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 THIS IREOOiRIDI 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 
 
 vs. 
 
 THE FALSE DEMOCRACY! 
 
 " Cur cause must be entrusted to, and conducted by, | 
 !t8 own undouJbted friends — those whose hands are free, i 
 whose hearts are in the work, who do care for the re- 
 ».ull."'— A. Lincoln^ I 
 
 " This is a world of compensation, and ho who would 
 t>€ no slavo must consent to /lave no slave. Those who 
 deny freedom to others deserve itnotfor themselves, and 
 mder a just God cannot long retain it." — A. Lincoln. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAX PARTV. 
 
 The Republican party was organized to 
 resist the encroachments of slavery, pre- 
 serve the Union, and promote the develop- 
 ment of the resources of the country and 
 the material prosperity of the people. 
 
 In the platform adopted j^ Philadelphia in 
 lb56 by the first NationarKepublican Con- 
 vention, this resolution was embodied : 
 
 ''Resolved, That the maintenance of the 
 ! rinciples promulgated in the Declaration 
 of Independence, and embodied in the Fed- 
 eral Constitution, is essential to the pres- 
 ervation of our republican institutions, and 
 that the Federal Constitution, the rights of 
 ;he States, and the Union of the States shall 
 be preserved.'" 
 
 The same Convention declared that it 
 was the duty of the Federal Government 
 ■ secure to all its citizens the rights of life, 
 :berty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that 
 Congress was endowed with sovereign 
 power in all the Territories ; that slavery 
 should be prohibited therein, and in favor 
 of the construction of the Pacific railroad 
 and the improvement of rivers and harbors, 
 to the end, that the lives and property of 
 Citizens be rendered secure, eomm'f'rco pro- 
 moted, and the great natural resources of 
 the country developed. 
 
 PLATPOEM OF 1S60. 
 
 The great Convention at Chicago in 1860 
 reiterated the declarations of 1856— the 
 principles embodied in the Declaration of 
 independence, the freedom of the Territo- 
 ries, the inviolability of citizenship, the 
 equality of all men before the law— and re- 
 
 asserted the duty and power of the Federal 
 Government to protect and develop the 
 commerce and resources of the whole 
 country by works of national importance, 
 and to provide homesfeads upon the public 
 domain for all of the laboring masses wh* 
 may desire to settle and cultivate the same. 
 
 now THESE PROMISES HAVE P.EEN REDEEMED . 
 
 1st. — The Preservation of the Union. — 
 So .soon as it was settled ' that Abraham 
 Lincoln, the Republican candidate, had been 
 elected, the Democracy from one end of 
 the Union to the other 'declared for the dis- 
 solution of the Government. The Southern 
 conspiracy was i-mmediately organized, 
 with the declared purpose of overthrowing 
 the Constitution, and in this the conspira- 
 tors were encouraged by the Kemocrutic lead- 
 ers and press in all the Northern States. 
 
 State after .State, under the lead of Soutli- 
 ern Democrats, abetted and encouraged by 
 their Northern allies, withdrew from the 
 National Congress and set up an indepen- 
 dent and hostile confederacy. So that, 
 when Mr. Lincoln acceded to power, the 
 Union was practically broken and war ac- 
 tually inaugurated, the armies of the Re- 
 public dispersed or quartered in hostile 
 territory under treasonable leaders, the 
 national vessels disarmed or placed upon 
 distant stations, and the Southern arsenals 
 and forts, with few exceptions, subjected to 
 the power of the enemy. In fact, all had 
 been done by the traitorous Democracy 
 which power and treason could accompli.?h 
 or suggest to destroy the Union and bmld 
 up a rival and hostile Government. Such was 
 the legacy bequeathed by the Democracy to 
 the incoming Republican Administration. 
 
 In his inaugural address, Mr. Lincoln, 
 true to the platform upon which he had 
 been nominated and elected, declared firmly, 
 that the Union nf tiie States would be pre- 
 
 :<Ac^ 
 

 served, and the forts and public property 
 repossessed. After four years of desolat- 
 ing war this promise was made good. The 
 forts and public places Avere reconquered, 
 the dissolution of the Uniow rendered im- 
 possible by the crushing defeat of the 
 armed Democracy. 
 
 In the progress of the contest, the Re- 
 publicaii party remained true to all its 
 other pledges, and; 
 
 •2d. Enacted a law by which sla%'ery was 
 fjrever prohibited in all the Territories, 
 aad the equality of citizenship therein de- 
 clared and established. 
 
 3d. The Republican party also remera- 
 hered and kept its promise to the landless 
 laborers of the country by the enactment 
 of the Homestead law, under which any 
 citizen who will settle upon and cultivate 
 a portion of the public domain, may ac- 
 quire title thereto by tlie payment of a nomi- 
 nal fee. And to render such settlement pos- 
 sible and desirable — 
 
 THE I'ACIFIC RAILROADS. 
 
 4th. It has provided for the construc- 
 tion of three great trans-continental rail- 
 roads, traversing the public domain for more 
 than 6,000 miles, and opening to settlement 
 aa area of country capable of furnishing 
 homes to 50,000,000 of people. Over these 
 liaes, when constructed, will pass the rich 
 commerce of Europe and the Indies, en- 
 riching not only the country and people in 
 their A^cinity , but building up great _ com- 
 mercial cities and towns in every section of 
 the Union connected with the trunk lines by 
 latteral roads Or water ways. The exhaust- 
 Ipss mineral resources of the great interior 
 of the continent will be openedtothe capi- 
 tul and enterprise of our people, and the 
 idlers who now throng our cities and towns 
 will thciefmd attractive and profitable em- 
 ployment. The Homestead and Pacific 
 
 THE CIVIL, RIGHTS LAW. 
 
 By this great act, citizenship is forever 
 established, and adequate protection pro- 
 vided. Under a faithful and honest Admin- 
 istration, that provision of the Constitution 
 which guarantees to the citizen of auy State 
 the privileges of a citizen in any otherState, 
 is made operative and effective. Vital as is 
 this provision, but for the E-^publicnn party 
 it would have remained a dead letter. Itia 
 now a potent and living principle. 
 
 EQUAL KEPP.ESKKTATION. 
 
 5th. — The Republican party has dto- 
 vided by Constitutional amendment tliat, 
 where any persons, on account of race or 
 color, are denied the elective franchise, 
 they shall not be counted in the basis 
 of representation. While slavery existed 
 three-fifths of the slaves or colored peo- 
 ple were counted in the basis of represen- 
 tation from the slave States, while they 
 were allowed no vote. By continuing this 
 provision the late slave States would, for 
 the present colored population, return to 
 Congress about 40 Representatives — at the 
 same time denying that people any voice 
 in their election. This, in some districts 
 in the South, would give one man the power 
 of three men in the North, or one rebel in 
 South Carolina a voice in national affairs 
 as potent as the votes of three loyal meu 
 in any of the Northern or Northwestern 
 States. Rather than surrender tliis unfair 
 and inadmissible advantage, every rebel 
 State refused to return to the Union. 
 
