Federal, and even 
 the people, learned implicit obedience to the 
 imperial will of this sceptered General, ''wrapt 
 m the solitude of his own originality." 
 
 On the 11th of November, 1861, he writes to 
 Gen. Halleck, then at St. Louis, referring to a 
 class of persons who claimed to have military 
 appointments, he says, "If any of them give 
 you the slightest trouble, you will at once arrest 
 them and send them under guard out of the 
 limits of your department, informing them that 
 if they return they will be placed in close 
 confinement. 
 
 Could an order be more arbitrary than this? 
 he .accusation, no trial; but men to be driven 
 arbitrarily from their homes, their families 
 their friends; denied even the poor privilege 
 of remonstrating against such acts of lawless 
 tyranny, lest they should be immured in some 
 filthy dungeon to live upon its vapors, and die 
 like felons. 
 
 On the 12th of November, 1861, just one day 
 after, he writes to Gen. Buell and says, "when 
 there is good reason to believe that persons are 
 giving aid, comfort or information to the enemy 
 it is of course necessary to arrest them " No 
 ease of military arrest has ever occurred where 
 the officer ordering the arrest did not claim to 
 have "good reason for making it," but as such 
 reason was never required to be given to the 
 public, or the party arrested, that he might dis- 
 charge himself from the suspicion or accusation 
 against him, if any, the public, as well us the 
 victims of such arbitrary power, have been kept 
 in utter ignorance of the cause of such arrests. 
 II Gen. McClellan had respected the authority 
 oi the Constitution and laws of the country he 
 would have required that all such persons' as 
 fie describee, when arres'ed, should be handed 
 over to the civil authorities for trial and pun- 
 ishment; to be confronted, with witnesses against 
 them, and to have compulsory process for wit- 
 nesses in their favor; but, like all others, f 
 
 which we have complained, he, in every instance, 
 lett his subordinates to decide upon the suffi- 
 ciency of the cause, the mode of trial, and the 
 extent and character of the punishment. In 
 fact his orders authorized those under his com- 
 mand, to arrest with or without cause they 
 being the judges ; and to punish without accu- 
 sation or trial, they being both accuser and 
 judge. 
 
 - The arrest and imprisonment of the Maryland 
 legislature by order of Gen. McClellan is the 
 crowning evidence of the despotic temper and 
 arbitrary will of the man, and is justly re- 
 garded as the most highhanded act of military 
 tyranny to be found in the annals of history 
 In this case as in all others we have cited no 
 shelter can be found for Gen. McClellan under 
 " superior orders." Each and every case was 
 the emanation of his own will. The suggestion, 
 thej^aw of arrest, and imprisonment, of the 
 unoffending representatives of the people of 
 Maryland were his own ; the execution of the 
 plan was intrusted by him to " My Dear Gen 
 Banks." (See his letter to Gen. Banks on this' 
 subject.) 
 
 Gen. McClellan had no orders from the Presi- 
 dent or Secretary of War, to commit this vile 
 and unparalleled outrage upon the sovereignty 
 ot a State, and the personal rights of the indi- 
 vidual citizen. A Republican abolition General 
 of the Army of the United States, in 1861 
 causes the sovereignty of a State to be invaded 
 and insulted, its legislature arrested, imprison- 
 ed, and finally discharged without accusation 
 or trial, by the same arbitrary will that caused 
 such arrest and imprisonment, and claims the 
 support of the State rights, law-abiding Con- 
 stitution-loving old Democratic party for Presi- 
 dent, in 1864. How st range it looks does it not? 
 "A free ballot or a free fight," is now declared 
 to be the purpose of the Democratic party. And 
 here permit us respectfully to suggest that it 
 would be well for you to look into the record of 
 Gen. McClellan, which he has so arrogantly 
 made the platform of the party, and ascertain 
 whether he is willing to go into a "free fio-ht 
 for a free ballot." The following order issued 
 by him on the day it bears date will very much 
 assist your inquiries on this point. 
 
 " Headquarters Army of the Potomac,) 
 Washington, October 29, 1861. '} 
 
 "General: There is an apprehension among 
 Union citizens in many parts of Maryland of 
 an attempt at interference with their rights of 
 Suffrage by disunion citizens, on the occasion 
 of the election to take place on the 6th of No- 
 vember next. 
 
 " In order to prevent this, the Major General 
 Commanding directs that you send detachments 
 of a sufficient number of men to the different 
 points in your vicinity where the elections are 
 to be held, to protect the Union voters, and to see 
 that no disunionists are allowed to intimidate 
 them, or in any way to interfere with their 
 rights. 
 
9 
 
 " He also de3ires you to arrest and hold in 
 confinement, till after the election, all dis- 
 unionists who are known to have returned from 
 Virginia recently, and who show themselves at 
 the polls, and to guard effectually against any 
 invasion of the peace and order of the election. 
 For the purpose of carrying out these instruc- 
 tions you are authorized to suspend the writ of 
 habeas corpus. General Stone has received 
 similar instructions to these. You will please 
 confer with him as to the particular points that 
 each shall take the control of. 
 
 I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient 
 servant, R. B. Marcy, Chief of Staff. 
 
 Major General N. P. Banks, Commanding 
 Division, Muddy Branch, Md." 
 
 The object of the foregoing order is too 
 transparent for comment; '•'-little Mac" was not 
 then in favor of a •'• free ballot." On the 29th 
 of October, 1861, Democrats had no rights in 
 Maryland that even a " negro was buund to 
 respect," according to his theory at that time. 
 He was then in the employment of Mr. Lincoln, 
 fighting the political battles of the Republican 
 party in Maryland and Kentucky, where Demo- 
 crats were called " Copperheads" and "Copper 
 heads" were called " disunionists," and were not 
 entitled to vote. 
 
 Col. R. B. Marcy, who signs the foregoing 
 order, is the father-in-law of Gen. McClellan, 
 and at that time his Chief of Staff. He says in 
 the order, the " Major General Commanding" 
 directs, &c. What did the " Major General 
 Commanding" direct? l8t. That Gen. Stone 
 and Gen. Banks should send a sufficient num- 
 ber of soldiers-to each election precinct in the 
 State of Maryland, to protect " Union voters," 
 alias Republican voters. 2d. " He also directs 
 you to arrest and hold in confinement, until 
 after the election all disunionists," alias Demo- 
 crats. 
 
 Why " arrest and hold them in confinement 
 until after the election" except to prevent them 
 voting, and to deter other Democrats from go- 
 ing to the polls and making the attempt. 
 
 For the purpose of carrying out this detest- 
 able order, he says to Gen. Banks and Gen. 
 Stone, " You are authorized to suspend the 
 writ of habeas corpus." This was the unkindest 
 cut of all. A man claiming to be the candidate 
 of the Democratic party for President, suspend- 
 ing the writ of habeas corpus in or'aer to im- 
 prison Democrats beyond the relief of the law, 
 and thereby to prevent them voting, and to 
 carry the elections of the State of Maryland for 
 the abolition party. 
 
 Reader have you forgotten the history of 
 that day ? If so, go back to the files of your 
 old newspapers and examine once more in 
 shame and scorn the long list of your oppress- 
 ed countrymen, your down-trodden Democratic 
 brethren, who were incarcerated in loathsome 
 prisons by that infamous order of General 
 McClellan. The ballot box — the last refuge of 
 
 freedom destroyed by a Republican Major 
 General, who now asks your support for Presi- 
 dent of the United States, having no higher 
 claim to your confidence and support than that 
 he has forfeited that of Mr. Lincolns and the 
 Republican party. We would be glad if the 
 chapter of his evil deeds and audacious de- 
 signs could end here; but the culminated 
 point is still before us and must be told. 
 
 Having inaugurated the odious, oppressive 
 and tyranical system of Provost Marshals, 
 and arbitrary arrests, and dictated the whole 
 system of military interference with slavery 
 as at present practiced, having broken down 
 and destroyed the ballot box, having recom- 
 mended or by his own order violated every 
 right that Democrats hold dear; his next phase 
 is that of a conspirator against our Constitu- 
 tion and form of government; prompting Mr. 
 Lincoln to disregard his Constitutional ad- 
 visers, turn Cabinet, Congress and courts out 
 of doors and take upon himself the responsi- 
 bility of administering the affairs of the gov- 
 ernment according to his own will. In pur- 
 suance of the atrocious and astounding scheme, 
 he addresses Mr. Lincoln a long letter from 
 Harrison's Landing, Va., dated the 7th of July, 
 1862, which for audacity of design, and dis- 
 graceful subserviency is without a model. It is 
 the most remarkable and extraordinary docu- 
 ment this war has produced in either section 
 of our distracted country. Under the pretence of 
 correcting evils, and introducing a more civi- 
 lized and christian spirit into the conduct &f 
 the war, and under cover of the most wise and 
 patriotic expressions, it adroitly conceals the 
 glittering gems of a military despotism to 
 tempt the ambition of the President. 
 
 He says to Mr. Lincoln, the 1; time has come, 
 when the government must determine upon a 
 civil and military policy, covering the whole 
 ground of our national trouble. The responsi- 
 bility of determining, declaring, and supporting 
 such civil and military policy, and of directing 
 the whole course of national affairs in regard 
 to the rebellion must now be assumed and exer- 
 cised by you Abraham Lincoln, or our cause 
 will be lost. The Constitution gives you power 
 even for the present terrible exigency.'' The 
 substance of the foregoing is, that Mr. Lincoln 
 should assume to be the government, and take 
 upon himself the " responsibility" of determin- 
 ing and declaring its " civil" and "military" 
 policy. Now we ask what is comprehended in 
 the civil and military policy of a government? 
 Is it not the power of making laws, construing 
 them, and executing them ? Such then is the re- 
 sponsibility which Mr. Lincoln is recommended 
 by General McClellan to assume. 
 
 Our Constitution has wisely divided the 
 federal power into three separate, independent 
 and co-ordinate departments, assigning to each 
 i its powers and duties, and for the first time in 
 J our history we are informed that the Presi- 
 dent who represents one department only, 
 
10 
 
 may constitutionally take upon himself the 
 powers, duties and administration of all the 
 other departments. It would truly be a " terri- 
 ble exigency" that would thus construe the 
 powers of the President, and authorize him 
 to make his will the law of the land, as Gen- 
 eral McClellan has advised. What else could 
 he mean by telling Mr. Lincoln that he must 
 "assume the responsibility of determining and de- 
 claring the civil and military policy, and direct- 
 ing the ivhole course of national affairs, if he 
 does not. mean to advise him to usurp the 
 power of the other departments of the govern- 
 ment. It must be admitted by the most de- 
 voted admirers of his military genius and 
 legal learning, that it would be utterly im- 
 possible for Mr. Lincoln to direct the whole 
 Bourse of national affairs, as long as the power 
 of Congress remained to direct him ; that he 
 could not determine and declare the civil and 
 military policy of the government, without 
 silencing Congress and the courts. He could 
 not " assume" and "exercise" the powers pro- 
 posed by General McClellan without treason 
 arid violence. 
 
 The civil and military policy which Mr. 
 Lincoln is advised to determine upon and declare, 
 is to "cover the whole ground of our national 
 trouble." Now General McClellan must either 
 deny that slavery formed any portion of the 
 ground of our "national trouble" which he 
 oan not successfully do, or admit that Mr. 
 Lincoln's proclamation in competition with the 
 "Popes bull against the comet " were recom- 
 mended and approved by him. If slavery 
 entered into the cause or foundation, of our na- 
 tional troubles as asserted by Mr. Lincoln and 
 proclaimed by all the Republicans from Maine 
 to California, it was well known to Gen. McClel- 
 lan ; and Mr. Lincoln has only taken his fatal 
 advice in that subject as upon many others of 
 greater and less degrees of importance. The 
 animus of this remarkable document can readi- 
 ly be collected by reading the eighth paragraph 
 of the letter to which we refer as published in 
 his report to the Secretary of war. 
 