 Congress,, seeing that the loyal people of 
 the South could find no protection from 
 the dominant rebel element but in the bal- 
 lot, adopted the Military Reconstruction 
 Laws, under which free constitutions have 
 been established, and every class of citizens 
 enfranchised, except a few who are disfran- 
 chised for perjury and treason. The pro- 
 
 Railwaye— monuments of Republican faith I Qgg^l g^jjgtjtutioiiai amendment is, how 
 
 aud sagacity— are marching hand in hand 
 across "the continent, conquerin.o; at the 
 same time the forests, the plains, the moun- 
 tains, an international commerce, and the 
 prejudices and skepticism of centuries. 
 But, with this material progress, the Re- 
 publican party has also remembered its 
 pledges to the lowly and oppressed. 
 
 THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 
 
 4th.— It has abolished slavery in all the 
 States, and by constitutional amendment 
 forever prohibited itn re-establishment with- 
 in the States or Territories of the Union. 
 It has empowered the National Congress 
 to enact laws for the enforcement of equal 
 civil rightSj.and, in pursuance of this au- 
 thority, Congress has enacted 
 
 ever, adhered to, and will have been adopted 
 by three-fourths of the States when this 
 reaches the reader. It will produce enfran- 
 chisement of the colored race in the other 
 States, or withdrawthat race from the basis 
 of representation. 
 
 It is thui seen that the Republican party 
 has not only redeemed its pledges, made in 
 its platforms of 1856 and 1860, but has 
 moved forward with the great events of the 
 domestic conflict in which the nation was 
 involved; has read with unerring sagacity 
 the lessons of the time, and embraced the 
 progress and enforced the reforms which 
 they indicated and demanded. We say the 
 Republican party has done this, because, 
 in every advance, the whole power of the 
 
Democratic party has been interposed as a 
 barrier to progress. In proof of this the 
 following is submitted: 
 
 1st. — The abolition of slavery in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia was opposed by the whole 
 strength of the Democratic party in Con- 
 gress and supported by every Republican. 
 
 2d. — The prohibition of slavery in all the 
 Territories was unitedly supported by the 
 Republicans, and as unitedly opposed by 
 the Democracy. 
 
 3d. — Setting free the slaves of rebels was 
 accomplished by aunited Republican against 
 a united Democratic vote. 
 
 4th. — Authorizing the enlistment of col- 
 ored soldiers was carried by Republican 
 votes against the united opposition of the 
 Democrats in Congress. 
 
 5tli. — The return of slaves to their mas- 
 ters by the Union troops was advocated by 
 the Democracy, and even practised by 
 General McClellan," but was prohibited in 
 an additional article of war adopted by 
 Republican votes. 
 
 Gth. — The Emancipation Proclamation of 
 President Lincoln was opposed and de- 
 nounced by the Democratic and rebel press 
 and leaders throughout the country, and 
 advocated and sustained by Republicans 
 everywhere. A Democratic Senator de- 
 clared in his place that, "If you should lib- 
 erate the slaves in the rebellious States, the 
 momentyou reorganize the white inhabitants 
 of those States, as States in the Union, they 
 would reduce these slaves again to a state 
 cf slavery, or they would expel them, or 
 hunt them as wild beasts and exterminate 
 them." And the conduct of the leading 
 rebels since the war has demonstrated, that 
 but fbr the interposition of the Republican 
 Congress, the prediction of this Democratic 
 Senator might now be history. 
 
 7th. — Conferring the right of suffrage 
 upqn colored men in the Territories was 
 opposed by every Democrat in Congress 
 and supported by all the Republicans. 
 
 Sth. — The enfranchisement of the colored 
 people of the rebel States has been, at 
 every step, opposed by every Democrat in 
 Congress, and by all the leaders of that party 
 in every section of the country, and sup- 
 ported and carried by Republican votes 
 only. 
 
 With such a record as this staring him in 
 the face, where is there a loyal colored man 
 who can support the Democratic party ? 
 If there be one suah, let lum read and re- 
 flect upon this record of Democratic oppo- 
 sition to his liberty and safety. 
 
 THE UOMESTEAD LAW. 
 
 This great measure in behalf of the labor- 
 
 ing people of the country, which had been 
 many ^^ears under discussion by the people, 
 was, in 1859, first sanctioned by Congress, 
 against the opposition of a majority of tho 
 Democrats, being carried by a unitod Re- 
 publican vote and some few Democrats, but 
 it was vetoed by President Buchanan, in 
 obedien«eto the dictation of tho Democratic 
 leaders. Tho exigencies of the war pre- 
 vented its further coneldoration until 1802, 
 when the measure was passed by the Re- 
 publican Congress, and approved by Abra- 
 ham Lincoln. 
 
 THE SOUTHERN HOMESTEAD. 
 
 After the close of the rebellion the ques- 
 tion of homes for the landless millions of 
 the South came before the Republican 
 Congress for consideration. It was ascer- 
 tained that the Government still held in 
 the rebel States about 50,000,000 acres cf 
 public land, and that with this exception 
 the whole landed estate of the South was 
 in the hands of the late wealthy slave-own- 
 ers. Practically the soil of those States was 
 monopolized by a few hundred thousand 
 men, while more than five millions of people 
 were both without homes and without the 
 means to purchase them, and, to aggravate 
 their condition still more, the land monopo- 
 lists were unwilling to sell to the landless. 
 
 Upon this state of facts the Land Com- 
 mittee of the House promptly reported a 
 bill, reserving all the public lands in the 
 rebel States from sale or disposal except to 
 actual settlers under the Homestead law, 
 limiting entries to eighty acres. 
 
 Strange to say, this beneficent and ne- 
 cessary measure was opposed by the united 
 strength of the Democratic party in Con- 
 gress ; but the measure became a law by 
 Republican votes, and many of the poor 
 laboring men of the South have alreacy 
 acquired homes under it. 
 
 RESTORATION OF COXFISCATEO PROFERTV TO 
 LOYAL OWNERS. 
 
 In striking contrast, but in strict keep- 
 ing with their votes on the Southern home- 
 stead, is the united vote of the Democracy 
 in Congress against restoring to loyal own- 
 ers property confiscated by the rebel C!ov- 
 ernment and used in aid of the rebel cause. 
 The bill to restore lands and tenements of 
 loyal owners, which had been confiscated 
 by the rebel Government, was reported by 
 the House Judiciary Committee. On a 
 motion to lay on the table, which if carried 
 would have defeated the bill, every Demo- 
 crat but one voted in the affirmative, every 
 Republican in the negative. See House 
 proceedings, July 24, 18C6. 
 