 He proposes to Mr. Lincoln to unite with 
 him in overthrowing the government he was 
 aworn to preserve, and establishing upon the 
 ruins of the Union and the Constitution, a 
 military despotism of which Mr. Lincoln was 
 to be the law giver, and he, McClellan, the chief 
 agent and executor of his will. He says to 
 Mr. Lincoln: "In carrying out any system 
 of policy you may form, you will require a 
 Commander-in-Chief of the army, one who 
 possesses your confidence, understands your 
 views, and who is competent to execute your 
 orders, by directing the military forces of the 
 nation to the accomplishment of the objects by 
 you proposed. 
 
 I dont ask that place for myself. I am wil- 
 ling to serve you in such position as you may 
 assign me, and I will do so as faithfully as 
 ever subordinate served tujicrior." 
 
 Could words be found in the English lan- 
 guage to express more clearly the unhallowed 
 purpose and traitorous design of General Mc- 
 Clellan than those we have quo ed. 
 
 If the communication referred to had been 
 addressed to General McClellan while acting 
 as Commander-in-Chief of the army, by one 
 of his subordinate officers, and had fallen 
 into the hands of the Secretary of War, the 
 writer would have been promptly arrested, 
 tried, convicted, and executed under military 
 law. General McClellan not only proposes to 
 Mr. Lincoln to commit a high crime by con- 
 verting the free governmnent of our country 
 into a military despotism, to be controlled by 
 the will of Mr. Lincoln alone; but he also 
 proposes to be the instrument of the foul deed. 
 He tells Mr. Lincoln, that he, Lincoln, can con- 
 fide in him, McClellan ; that he, McClellan, 
 understands his, Lincoln's views, and is com- 
 petent to execute his, Lincoln's orders; and 
 that he, McClellan, will take command of the 
 army and employ it for the accomplishment 
 of any object he, Lincoln may propose ; but if 
 Mr. Lincoln will not trust him, McClellan, 
 with the chief command, he, McClellan is so 
 anxious to serve him, Lincoln, that he will 
 accept any other position that he, Lincoln may 
 choose to assign him, McClellan; and that he, 
 the said McClellan will serve him, the said 
 Lincoln as "faithfully as ever subordinate served 
 superior." It will be observed that the service 
 proposed by General McClellan is not to the 
 Country or the cause of the Union and the 
 Constitution, but to IPhatever course Mr. Lin- 
 coln may espouse; or whatever object Mr. 
 Lincoln may prepare. Throughout the entire 
 prayer of the guilty petitioner, and unscru- 
 pulous adviser, the words "you" and "your" 
 are employed. The Constitution, the Union, 
 the Country, or its cause are not ever alluded to. 
 
 Was ever such contemptible subserviency, 
 such profound obsequiousness, such fawning 
 sycophaney, such damning guilt before dis- 
 played by any man aspiring to public confi- 
 dence and high official position? 
 
 Having adverted to the recommendations of 
 General McClellan on the subject of slavery 
 in Texas, we are brought in the regular pro- 
 gress of investigation to the general views on 
 that subject, as we find them in his letter to 
 Mr. Lincoln of the 7th of July 1862. In this 
 boasted communication he admits the power 
 of Congress to abolish slavery in the States, 
 and declares that it is the duty of the army to 
 give slaves protection. His words are as fol- 
 lows: "Slaves contraband under the Act of 
 Congress seeking military protection should 
 receive it." What are slaves contraband? 
 The word contraband signifies illegal traffic. 
 And as General McClellan is a man of too 
 much learning not to understand the true 
 force and import of his own words, no doubt 
 can exist as to the idea he means to convey. 
 In the same connection he says: "the right of 
 
11 
 
 the gorernment to appropriate permanently to 
 it3 own service claims to slave labor should be 
 asserted'' Either one of these declarations 
 involves the admission of the power of Con- 
 gress, or the government, if you please, to 
 destroy slavery. At this point it may be 
 useful to enquire what permanent service the 
 government, could possibly have for negro men, 
 woman and children, except to make a stand- 
 ing army of. the men, and support the women 
 and children at the public expense, as is now 
 being done, in accordance with General Mc- 
 Clellan's recommendation. 
 
 Having laid down the principle, he pro- 
 ceeds to tell Mr. Lincoln how it may be applied 
 80 as to destroy slavery in any given State. 
 He says this principle of appropriating slave 
 labor permanently to the service of the govern- 
 ment "might be extended upon grounds of 
 military necessity and security, to all the slaves 
 of a particular State thus working manumision 
 in such State." The plan here recommended 
 by General McClellan for the destruction of 
 slavery, portrays the most insidious, false, 
 and Jesuitical character this war has evolved; 
 knavery without boldness, duplicity without 
 principle, a will without courage, are the lead- 
 ing characteristics of the man. 'J ake the 
 slaves he says, by military power, or under 
 the accursed plea of " military necessity ' ; and 
 under the false pretence of appropriating them 
 permanently to the government service, work 
 manumision in any given State. 
 
 It may be said by the friends of General 
 McClellan, that while he asserts the right of 
 the government to appropriate permanently 
 to its own use claims to slave labor; he also 
 admits that the right of the owner to compen- 
 sation therefor, should be recognized. This 
 fact does not change the principle involved. 
 The right of the owner to compensation when 
 his property is taken for public use, is recog- 
 nized by the laws of the land, and could ac- 
 quire no additional strength from the sanction 
 of General McClellan. The admission or re- 
 cognition of a right where there is -no remedy 
 for its violation, or power to protect and enjoy 
 the right, is a very cheap apology for trespass 
 or crime. Trial by jury is a right reeognized 
 by the Constitution, yet like the right of the 
 owner to compensation for his property, it is 
 wholly disregarded. 
 
 When private property is taken for public 
 use, the owner is entitled to actual compensa- 
 tion, and not to a mere admission or acknowl- 
 edgment of a right to get his compensation if 
 he can. The question is one of power, and not 
 of reciprocal duty and justice where the object is 
 in good faith the government service and the 
 public good. In the case before us the govern- 
 ment service is, as proposed by General Mc- 
 Clellan the mere pretext or excuse, while he 
 admits the main and real object to be the manu- 
 mision of the negro slaves. 
 