 ^d^NSTi (; 
 
 1<8. 
 
IMPEACHMENT. 
 
 On every vote relating to the impeach- 
 iueat of President Johnson for usurpa- 
 tions and high crimes and misdemeanors, 
 of which lie stands ooavictcd by a two- 
 thirds vote of both Houses of Congress, less 
 one vote in the Senate and by the judg- 
 ment of the American people, every Demo- 
 cratic vote was cast to excuse Mr. John- 
 son, thereby endorsing and assuming the 
 responsibility of his acts. 
 
 THE OATH OF ATTORNEYS. 
 
 Oa the bill excluding from practice in the 
 courts attorneys auilty of treason, felony, 
 bribery, or murder, or of aiding the rebel- 
 lion againgt the Government of the United 
 States, every Democrat voted against and 
 every Republican for the bill. 
 
 VALIDATING CERTAIN TROCLAMATIONS OF 
 PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 
 
 A bill was introduced into the House 
 declaring valid the acts and proclamations 
 of the President in defense of the Govern- 
 ment, done and made prior to July 1, 1866 ; 
 passed — ayee 112, all Republicans ; nays 
 32, all Democrats. Senate — ayes 36, Re- 
 publicans ; naya 8, Democrats. 
 
 BOUNTIES TO SLAVE-OWNERS. 
 
 On the bill suspending the payment of 
 bounties to owners of enlisted slaves the 
 vote was — ayes 107, all Republicans ; nays 
 36, all Democrats. House proceedings, 
 January 14, 18C7, 
 
 AMENDMENT OF TUB CONSTITUTION. 
 
 The proposed amendment to the Consti- 
 tution, known as the fourteenth article, 
 has not only been opposed by every Dem- 
 ocrat in Congress, but by every Democrat 
 in every State Legislature, simply because 
 it equalizes the power of voters in the sev- 
 eral States of the Union, and disfranchises 
 some of the prominent rebels, who are 
 guilty of both treason and perjury. 
 
 In two of the States, where temporary 
 Dsmocratic majorities have been obtained, 
 the ratification of this amendment has 
 been rescinded; a plain indication that all 
 the practical measures of Congress for the 
 protection of loyal men will be repealed 
 should the rebel Democracy attain the as- 
 cendency in the National Legislature. 
 
 The amendment further provides that the 
 validity of the public debt authorized by 
 law, including debts incurred for the pay- 
 ment of pensions and bounties for services 
 in suppressing the rebellion, shall not be 
 <^ucstioncd. And, that neither the States 
 nor the United States, shall ever assume 
 •or pay any debt contracted in aid of the 
 
 rebellion, or any claim for the loss of 
 emancipated slaves. These propositions 
 have not only been supported by all the 
 Republicans in Congress and in tLe whole 
 country, but have been opposed by all the 
 Democrats in and out of Congress and hv 
 all the Southern rebels. 
 
 Why should the Democrats so persist- 
 ently oppose these just safejpiar^s, unless 
 it is their purpose to repudiate the national 
 obligations? If they_intend to pay the na- 
 tional debt, including pensions and bounties, 
 why not say so in the Constitution ? If 
 they do not intend to pay the rebel debt 
 and claims for emancipated slaves, why not 
 prohibit their payment in the Constitution? 
 Let some Democrat answer these questions. 
 
 THE READMISSION OF THE STATES. 
 
 On the recent bills for the readmission 
 of Arkansas, North and South Carolina, 
 Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana, 
 with their free and liberal constitutions, 
 every Democrat voted in the negative in 
 both Houses of Congress. They hold the 
 restoration of these States as unconstitu- 
 tional, and only await a Democratic ma- 
 jority in Congress to repeal the law, dis- 
 franchise the colored people, and welcome 
 the States back under the control of the 
 rebel leaders ; in fact, a practical reor- 
 ganization of the rebellion. Witness the 
 vote of the Democratic members and Sena- 
 tors in Congress, and the protest of the 
 Democratic members of the House against 
 the .idmission of Arkansa-s. Also, the fol- 
 lowing declaration of the Democratic can- 
 didate for the Vice Presidency, which was 
 written for the purpose, and had the eflfect, 
 of producing his nomination. Here is what 
 he says : 
 
 '* There is but one way to restore the Gov 
 ernment and the Constitution, and that is 
 for the Presidentelect to declare iMse acts mill 
 and void, compel the army to undo its usur- 
 pation at the South, disperse the carpet-bag 
 State governments, allow the white people to 
 reorganize their own governments, and elect 
 Senators and llepresentatives. 
 
 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. 
 
 The Nati07ial Bepublican Party of the United 
 States, assembled in National Convention 
 in the City of Chicago, on the 20th day of 
 May, 1868, make the following declaration 
 of principles : 
 
 1. We congratulate the country on the 
 assured success of the Reconstruction policy 
 of Congress, as evinced by the adoption in 
 the majoritv of the Statos lately in rebellion 
 
 iNsmmeE 
 
 JWIi 
 
 \%\i 
 
of constitutions securing equal- civil and 
 
 2)olitical ri^jhts to all, and it is the duty of 
 tliG Governinont to sustain those institutions 
 and to prevent tlie people of such States from 
 being remitted to a state of anarchy. 
 
 .2. The guarantee by Congress of equal 
 suffrage to all loyal men at the South was 
 demanded by evory consideration of public 
 safety, of gratitude, and of justice, aud must 
 be maintained ; while the question of suf- 
 frage in all the loyal States properly belongs 
 to the people of those States. 
 
 3. We denounce all forms of repudiation 
 as a national crime, and the national honor 
 requires the payment of the public indebted- 
 ness in the uttermost good faith to all cred- 
 itors at home and abroad, not only accord- 
 ing to the letter but the spirit of the laws 
 under which it was contracted. 
 
 4. It is due to the labor of the nation that 
 taxation should be equalized, and reduced 
 as rapidly as the national faith will permit. 
 
 5. The national debt contracted, as it has 
 b*en, for tke preservation of the Union for 
 all time to come, should be extended over 
 a fair period for redemption ; and it is 'he 
 duty ol Congress to reduce th._» rate of inter- 
 est thereon whenever it can be honestly 
 done. 
 
 G. That the best policy to diminish our 
 burden of debt is to so improve our credit 
 that capitalists will seek to loan us money 
 at lower x-ates of interest than we now pay, 
 and must continue to pay so long as repudi- 
 ation, partial or total, open or covert, is 
 threatened or suspected. 
 