 It is also urged in his defense, that he ex- 
 
 pressly declares in the same communication, 
 that "military power should not be allowed 
 to interfere with the relations of servitude." 
 The admission of this fact which is cheerfully 
 made, only establishes the fact that General 
 McClellan's habit has been to take both sides 
 of a question, that he might be sure to cheat 
 some body. The admission can not fail to 
 place him in such a light, when contrasted 
 with his distinct plan of manumision under the 
 plea of military necessity. Tiie antagonism thus 
 presented between his two propositions, to 
 interfere, and not to interfere, is perfectly 
 reconcilable with the whole history and char- 
 acter of the man as disclosed by his acts, 
 orders, and correspondence, commencing with 
 the administration of Mr. Lincoln and termi- 
 nating with the letter of acceptance. And wo 
 know of no rule of construction more applica- 
 ble to the orders and letters of General Mc- 
 Clellan than that ordinarily applied to Wills 
 where in case of conflicting claims or devises; 
 the Court adopts the last, declaration as the 
 Will of the testator. 
 
 The proposition that "military power should 
 not be allowed to interfere with the relations 
 of servitude," is a declaration of policy which 
 is abandoned in the next sentence of the same 
 communication, by the enunciation of a prin- 
 ciple and its application through the military 
 power, or as he expresses it, " military necessity" 
 to the destruction of the very servitude with 
 which it was his pretended policy not to inter- 
 fere. The principle is applied in detail to 
 Missouri, Maryland, and Virginia, Avith the 
 remark that its success is only a question of 
 time. 
 
 The draft, which is so persistently placed to 
 the account of Mr. Lincoln, and which is the 
 source of so much discontent, like all the other 
 odious measures of Mr. Lincoln's administra- 
 tion, was first recommended by Gen. McClellan, 
 as will appear from the following note from 
 Gen. McClellan to Mr. Lincoln, to be found ia 
 McPherson's documents, page 274 : 
 
 Washington, Aug. 20, 1861. 
 
 Sir — I have just received the endorsed dis- 
 patch in cypher. Col. Marcy knows what he 
 says, and is of the coolest judgment. 
 
 I recommend that the Secretary of War ascer- 
 tain at once by telegram how the enrollment 
 proceeds in New York and elsewhere, and if it 
 is not proceeding with great rapidity draft to be 
 made at once. We must have men without de- 
 lay. Respectfully your obedient servant 
 GEORGE B. McCLELLAN. 
 
 Maj. Gen' I U. S. A. 
 
 The impossibility of giving a true and faithful 
 history of Gen. McClellan without offending 
 those who advocate his vain pretensions has 
 hitherto, we have no doubt, prevented the at- 
 tempt, and induced those who cannot defend him 
 but acquiesce in his nomination, to delight their 
 hearers with their amiable peace speeches. Har- 
 
12 
 
 ing themselves surrendered to the despotism of 
 party, they would now enslave rather than en- 
 lighten the public mind by dealing in the 
 recorded and inexorable truths of history. 
 
 The shackles of party must be broken; 
 slavery of conscience and opinion be destroyed, 
 and man left free to reason himself into the 
 perception of truth and freedom before he is 
 capable of self-government. 
 
 The draft and other evils -which have so sorely 
 oppressed and afflicted our country for the 
 past three years are, in truth, the mere erup- 
 tions of the common virulence of civil war 
 that can only be alleviated by the benign influ- 
 ence of peace. As long as the people favor a 
 continuance of the war, they must be prepared 
 for a continuance of its multiplying evils. 
 Men and money are the sinews of war, and if 
 they are not voluntarily contributed, the appli- 
 cation of force for such purpose is as necessary 
 as the war itself. 
 
 We should not deceive ourselves by indulging 
 the insaue idea that war can be conducted 
 without men or money, or the occurrence of 
 those dreadful evils that our experience proves 
 to be, the natural historical concomitants of 
 fraternal strife. Concession and compromise 
 are the only highways to peace, in which all 
 patriots and christians should travel. 
 
 The bloody path of war strewn with the 
 wrecks of free government leads to desolation 
 and death. 
 
 Robbery and violence lose not their criminal 
 qualities in consideration of the personages by 
 Whom they are committed or protected. And if 
 a continuance of the war under Mr. Lincoln is 
 wrong, its continuance under Gen. McClellan 
 would be criminal. There is no middle ground 
 between peace and war, except that which is 
 the centre between two points of right and 
 wrong— like the antagonism between truth and 
 falsehood it is utterly irreconcilable; and if this 
 8'iicidal war is to be continued, it is our best 
 judgment and fondest hope that it may be con- 
 ducted to its close by the party in power — that 
 humanity may be spared the last pangs of re- 
 morseful conscience, and the soul of Democracy 
 be free from its stain. Far better that Democ- 
 racy should wear the chain of slavery to the 
 grave of liberty, or sink into that gulf that 
 threatens to embosom our country, than coalize 
 With infamy and vice, or become the execution- 
 er of its country's freedom. 
 
 The dangers thai environaour country are not 
 to be found in any political organization or 
 principle, now publicly avowed or acknowl- 
 edged — but in the vast opportunity which war 
 has opened to the rapacity of mankind. 
 
 Capital throughout the world is now in the 
 field with its marshaled hosts, reinforced by 
 seven thousand five hundred millions of public 
 indebtedness, (as the aggregate of both sec- 
 tions, ) with drawn sabres, ready to charge upon 
 liberty and free government. Our loss is their 
 gain ; our fields of carnage and desolation are j 
 
 the sources of their power, and the foundation 
 of their hopes — and with the death of liberty 
 comes the resurrection of despotism and the 
 triumph of the rich over the poor — capital over 
 labor. The struggle that awaits us, and which 
 is to decide the fate of self-government in this 
 hemisphere will be fought by foreign and do- 
 mestic capital combined, to foreclose the mort- 
 gage of war upon our goods and chattels, lands, 
 tenements, and form of government, upon the 
 one side, — and the labor and industry of the 
 country upon the other. The princes of Europe 
 whose thrones were trembling before the suc- 
 cessful march of our experiment are gazing with 
 unmingled delight upon their hopeful future, 
 and eager to unite their arms to the cause of 
 capital and despotism for the common subjuga- 
 tion of our country, north as well as south, and 
 the re-establishment of the odious doctrines of 
 passive obedience and non resistence, snatching 
 from the people their inherent rights, and again 
 planting upon the soil of America the victori- 
 ous standard of the king and the parliament. 
 
 The North-west, and great valley of the 
 Mississippi, were already regarded with suspi- 
 cion and jealousy, lest their pursuits, coupled 
 with a native independence of thought and 
 action inspired by their love of liberty and 
 free government, should lead them in defence 
 of a common right, and the altars of their 
 uncorruptible fathers — to thwart the well set- 
 tled plans of a monied aristocracy to drive 
 them from the independent and honorable po- 
 sition of American proprietors, to the degrad- 
 ing European vassalage of mere tenants of a 
 soil which is theirs by all the laws of inheri- 
 tance and purchase. 
 
 It is a country so vast in resources, and so ca- 
 pable of almost unlimited expansion, that it is 
 now tempting the cupidity and rapacity of the 
 plunderers of mankind. A moneyed aristoc- 
 racy under the vanguard of miliary necessity, 
 threatens the citadel of our future hopes. 
 Hating our form of government which makes 
 men equal, and protects alike the rich and the 
 poor, they still admire the comfort of our 
 homes, are dazzled with the treasures of our 
 lands and fields, and captivated by the variety 
 and productiveness of our soil and climate. 
 In other words, while they despise Pharaoh, 
 they long for the onions and garlic of Egypt. 
 
 III. In order to complete the organization of 
 the Peace and State Rights Party of the future, 
 we must not only declare the cardinal princi- 
 ples of Democracy, and place its standard in 
 representative hands; but we should make a 
 prompt application of the resolutions of Ken- 
 tucky and Virginia to the actual facts of the 
 first truly great crisis for which they were 
 written as a guide.. The puny attempts at 
 consolidation by the alien and sedition laws, 
 were as nothing compared to the dangers from 
 centralization and abolitionism. These crimes 
 against government and society are great 
 
13 
 
 enough to swallow all their predecessors, and 
 to make an end of our institutions. We might 
 enlarge on the charges against Lincoln's civil 
 administration of affairs, and we might dis- 
 cuss the hopeless military efforts at subjuga- 
 tion of the South ; but we choose to waive 
 them both in this address, and to dwell on vio- 
 lations of the true theory of the Federal Con- 
 stitution, which have compelled us to organize 
 the Peace Party upon the basis of State Plights ; 
 and to take sides with Thomas Jefferson's 
 gpinions for State Sovereignty against the 
 false theory of consolidation. With a fidelity 
 worthy of a better cause, and with a sagacity 
 which is more 'han the cunning of little 
 minds, but less than the wisdom of a states- 
 man, Mr. Lincoln has clung to his errors of 
 constitutional doctrine, announced first at 
 Indianapolis on starting to Washington, iu 
 1861, that he could see no difference between 
 the position of a County in a State, and that of 
 a State in the Union ; and finished when he 
 told the Chicago clergy that he felt that he 
 had the right to do anything, he thought best 
 for the good of the country. It behooves us to 
 take a lesson from Mr. Lincoln. And that les- 
 son is that the Democratic leaders have not con- 
 centrated the part!/ upon an opposite doctrine, 
 and made the rugged issue of principle tested by 
 the constitution. 
 
 No resolute Peace and State Rights Party 
 can submit in their steadfast devotion to the 
 public good to any other doctrine than'that the 
 war itself is a violation of the constitution — 
 is absolutely forbidden. That true position 
 places them upon the rock of principle, which 
 their antagonists must assail at great disad- 
 vantage. It denies utterly the right of coer- 
 cion ; and puts the federal system on the foun- 
 dation of State consent for each and all the 
 parties to a voluntary union during pleasure. 
 If the Northern States, disgusted with slave- 
 holders, had seceded, there would have been 
 but one opinion among us, about the wrong of 
 coercion, because of the right of secession ; and 
 war, to supply the place of volition, if proposed 
 by the South, would have been derided by the 
 North. And yet principle is not a geographi- 
 cal nor a personal matter. We must insist 
 that Mr. Lincoln has mistaken his office and 
 our rights ; and assert against nim and his 
 followers, the equality, independence and sove- 
 reignty of the States, and the voluntary nature 
 of the Union which he is fighting to reestab- 
 lish because he believes it compulsory. Dem- 
 ocratic leaders have been false to the country 
 in all this struggle. They have made their pri- 
 vate griefs the occasion of complaint, instead 
 of the organic disturbance of our institutions. 
 A procession of States, headed by New York 
 and closed by Ohio, demanded Mr. Vallandig- 
 ham from arbitrary exile of the President. 
 Not disputing his war doctrine, they seemed 
 to '-e unbelievers in sovereign States, and a 
 volunta::- union — consolidationists in fact; and 
 