 7. The Government of the United States 
 should be administered with the strictest 
 economy, and the corruptions which have 
 been so shamefully nursed and fostered by 
 Andrew Johnson call loudly Tor radical 
 reform. 
 
 8. We_ profoundly deplore the untimely 
 and tragic death of Abraham Lincoln, and 
 regret the accession of Andrew Johnson to 
 the Presidency, whohas aeted treacherously 
 to the people who elected him and the cause 
 he was jdedged to support ; who has warped 
 high legislative and judicial functions ; who 
 has refused to execute the laws ; who has 
 used his high otHce to induce other officers to 
 ignore and violate the laws ; who has cm- 
 ployed his executive powers to render inse- 
 cure the property, the peace, liberty and life 
 of the citizen; who has abused the pardon- 
 ing power; who has denounced the National 
 Legislature as unconstitutional: who has 
 persistently und corruptly resisted'. '>y every 
 measure in his power, every prop-r Attempt 
 at the reconstruction of the States lately in 
 rebellion; who has perverted the public 
 patronage into an engine of wholesale cor- 
 ruption, and who has been justly impeached 
 
 for high crimes and misdemeanors, and 
 
 prop'jrly pronounced guitlythereofby the vote 
 ot 30 Senators. 
 
 9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other 
 European powers, that because a man is 
 once a subject he is always so, must be re- 
 sisted at every hazard by the United States, 
 as a relic of the feudal times, not author- 
 ized by the law of nations, and at war with 
 our national honor and independence. Na- 
 turalized citizens are entitled to be protect- 
 ed in all their rights of citizenship as though 
 they were native born, and no citizen of the 
 United States, native or naturalized, must 
 be liable to arrest and imprisonment by any 
 foreign power for acts done or words spoken 
 in this country ; and if so arrested and im- 
 prisoned, it is the duty of the Government 
 to interfere in his behalf 
 
 10. Of all who were faithful in the trials 
 of the late war, there were none entitled to 
 more especial honor than the brave soldiers 
 and seamen who endivred the hardships of 
 campaign and cruise and imperiled their 
 lives in the service of the country ; the boun- 
 ties and pensions provided by the laws for 
 these brave defenders of the nation are ob- 
 ligations never to be forgotten ; the widows 
 aud orphans of the gallant dead are the 
 wards of the people, a sacred legacy be- 
 queathed to the nation's protecting care. 
 
 11. Foreign emigration— which in the 
 past has added so much to the wealth, devel- 
 opment, and resources and increase of power 
 to this nation, the asylum of the oppressed 
 of all nations— should be fostered and en- 
 couraged by a liberal and just policy. 
 
 12. This Convention declares itself in 
 sympathy with all the oppressed people 
 which are struggling for their rights. 
 
 ADDITIONAL UESOLCTIOXS. 
 
 Iiesoh-ed, That we highly commend the 
 spirit of magnanimity and forbearance with 
 which the men who have served in the re- 
 bellion, but now frankly and honestly co- 
 operate with us in restoring the country and 
 reconstructing the Southern State govern- 
 ments upon the basis of impartial justice 
 and equal rights, are received back into the 
 communion of the loyal people ; and we 
 favor the removal of the disqualifications 
 and restrictions placed upon the late rebels 
 in the same measure as their spirit of loy- 
 alty will direct, and as may be consistent 
 with the safety of the loyal people. 
 
 Resolved, That we recognize the great 
 principles laid down in the immortal Decla- 
 ration of Independence as the true founda- 
 tion of democratic government, and we hail 
 with gladness every effort toward making 
 these principles a living reality on every incS 
 of American soil. 
 
6 
 
 LETTER OF GEN. U. S. GRANT 
 
 Accepting the Republican Nomination. 
 
 Washington, D. C, May 29, 1868." 
 General Jos. R. Eawley, President Na- 
 tional Union Republican Convention : 
 In formally accepting the nomination of 
 the National Union Republican Convention 
 of the 21st of May inst., it seems proper 
 that some statement of views beyond the 
 mere acceptance of the nomination should 
 be expressed. The proceedings of the Con- 
 vention were marked with wisdom, modera- 
 tion, and patriotism, and I believe express 
 the feelings of the great mass of those who 
 
 When a great rebellion wjiich imperiled 
 the national existence was at last over- 
 thrown, the duty of all others devolving 
 on those intrusted with the responsibilities 
 of legislation evidently was, to require that 
 the revolted States should be readmitted 
 to participation in the Government against 
 which they had warred, only on such a 
 basis as to increase and fortify, not to 
 weaken or endanger, the strength of the 
 nation. Certainly no one ought to have 
 claimed that they should be readmitted 
 under such rules that their organizations 
 as States could ever again be used, as ; 
 the opening of the war, to def3^ the n 
 tional authority or to destroy the national 
 unity. This principle has been the pola 
 
 e' 
 'I 
 
 sustained the country through its recent star' of those who have inflexibly insisted 
 
 trials. I endorse their resolutions. . on the Congressional policy your Conven- 
 
 If elected to the office of President of tion so cordially indorsed, 
 
 the United States it will be my endeavor b^qj^j ^^ executive opposition and per- 
 
 to admmister all the laws m good faith, g-^^^^^^ refusals to accept any plan of re- 
 
 with economy and with the view of giving 
 peace, quiet, and protection everywhere. In 
 times like the present it is impossible, or at 
 least eminently improper, to lay down a 
 policy to be adhered to right or wrong 
 through an administration of four years. 
 New political issues not foreseen are con- 
 stantly arising ; the views of the public on 
 old ones are constantly changing, and a 
 purely administrative officer should always 
 be left free to execute the will of the people. 
 I always have respected that will and always 
 shall. 
 
 Peace and universal prosperity, its se- 
 quence, with economy of administration, 
 will lighten the burden of taxation, while it 
 constantly reduces the national debt. Let 
 us have peace. 
 
 With great respect, your obedient servant, 
 U. S. GRANT. 
 
 LETTER OF SCHUYLER COLFAX 
 
 Accepting the Republican Nominhtion. 
 
 Washington, D. C, May 30, 1868. 
 Hon. J. R. Haioley, President of the Na- 
 tional Union Republican C^onvention : 
 
 Dear Sir ; The platform adopted by the 
 patriotic Convention over which you pre- 
 sided, and the resolutions which so happily , „ , 
 supplement it, so entirely agree with my | soil where they first saw the light 
 
 construction proffered by Congress, justice 
 and public safety at last combined to teach 
 us that only by an enlargement uf suffrage 
 in those States could the desired end be 
 attained, and that it was even more sale to 
 give the ballot to those who loved the 
 Union than to those who had sought icef- 
 fectually to destroy it. The assured sac-, 
 cess of this legislatiou is being written en 
 the adamant of history, and will be our 
 triumphant vindication. 
 
 More clearly, too, than ever before does 
 the nation now recognize that the greatest ,, 
 glory of a republic is that it throws tfce 
 shield of its protection over the humblest 
 and the weakest of its people, and vina> 
 cates the rights of the poor and the povver- 
 less as faithfully as those of the rich atd 
 the powerful. I rejoice, too, in this Conven- 
 tion to tind in your platform the frank and 
 fearless avowal that the naturalized citizea 
 must be protected abroad " at every haz- 
 ard as though they were native boru." Our 
 whole peoi)le are foreigners or descendants 
 of foreigners. Our fathers established by 
 arms their right to be called a nation : it 
 remains for us to establish the right U) wel- 
 come to our shores all who are wiliirji^ by 
 oaths of allegiance to become Amencau 
 citizens. Perpetual allegiance, as claimed 
 abroad, is only another name for perpetua,! 
 bondage, and would make all slaves to the 
 
 Our 
 
 views as to a just national policy, that my 
 thanks are due to the delegates as much for 
 this clear and auspicioits declaration of 
 principles as for the nomination with 
 which I have been honored, and which I 
 gratefully accept. 
 
 national cemeteries prove how faithfully 
 these oaths of fidelity to their adopted land 
 have been sealed in the life blood of thou- 
 sands upon thousands. Should we then 
 be faithless to the dead if we did not pro- 
 tCjCt their living brethren in the enjoyment; 
 
of that nationality for which, side by side | 
 with the native born, our soldiers of for- j 
 eign birth laid down their lives? 
 
 It was fitting, too, that the representa- | 
 tivefi of a party which had proved so true 
 to national dnty in time of war, should I 
 speak so clearly in time of peace for the | 
 mainteuanee untarnished of national honor, 
 national credit and good faith, as regards ; 
 i:s debt, the cost of our national existence. | 
 <" r do not need to extend this reply by fur- 1 
 tlier comment on a platform which has j 
 elicited such hearty approval throughout , 
 the land; the debt of gratitude itacknowl- 1 
 edires to the brave men who saved the Union | 
 from destruction; the frank approval of j 
 amnesty based on repentance and loyalty; 
 the demand for the most thorough economy 
 and honesty in the Government; the sympa- 
 thv of the party of liberty with all through- 
 out the world who long for the liberty we 
 here enjoy and the recognition of the sub- 
 lime principles of the Declaration of_ Inde- 
 pendence are worthy of the organization on 
 whose banners they are to be written in 
 the coming contest. Its past record can- 
 not be blotted out or forgotten. If there 
 had been no llepublican party slavery 
 would to-day cast its baleful shadow over 
 the Republic. If there had been no Re- 
 publican party a free press and free speech 
 would be as unknown from the Potomac to 
 the Rio Grande as ten years ago. If the 
 Republican party could have been stricken 
 from existence when the banner of the re- 
 bellion was unfurled, and when the response 
 of "no coercion'' was heard at the North, 
 we would have had no nation to-day. But 
 for the Republican party daring to risk 
 the odium of tax and draft laws, our flag 
 could not have been kept flying on the field 
 till the long-looked for victory came. 
 "Without a Republican party the Civil Rights 
 bill, the guarantee of equality under the 
 law to the humble and the defenceless, as 
 well ad to tlie strong, would not be to-day 
 upon our national statute book. 
 
 With such inspirations from the past, 
 and following the example of the founders 
 of the Republic, who called the victorious 
 General of the Revolution to preside over 
 the land his triumphs had saved from its 
 enemies, I cannot doubt that our labors 
 will be crowned with success, and it will be 
 a Success that will bring restored hope, 
 confidence, prosperity, and progress — South 
 as well as North, West as well as East — 
 and, above all, the blessings, under Provi- 
 dence, of national concora and peace. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 SCHUYLER COLFAX. 
 
 RECORD No. 2. 
 
 DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES, 1863- 
 
 It will be seen by a careful perusal of 
 the platform of principles adopted by 
 the Republican Convention which nom- 
 inated Grant and Colfax, that there is a 
 firm adherence to the policy and measures 
 which have repeatedly received the sanc- 
 tion of the American people. 
 
 That the loyal State governments which 
 have been organized in pursuance of law 
 are to be maintained, the basis of equal 
 rights before the law to be adhered to, thd 
 puljlic faith at home and abroad to be 
 strictly observed, the burden of the na- 
 tional debt reduced as rapidly as the re- 
 sources of the country will permit, the 
 corruptions fostered by a recreant Execu- 
 tive exposed and reformed, the rights of 
 American citizens at home and abroad to 
 be protected and defended, the obligations 
 of the nation to its heroic defenders to be 
 redeemed, foreign emigration invited, the 
 principles of the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence made effective, and the right-hand 
 of fellowship to be extended to all those 
 lately in rebellion, who have honestly and 
 earnestly aided the work of restoration on 
 principles of impartial justice and in ac- 
 cordance with the loyal sentiment of the 
 nation. 
 
 THE LETTERS OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 The letters of General Grant and Hon. 
 Schuyler Col/ax accepting the Republican 
 nomination, are models of brevity and pa- 
 triotism. They give forth no uncertain 
 sound. They are a square acceptance of 
 the principles of the Republican party, 
 and an unqualified declaration that the will 
 of the nation will be respected. No per- 
 sonal or Presidential policy is to be inter- 
 posed to thwart the expressed will of the 
 people. 
 
 These letters should be read by every 
 Republican. They contain no unmeaning 
 phrases, designed to deceive the people. 
 They will bear the same construction in 
 every section of the country, and therefore 
 are such as become the national candidates 
 of a great national party. 
 
 THE CANDIDATES. 
 
 For President, U. S, Grant. 
 
 The candidate of the Republican party 
 for President, G^eral U. S. Grant, was 
 selected with greater unanimity than has 
 been any Other candidate for the same ofi&ce 
 since the days of Washington. His was 
 
8 
 
 not the nomination of a caucus or conven- 
 tion, but the choice of the loyal people. 
 The members of the Convention -who nom- 
 inated General Grant but gave expression 
 to the positive instructions with which 
 they were charged. lie accepts the place 
 and promises to discharg'e the duties in 
 obedience to the popular judgment. 
 
 lie was not chosen to reward him for 
 the great service he had rendered the 
 country, but because the country requires 
 his services in the place to which he has 
 been nominated, and will be chosen. 
 