 his reply was conclusive. " The country is in a 
 war of self-preservation. Why should I shoot 
 the poor deserter for example's sake, and for- 
 give Mr. Vallaudingham who does not differ 
 with mc intelligibly about our constitutional 
 system, but does an injury a thousand times 
 greater to the cause? " Unless Mr. Vallandig- 
 ham ceases to talk of the sovereignty of the 
 Federal Government, and with his friends goes 
 for correct doctrine, and asserts the sovereign- 
 ty of the States, and their voluntary union,°he 
 must accept his fate as perfectly legitimate. 
 Habeas corpus is not for such consolidationists ; 
 and their appeals to the British precedents 
 have a like answer. That cruel government 
 in the same circumstances, would not only 
 suspend the writ altogether, but hang up or 
 cut down the whole itinerating fraternity by 
 thousands without remorse. Well do we know 
 whereof we affirm. The error of Mr. Vallan- 
 digham was his ignorance of the nature of the 
 Federal Government, and his half truth that 
 he had a right to protection from arbitrary 
 arrest, but concealing the fact, that he had beeu 
 caught flagrante delicto opposing an administra- 
 tion in a great war. His clamor was nonsense 
 if the majority of States can rightfully coerco 
 a single State; and he must be brought to say 
 that the right of coercion cannot exist, because 
 there is a right of secession, and two opposing 
 rights are impossible. There can be no reaj 
 check to the war short of exhaustion, till new 
 leaders put their opponents in the wrong and 
 themselves in the right upon the total uncon- 
 stitutionality of the was. The Kansas case 
 might teach us a lesson against prevarication. 
 In that convulsion half truth only was avowed, 
 and the question, at issue throughout all the 
 disgraceful folios of reports and speeches waa 
 never stated by our side. Mr. Douglas claimed 
 the right of self-government for squatters, With- 
 out disclosing that they were exercising under 
 that disguise the more than despotic power of 
 excluding from settlement, half the States who 
 were joint owners of the territories ! Will 
 the Democracy be always afraid of the truth ? 
 Are they afraid of it now ? 
 
 It takes a creed as well as followers to or- 
 ganize a party, and nothing can be hoped from 
 mere unorganized opposition, or organized op- 
 position not directed by principle. Mr. Lin- 
 coln has his theory that the American States 
 arc counties ; that he is an Emperor, (Impera- 
 tor) whose war powers, or his rightful func- 
 tions as President commanding-in chief, or, 
 alas, the military necessity, authorise to play 
 the autocrat to force the loan of the last dollar, 
 and to require at his will the last life from the 
 North for the conquest of the South. Acting 
 upon these despotic and sanguinary doctrines, 
 Mr. Lincoln has destroyed our federal system, 
 from the very beginning of his term, and ho 
 should be met eye to eye and face to face, by 
 the absolute denial of his creed, and the asser- 
 tion of the opposite, as well as by the selection 
 
u 
 
 of a representative candidate on the true 
 Jeffersonian grounds that he is "honest, capa- 
 ble and faithful to the Constitution." 
 
 The Democratic creed is wholly adverse to 
 consolidation. And that creed springs from 
 the history and philosophy of the federal sys- 
 tem; of which the first Kentucky resolution is 
 the best expression, as we have previously de- 
 monstrated. 
 
 Let us consider the prominent measures of 
 consolidation and first of the so called " na- 
 tional 'forces." Each State should assert her 
 iwn sovereignty as the vital spark of her 
 existence, without which she must die, and she 
 must insist that she claims the allegiance of 
 her citizens against the Federal Government's 
 conscriptions. 
 
 The militia of the States cannot be taken 
 away by force, nor under cover of unconstitu- 
 tional law and by connivance of mercenary 
 and criminal judges, Governors and legisla- 
 tures. And it is the right, it is the highest 
 duty of every State, to interpose her sovereign- 
 ty against these drafts of millions from the 
 people's choicest children. Since January last 
 1, '200,000 young men have been called for by 
 the President, and within a year another mil- 
 lion will be wanted. When the ship is being 
 gunk by the captain with all on board ; or the 
 house is set on fire by a servant over the heads f 
 of his master's family, it is time to make the 
 last effort to save them and to save themselves. 
 On God's footstool there is no such dreadful 
 picture as the crowds of thousands of poor men 
 and their wives by their sides, trembling on 
 their feet before a provost marshal and provost 
 guard, who are drawing the names of con- 
 ecripts from a wheel which sends the husband 
 and father like an unwilling bullock to the 
 slaughter pens, while his wife almost a widow 
 8tarves amidst her children. In this free land 
 Polvphemus caves abound above ground, and 
 the only question for whole neighborhoods is 
 the question of Ulyses — who shall be last de- 
 voured ? Terror has stricken the survivors, 
 and the Peace, and State Rights Party alone 
 can save them from the catastrophe. 
 
 The Democratic creed respecting negro slav- 
 ery for many years has been shamefully 
 foolish, timid, and contradictory. We must 
 hereafter speak the truth on that subject for 
 the sake of our own laborers and our own 
 property and safety. Our past leaders have 
 left this great duty to go by default, because 
 they have been afraid to testify to what they 
 believe. We must do it now, or ourselves share 
 their guilt. Negro slavery by the whites is a 
 thing alien to us, for we have not been forced 
 by circumstances to organize a society of 
 whites and blacks. If wc had been so situated 
 we could not have done otherwise than the 
 slaveholder has done, aud he has done some- 
 thing formidable for war, since he took up 
 arms, as he had before surpassed the world in 
 the arts of peace, particularly in agriculture. 
 
 He is the first producer and the first warrior of 
 his day, because he has made the most of hia 
 means, and organized them according to the 
 true system applicable to the case. Where two 
 races come in contact by millions, one inferior 
 the other superior, there is nothing for it but 
 slavery. The presence of the helpless class 
 compels the superior to set the tasks and re- 
 quire obedience, whether he will or not; or 
 else the two races will perish together or ex- 
 terminate one another. 
 
 For forty years the protective tariff policy 
 of New England has violated the Constitution 
 and plundered the country upon the most pal- 
 pable pretences, Its encouragement of manu- 
 factures is the discouragement of agriculture, 
 and trades not protected; its protection of 
 American industry is not an advance of wages, 
 but an increase of dividends ; its home demand 
 for the produce of the country is only a dimi- 
 nution of the supply, by forcing the field 
 hands into shops; its independence of foreign- 
 ers is dependence upon them as borrowers of 
 money to build factories, instead of meeting 
 them on equal terms as venders of produce; 
 its development of the country is an exagger- 
 ation of our cities, its stimulation of trade is 
 the oppression of commerce. The payment of 
 import duties is just as stringent as any other 
 tax; its convenience is a negation of princi- 
 ple; its uniformity is a sham, a delusion, and 
 a snare, for it falls very partially on certain 
 pursuits, and on a part of the property of a 
 part of the country; its heavy cost of collec- 
 tion is hid in the importer's profits; its com- 
 plexity enables our government to extort im- 
 mensely by fraud, what the despot gets by 
 force. And yet upon such, and other fallacies, 
 at least a thousand millions of dollars have 
 been unfairly extracted from producers of 
 every class by the tariff acts of Congress; and 
 our access has been barred to the markets of 
 the woiAd for the annual crops of grain and 
 provisions ; and finally, by plausible appeals 
 to morbid sentiments on slavery, New England 
 has poisoned the Great West against her best 
 friends, her Southern customers, and has in- 
 stituted the present tariff war with her blind 
 co-operation, a war whose burthens have fallen 
 on all the sections except New England, while 
 she has reaped a golden harvest. 
 