 To quiet the turbulence of unrepentant 
 rebels, allay the spirit of discord engendered 
 by the war, give peace and security to the 
 whole country, establish justice, secure 
 economy in the administration of the Gov- 
 ernment, stability and prosperity to all the 
 industrial interests of the nation, allay the 
 intensity of party strife, and discover and 
 develop the great material resources of the 
 country, requires at this time, not a mere 
 partizan, but a man of firm purposes, of 
 unostentatious demeanor, of inflexible tena- 
 city and of unquestioned patriotism ; one 
 in whom all sections may confide, whom 
 loyal men may trust and rebels and dis- 
 organizers fear and respect. Because Gen. 
 Grant possesses those qualities in a high 
 degree, unstained by mere partizanship and 
 untarnished by mistakes or blunders in the 
 discharge of public trusts, ho has been se- 
 lected •, and because the people can confide 
 in him, he will bf- elected. It is not mili- 
 tary renown, but solid and reliable states- 
 manship, that has placed him in the front 
 at this time. It was not the preference of 
 politicians, but the exigencies of country 
 which led the people to demand the nomi- 
 nation of G^e?t. Grant. The same unerring 
 popular judgment which conducted the na- 
 tion to triumph over the rebellion, has de- 
 manded that the consequences of the national 
 success shall inure to the country, and that 
 the national destiny shall bo entrusted to 
 "its own undoubted friends, whose hands 
 arc free, whose hearts are in the work, who 
 do care for the result," and who in peace 
 as in war can command success. It is not 
 by words but by works that Gen. Grant 
 is known. It is by works that he is to be 
 elected, by works that his duty is to be 
 performed, by works that peace and safety, 
 and liberty, and justice are to be secured. 
 Ey the same sign which gave success in 
 the Held — the united and determined sup- 
 port of all loyal men-»-will victory be won 
 in the forum. The same issues arc involved 
 in the contest. Substantially the same 
 
 leaders are arrayed on either side, acu. as 
 the people rally to the standard of the iuet 
 or the unjust, will victory or defeat come lo 
 the respective standard "bearers. 
 
 For Vice President, Sclmyhrr Colfa.:. \ 
 
 Here we have a pure, an ineorru|):il;Ie 1 
 statesman. One who by his industry, hi^ 
 ability, and his devotion to the cause cf tho 
 country has won the confidence and respfcr 
 of the American people. By no act cr' 
 violence will the enemies of the couttry 
 seek to bring this unflinching patriot to the 
 head of the Government. His recti-d 's 
 unblemislied, his character unquestko' cl, 
 and his success undoubted. Ileis emphui- -i 
 cally the representative of the younger ixd ij 
 more ardent of the Republican phalans. * 
 
 Thus, with a record in defense of liberty 
 unimpcached, covered with honors in Sup- 
 port of the Union, with all its measures j 
 fully endorsed and its policy fully san:- j 
 tioned by the people, the Eepublican party ' 
 enters "upon the contest with its old and 
 oft-defeated opponents, led by candidates I 
 who, under favorable or unfavorable cir- 1 
 cumstances, have always achieved success. 
 As in the past, it contends, now for the 
 unity and perpetuity of the nation, for hu- 
 man rights, and for the mental and mate- 
 rial development of the country and its 
 people. Its opponents, on the contrary, 
 are led by the late enemies of the nation, 
 contending for the mastry with the avowed 
 purpose of defeating the restoration of the 
 States and re-establishing a hated despi t- 
 ism based upon race, and which is detri- 
 mental alike to the masses of the people c f 
 every race, and fatal to human rights ..nd 
 progress in every clime. Between -v.ch 
 opposing forces no patriot can hesitate. 
 Not to act is to shamefully submit t > de- 
 feat, and not to act with the Republican 
 party, is to aid in erecting a despotism of 
 class upon the broken and scattered frag- 
 ments of a defeated Itarbarism, which is 
 covered with crime and fresh from the as- 
 sault upon the national life. No glowing 
 promises which the Democratic party ^v.il 
 now make, can wipe off the record of liood 
 which its leaders have graven upon the 
 hearts of the people. With the massacres 
 of Fort Pillow, Andersouvllle, Saulsb-.ry, 
 Belle Isle, and New Orleans iascribed upo . 
 their standard, the Democracy and the r 
 rebel allies will plead in vain for Uic sop- 
 port of loyal liberty-loving men. The des- 
 tinies of the nation cannot now be cntru.sted 
 to hands reeking with the blood of loyal 
 victims. 
 
 PRINTED AT TIIK OFFICE OF THE GREAT ifkpCBI.TC, WASHINGTOX, D. C, 
 
:regoi^3D jsro. 2. 
 
 DEMOCRATIC PROFESSIONS 
 
 "VS. 
 
 DEMOCRATIC PRACTICE. 
 
 THEIR PARTY AND' PLATFORM REVIEWED. 
 
 Published I7 the Union Repnlilicaa Congressional Gommittoo, "Wastiugton, D, C. 
 
 The time waa, v.-1icq Vim Deiuocratic party 
 was a party of progress and principles; but 
 even priorto the rebellion, it bad long since 
 out-lived its usefulness. Following the ex- 
 ample of Jefferson, Madison and a host of 
 the earliei' statesmen and patriots, the Demo- 
 cratic party contributed largely to the ad- 
 vancement of the principlc-s of republican 
 government, and the security of individual 
 rights; but, when it threvr aside the armor 
 of liberty, ignored and derided the great 
 truths enunciated in the Declaration of In- 
 dependence, and embraced the rotten and 
 despotic theories of Calhoun, Rhett, Toombs, 
 Yancey, SJidell, and their co-conspirators, 
 the great party itself, became a conspiracy; 
 not only against the Union of the States, 
 but also against the liberty of man. When 
 it declared, through its leader:^, for the di- 
 vinity of slavery, it became the foe of lib- 
 erty — and the advocate and slave of dts- 
 potism. From the time it ceased to honor 
 its great statesmen, and commenced to re- 
 ward only the truculent tools of a corrupt 
 and despotic leadership, it became the 
 enemy 01 liberty — the implacable opponent 
 of the Union. It consented, in 1860, to its 
 own disruption at Charleston and Baltimore, 
 that the foundation for the dissolution of 
 the Union might be securely laid. 
 
 The power of the Union to protect and 
 preserve liberty wa.s the only source of its 
 offense to the Democratic leaders. Fear- 
 ipg the exercise of that power by the Re- 
 publicans, they organized rebellion and 
 sought to e:-tablish a Government v/hosc 
 cornerstone should be tslavcry, and the 
 Vi'h'jle structure of which should consist of 
 states torn from the national Union. 
 
 Singly and by pairs and squads the Demo- 
 cratic leaders of the South, in tho legisla- 
 tive and executive departments of the 
 GovernmeHt, boldly, defiantly marched out 
 of the high places they had betrayed and 
 dishonored, not only unrebuked, but 
 cheered and encouraged by their Northern 
 allies. Not a man but was a Democrat 
 went into rebellion ; not a man but was a 
 Democrat sympathised with or aided re- 
 bellion. The rebellion was, in its concep-* 
 tion and progress, a Democratic measure, 
 inaugurated^ advocated, conducted, de- 
 fended, and supported by none but Demo- 
 crats. Its purpose was the esta])]ishment 
 of a slave empire. Its advocates held that 
 capital should owu labor, that slavery was 
 a divine institution. 
 