 The Peace and State Rights party knowing 
 that men and money are the sinews of war, 
 and that they have been obtained by means of 
 the draft and by the issue of immense sums of 
 paper money, have in the previous part of the 
 Address dwelt upon the injustice and illegality 
 of the draft. The banking system is an equally 
 false system, however organized. With less 
 powers for evil, it has repeatedly desolated the 
 whole country, especially the families which 
 live by labor, and the agriculturalists, and 
 more especially the Northwest. Banking is a 
 corporate monopoly of the legitimate credit 
 of a community by the privileged few who 
 
15 
 
 pretend to possess gold and silver, from which 
 circle, farmers and laborers are necessarily 
 excluded. These monopolists protected from 
 personal liability by charters ; borrow gratui- 
 tously of the people millions of credit, place 
 it in their banks and thence issue it out in 
 discounts at high interest to their customers, 
 the merchants and traders. A splendid living 
 is thus made on little or nothing but the pub- 
 lic's gullibility, for there would be just as 
 much credit in the country if not a bank 
 existed, and it would be cheaper for those 
 who wanted it. When a crash comes the 
 banker retires rich, but the holders of his 
 bank promises to pay must pocket the loss. 
 This iniquitous system is the periodical plague 
 of the producers, and especially the farmers, 
 and it is fearfully raging now under govern- 
 ment high pressure stimulation, and should 
 be denounced in every Democratic Address 
 Kings clip the coin to cheat the people ; Con- 
 gress counterfeits it for the same purpose. 
 
 There was an evasion of all these matters 
 in the Convention proceedings; a complete 
 abandonment of principle in its results, and 
 a surrender to the enemies of Peace and State 
 Rights. 
 
 The supreme calamity of party infidelity 
 has therefore befallen our Democracy. The 
 party has been utterly misrepresented by the 
 delegates who have thus attempted to bind it 
 to the war chariot of a Major General of the 
 army. The platform is a war platform, and 
 the candidate is Major General McClellan. 
 
 The Peace professions and Peace principles 
 which pervade the mass of the people West 
 and East are set aside for the purpose of con- 
 tinuing the policy and usurpations of Mr. Lin- 
 coln. The Convention system has become more 
 than ever cornpt and irresponsible, for it has 
 enabled the managers who pursue their own 
 private interest, to thwart almost universal 
 and public interest, and the public sentiments 
 of honor and duty, and to frustrate the very 
 latest and clearest expressions of their con- 
 stituents. Peace, peace, peace, and all that 
 comes with it; peace on honorable terms as 
 between sensible men alike interested, was 
 the demand of the masses; and the business 
 of the Convention was to give effect to the 
 demand by a declaration of principles on a 
 Peace platform, and by placing a Peace candi- 
 date upon it. Standing amidst the wide-spread 
 ruin of our country, wrought by bad coun- 
 sels, and by head-strong passions after suf- 
 fering the waste and carnage of three long 
 years of sectional war, our people sighed for 
 peace, and an immediate settlement With the 
 secceding States. This bloody business of 
 sending mothers' and fathers' sons from the 
 North to slaughter other mothers' and fathers' 
 sons at the South, upon their own native soil 
 and amid their hearths and altars, has become 
 an offence to Heaven itself, which we feel to 
 be not only wrong but horrible. Every village 
 
 and homestead have lost their lustiest and 
 their brightest youth by disease and battle; 
 the chances of return are often one in ten, or 
 one in eight, or six, or four; the regiments 
 which so bravely bore their colors to the front 
 three years ago, and a thousand strong, as they 
 thought, to victory and glory, come back not 
 as they went, but in staggering and scattered 
 ranks, still brave to a fault, but only the sha- 
 dow of themselves. Mouring is in every house- 
 hold, anguish in every heart, lamentation in 
 every part of the deserted and afflicted land. 
 The rude coffin that brings back the unrecog- 
 nized remains of the once strong and proud 
 hero of his mothers and his fathers heart; the 
 pompous catafalque of some fallen general 
 borne home for splendid burial, the fresh 
 graves all over the battlefields wet with blood 
 and consecrated to the demon of homicide, 
 testify to the mighty madness as well as to 
 the terrible cost of this fraternal strife. 
 
 And as usual with mortals in anger, we see 
 but halt the truth ; our Southern brethren are 
 at least equal sufferers, and the ruder sex of 
 both sections suffer scarcely more than the 
 gentle. In the month of August, 1864, and at 
 the hands of the Chicago Convention we should 
 have commenced the beginning of the end of 
 such a state of things, repugnant as they are 
 to law, religion, and justice, and repulsive as 
 they are to all the finer feelings of human 
 nature. But the vast majority of the dele- 
 gates favoring a contiiruance of the war con- 
 trary to the wishes of their constituents, and 
 not even masking their design, nominated 
 Major General McClellan, whose condemned 
 official action resulting in his retirement from 
 the army, forms his only claim to the position 
 of candidate of the Democracy; but whose 
 violations of State Rights and the Rights of 
 man are worse than Abraham Lincoln's. It 
 may be that cruelty has become a chronic 
 disease, and that like the tyrant of Argos, those 
 managers have so long dabbled in others blood, 
 that they have become frenzied with excite- 
 ment. God grant that his royal taste may net 
 be adopted by this nation. He looked upon 
 the mass as the common herd born to till the 
 earth a few brief years for him and then to 
 sleep beneath it, or rising at their master's 
 call to smite, and be smitten into a festering 
 mound of crime and death. Is it possible that 
 our tyrant at the North, by name called the 
 majority, but in fact, the majority of that 
 majority, the caucus of this majority, or an 
 irresponsible committee of safety consisting 
 of a few bad leaders, have silenced the holy 
 service of religion, the veneration for virtue, 
 the remembrance of home, the respect for 
 human life ? 
 
 The Chicago Convention have done the worst 
 thing possible. They have misrepresented the 
 people in a matter involving their liberty, 
 safety, honor, and institutions. The people 
 should condemn their action by repudiating 
 
16 
 
 their candidate and his vaunted record, and 
 the Democratic party should at once begin to 
 or2ani7.e themselves upon State Rights and 
 Peace doctrines for the future. Acting in that 
 great name, this Convention assembled at Cin- 
 cinnati, to protest against what has been so 
 unwisely and offensively done, make their 
 appeal to that final American tribunal, the 
 •wisdom and patriotism of the people of the 
 sovereign States. We reject the Chicago plat- 
 form and candidate: such action is but another 
 combination of abolitionism and consolidation; 
 it proposes only a change of masters, but not a 
 change of system. Like Abraham Lincoln's 
 policy, identical with it, the McClellan policy 
 is a total overthrow of all principle, right and 
 justice; its two legs are the same with which 
 the former has bestrode the Constitution, and 
 they are, the compulsory union of the States, 
 called by both, the unity of this continent; and 
 the forcible abolition of negro slavery, or the 
 emancipation of four millions of helpless human 
 beings not fit to be free, by the sword. Thus, 
 we have before us two candidates. but no choice. 
 Both the nominees, although hailing from op- 
 posite parties, represent the same political 
 ideas, and one policy on the subject of the war. 
 Why is this? How is this? Or ia it without a 
 why or a wherefore, that the States and peo- 
 ples of the States of the North and West have 
 have thus imposed upon them candidates that 
 although coming from different quarters are 
 neither of them Democrats, but both federal- 
 ists ? The rejection of the State Rights doc- 
 trine of 1798 ; of Jefferson's doctrine, was 
 logical and inevitable from a Convention which 
 nominated McClellan, and proclaim between 
 the South and North eternal war. Are this 
 Major Geueral and eternal war, the true ideas 
 of our Democratic masses East and West? No, 
 emphatically no; not at all; but the contrary. 
 Who then, and what can account for such a 
 nominee and such a creed ? The answer to the 
 question is, but one set of men, and one eom- 
 mon purpose can account for it. and these are 
 the holders of the Railroad monopolies, who 
 have kept the Mississippi river closed; or 
 rather, vsho shut it by war on the Constitution 
 aud Union, as well as on the South, in order to 
 compel the transportation at ruinous cost, of 
 beef, pork, corn and other produce of the Val- 
 ley by force over their rails, instead of its 
 natural outlet: the holders of the shipping 
 Monopolies which transport the annual crop to 
 the markets of the word: the holders of the 
 hundreds of millions of untaxable federal 
 stocks : the holders of other millions of Atlan- 
 tic B ink Stocks, whose capital has been bor- 
 rowed by the Treasury to carry on the first 
 year's war: the manufacturers of high tariff 
 goods in New Englsnd, whose boarding .and 
 clothing and lodging, the West would have 
 made money by paying for the last thirty 
 years, instead of submitting to such highly pro- 
 
 tected monopolies. The Chicago Convention — 
 a Democratic convention — was stormed by such 
 troops as these, led on by the abolitionists, and 
 foreign and domestic capital, the former being 
 the worst enemies of the negro race, whom they 
 ought to hate worse than they do their mas- 
 ters, and the latter, being the worst enemies 
 of the Federal constitution, which they never 
 did understand, and never wilt appreciate nor 
 respect. 
 
 These are the only parties who have any 
 candidate for the Presidency now before the 
 people, and who have controlled the country 
 to its shame and ruin for four years past, and 
 who expect to deceive and overpower the peo- 
 ple on the farms and in the shops, and at work 
 elsewhere in the business of production. It 
 is a strife of traders against producers, capi- 
 tal against labor, of systems and not of men ; 
 it means the change of society as well as gov- 
 ernment ; they are after the last dollar and the 
 the last man. They both propose a monyed 
 and military aristocracy, instead of an equal 
 simple and responsible democracy. As we 
 love liberty and the free institutions which 
 alone can protect it; we must overcome all 
 this monstrous doctrine; we must defeat and 
 disgrace its leaders; we must reverse it3 posi- 
 tion in the country; we must utterly refuse to 
 support it at the polls. 
 
 The State Rights party, the Peace party, the 
 People's party present this appeal to the masses 
 all over the United States from the decision at 
 Chicago, and we have set forth the dangers, 
 and described the Jeffersonian principles and 
 the representative men whereby the party of 
 the future must be organized. We have done 
 our work in withstanding the first shock of 
 prejudice in favor of convention proceedings, 
 and it is for the people with their sober second 
 thought to say whether in a most overwhel- 
 ming case of danger, they will not take juris- 
 diction, and enter their decree of reversal. 
 Whatever may be the result of the election, 
 there can be no doubt of the ultimate result 
 if their sovereign will becomes allied to the 
 Constitution. 
 
 The war will then be stopped, because waste- 
 ful, fruitless, and shameful, but above all, uncon- 
 stitutional, the Federal Capitol will be occupied 
 by patriotic democrats ; the abolitionists and 
 consolidationists, will be scourged from the 
 temple which our fathers consecrated to the 
 sacred cause of Human Rights. 
 
 Committee on address and resolution con- 
 sisted of the following named persons : 
 
 James W. Singleton, I. J. Miller, Josiah 
 Snow, Lafe Devlin, Alexander Long, W. C, 
 Jewctt, IV, M. Corry. i 
 
 Report of the Committee unanimously adop- 
 ted by the Convention, and proceedings or- 
 dered to be published. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 012 027 992 % 
 
 J 
 
 ~J 
 
 Hollinger 
 
 pH8.5 
 
 Mill Run F3-1955