 Upon such theories and for guch pur- 
 poses was the Democratic party, by the 
 voluntary action of its leaders, dissolved, 
 and the war for the disrnptipn of the Union 
 entered wpon with the approval of these 
 loaders in every section of the country. 
 
 At tho first National Convention of the 
 Democratic party after the inauguration of 
 rebellion — at Chicago, in 18G4 — the Dem- 
 ocratic leaders, though separated from their 
 Southern allies by pending hostilities, did 
 not fail to express their syjnpathv with 
 their old allies, declare the war lor the 
 preservation of the Union a failure, and 
 the restoration of tho Union as it tvas tho 
 only road to peace. 
 
 Strange to say, the same leaders who 
 made, conducted, and consented to the re- 
 bellion still control the Democratic party. 
 They were the ruling power in the national 
 nomiuatingConvention recently assembled, 
 
tLld 
 
 toKuX 
 
 and succeeded in forcing upon the party, 
 candidates and a platform pledged to re 
 newal of strife, even to war, if need be, in 
 the interest of the defeated authors of the 
 rebellion, and ^Yilh the avowed purpose of 
 restoring to its control men fresh from an 
 assault upon the natiouval life. Can any 
 further evidence be required of the utter 
 unfitness of the Democratic party under its 
 present leadership to rule the country. 
 
 True, these wily and unprincipled lead- 
 ers have, in the platform adopted by their 
 4th of July Convention made some specious 
 promises. But what are their promises 
 worth ? Their whole political career is but 
 a schedule of violated pledges and unmean- 
 ing pretensions. 
 
 As actions are a better index than words 
 to the purposes of men, let us test the 
 promises of these leaders by their practice; 
 compare their words with their actions, 
 leaving to honest men the conclusions. 
 
 The late Democratic Convention, which 
 selected as its candidates Horatio Seymour 
 and Frank P. Blair, commences its plat- 
 form with the following declarations: 
 
 " The Democratic party, in National Con- 
 vention assembled, reposing its trust in the 
 intelligence, patriotism, and discriminating 
 justice of the people, standing upon the 
 Constitution as the foundation and limita- 
 tion of the pov/ers of the Government, and 
 the guaranty of tlie liberties of the citizen, 
 and recognizing the questions of slavery and 
 secession as having been settled, for all time 
 to come, by the war or the voluntary action 
 of the Southern States in Constitutional Con- 
 ventions assembled, and never to be renewed 
 or reagitated, do, with the return of peace, 
 demand — 
 
 ''First. Immediate restoration of all the 
 States to their rights in the Union, under the 
 Constitution, and of civil government to the 
 American people- 
 
 ''Second. Amnesty for all past political 
 offences, and the regulation of the elective 
 franchise in the States by their citizens," 
 
 Hero v.'o hare, 1st. The stereotyped 
 declaratioaof devotion to the Constitution 
 by a body of men, one-third of whom are 
 fresh from a four years' war against the 
 Constitution, and the other tvro-thirdg of 
 whom fully sympathized with efforts to 
 overthrow the Government. 
 
 What faith can be placed in the pretended 
 veneration of such men as Hampton, For- 
 rest, Vallandigbam, Seymour, and Clymer, 
 and the other leaders of that Convention, 
 ail of whom either Tought against the Con- 
 stitution, or remaining in safe places, ex- 
 erted all their povrcr and influence to de- 
 
 feat the efforts of the Government for its 
 preservation ? 
 
 2d. A simple recognition that with thc5 
 downfall of the rebellion, slavery actually 
 perished, but there is no acceptance of the 
 logical consequences which follow the ex- 
 tinction of slavery. The freed people are 
 wholly ignored. 
 
 Slavery abolished and the right of seces- 
 sion still maintained. These are all the re- 
 sults of the war as understood by the Democ- 
 racy. In all other respects the States are, 
 as they were, to be held in the iron grasp of 
 a governing class, a privileged aristocracy, 
 who are to lord it over 5,000,000 of the 
 subject race, and retain in ignorance and 
 degradation all of their own race not mem- 
 bers of the favored class. That is, the 
 300,000 old slave masters, who made and 
 conducted the rebellion, are to take posses- 
 sion of the conquered States and people 
 and run the Government machine in the 
 old groove. 
 
 LET THEIR WITNESSES TESTIFV. 
 
 Tliat the purpose of the Democracy is, to 
 destroy the reconstructed State govern- 
 ments, and restore the rebel leaders to 
 power and control — let their candidates, 
 and the men who controlled their conven- 
 tion witness: 
 
 [Extracts from letter of Frank P. Blair, June 30, 18GS J 
 
 "The Reconstruction policy of the radicals 
 will be complete before the next election: 
 the States, so long back excluded will have 
 been admitted ; negro suffrage established, 
 and the carpet-baggers installed in their 
 seats in both branches of Congress. There 
 is no possibility of changing the political 
 character of the Senate, even if the Demo- 
 crats should elect their President and a ma- 
 jority of the popular branch of Congress. 
 We cannot, therefore, undo the radical plan 
 of reconstruction by Congressional action; 
 the Senate will continue a bar to its repeal. 
 Must we submit to it? IIow can it b«i over- 
 thrown ? It can only be overthrown by the 
 authority of the Executive, who is sworn to 
 maintain the Constitution, and who will fail 
 to do his duty if he allows the Constitution 
 to perish uuder a series of Congressional en- 
 actments which arc in palpable violation of 
 its fundamental-principles. 
 
 "If the President elected by the Democ- 
 racy enforces or permits others to enforce 
 these reconstruction acts, the radicals by the 
 accession of twenty .spurious Senators and 
 fifty Representatives, will control both 
 branches of Congress, and his administra- 
 tion will be as powerless as the present one 
 of Mr. Joliuson. 
 
^^ There is hut one jcay to restore the Gov- 
 ernment and the Constitution, and that is for 
 the President-elect to declare these acts null 
 and void, compel the army to undo its tisurpa- 
 iions at the South, disj)C7'se the carpetbag 
 State governments, allow the uhite people to 
 reorganize their own governments, and elect 
 Senators and Eepresentatives, The House 
 of Xcprcsentatives icill contain a major it }j of 
 Democrats from the North, and the;/ iciU ad- 
 mit the Eejn-esentativcs elected by the white 
 2^eopl6 of the South, and, with the co-opera- 
 tion of the President it will not he difficult to 
 compel the Senate to submit once viore to the 
 obligations of the Constitution. It will not 
 be able to withstand the public judgment, 
 if distinctly invoked and clearly expressed 
 ' on this fundamental issue, and it is the sure 
 way to avoid all future strife to jiut the issue 
 plainly to the country. 
 
 ^^ I repeat that this is the real and only 
 question which ice shoidd alloic to control us. ' ' 
 
 It was upon this letter that Frank P. 
 Blair obtained the nomination. It was the 
 sentiment of this letter which brought 
 Wade Ilampton, and Gen. Forrest to his 
 support. y 
 
 Senator Bayard understands the platform 
 and the Blair letter to be' substantially the 
 same. lie says: ''It (the platform) is in 
 accord, in some measure, with the senti- 
 ments of the able statesman and gallant sol- 
 dier who received the nomination for Vice 
 President, General Frank Blair, of Mis- 
 souri." 
 
 Speaking of the Blair letter the Churlotts- 
 ville (Va.) Chrcnicle says : 
 
 '■^Thcre cannot be two opinions among those 
 who desire to see the Constitution re-estab- 
 lished as to the doctrine of the letter, and we 
 believe that the chances are in its favor as a 
 matter of politics at this time. 
 
 "The Democratic party is nothing unless it 
 is bold and aggressive, and (he Blair letter, as 
 well as the previous record of the General, 
 furnish very good guarr.ntees that he is the 
 man to give it that character." 
 
 The Lynchburg Virginian of the same 
 date is equally explicit in its endorsement 
 of Blair's revolutionary programme. Af- 
 ter denouncing the fourteenth nmcndmcnt 
 and the reconstruction acts as a farce, it 
 says: 
 
 "Frank Blair proposes to dramatize the 
 reconstruction acts in a way that would plague 
 the inventors " smartly." We hope that the 
 reins of Government will be placed in the 
 hands of men who will have the nerve to 
 uivdo. at any hazard, the wrong that has been 
 done." 
 
 These arc but samples of the maimer in 
 
 which the Democratic candidates and plat- 
 form are received at the South. The Blair 
 letter is the key note to the campaign. It 
 furnishes the rule for the construction of 
 the platform. Every other issue is merged 
 in the one fact that the reorganized State 
 governments must be destroyed. This 
 done, and the rebel leaders placed in con- 
 trol, all else becomes easy. The national 
 debt may be repudiated or the rebel debt 
 assumed at pleasure. 
 
 As claimed by the rebel orators, the elec- 
 tion of Seymour and Blair is to be the tri- 
 umph of the "lost cause," it is to gain by 
 the ballot all they lost by the bayonet. 
 
 Governor "Wise, of Virginia, in a recent 
 speech declared that he admitted the loss 
 of slavery, but adhered to the right of se- 
 cession which would yet triumph. 
 
 FINANCE AND THE PUBLIC DEBT. 
 
 On this subject the Democratic platform 
 presents the following : 
 
 Third. Payment of the public debt of the 
 United States as rapidly as practicable ; all 
 moneys drawn from the people by taxation, 
 except so much as is requisite for the neces- 
 sities of the Government, economically ad- 
 miuestered, being honestly applied to such 
 payment, and where the obligations of the 
 Government do not expressly state, upon 
 their face, or the law under which they were 
 issued does not provide that they shall be 
 paid in coin, they ought in right find justice 
 be paid in the lawful money of the United 
 States. 
 
 Fourth. *Equal taxation of every species 
 of property according to its real value, in 
 eluding Government bonds and other public 
 securities. 
 
 ^^ Fifth. One currency for the Govern- 
 ment and the people, the laborer and the 
 office-holder, the pensioner and the soldier, 
 the producer and the bond-holder." 
 
 This is understood by the followers of 
 the party to mean gold, greenbacks, or 
 repudiation, to suit the locality. 
 
 The Nashville Union and Dispatch, a 
 Denioc.atic sheet, says : 
 
 "'The Democratic platform provides that 
 'where the obligations of the Government 
 do not expressly state upon their face, orthe 
 law under which they were issued does not 
 provide thr.t they shalt be paid in coin, they 
 ought in right and in justice to be paid in 
 the lawful money. of the United States.' — 
 When this was reported to the convention it 
 was greeted with ' thunders of applause.' 
 The Democratic party is, therefore, pledged 
 to pay the five-twenty bonds of the United 
 States in greenback.s. The party is also 
 
pledged by the platform to ' one currency for 
 the Government and the people, the laborer 
 and the oflicc-holder, the pensioner and the 
 soldicFj the producer and the bondholder.' 
 Tkere is no equivocation or doubt about the 
 position of the Democratic i>arty on the 
 greenback question. 'J'he convention has 
 come fully up to the requirements of the 
 Democrats and Conservatives of Tennessee 
 and the West oa this issue. And Governor 
 Seymour has planted himself fairly and 
 squarely on this plank of the platform.— 
 Whatever ■ position he may have previously 
 assumed, he is now pledged to the payment 
 of the United States bonds, known as fire- 
 twenties, in greenbacks, and he will honestly 
 and faithfully adhere to that position. He 
 has never been known to falsify his pledges." 
 
 A Democratic orator in a neighboring 
 city recently declared that the platform 
 meant and was intended to mean absolute 
 repudiation. That the debt having been 
 contracted in the prosecution of an nncon- 
 stitutional war, was itself unconstitutional 
 and void, and could not be legally paid. 
 
 Any practical man will see that the 
 greenback and repudiation schemes are sub- 
 stantially the same. To force the payment 
 of the bonds by flooding the country with 
 irredeemable paper is, so far as the people 
 are concerned, equivalent to unqualified 
 repudiation. 
 
 It would postpone the resumption of 
 coin payments indefinitely, disturb values, 
 destroy confidence, and end in final, repu- 
 diation ; whereas tlie whole difficulty may 
 be avoided by bringing greenbacks to the 
 gold standard, when it will not matter 
 whether the bonds arc paid in gold or 
 greenbacks. To keep the public faith is 
 to restore the industries and business of 
 the country to prosperity, give stability to 
 values, employment to labor, and to pro- 
 mote economy in public and private affairs. 
 
 The sixth plank of the Democratic plat- 
 form calls for the reduction of the army, 
 the discontinuance of th.c Freedmcn's Bu- 
 reau, and reform in the tax laws. These 
 demands have already been anticipated by 
 Republican legislation, but not without op- 
 position from the Democrats in Congress. 
 It further demands that the currency ho 
 made good, but does not suggest how this 
 ia to be done. It is therefore inferred that 
 it is to be done by an issue of greenbacks 
 to pay the five-twenty bonds. 
 
 The demand of the Democracy for the 
 protection of American citizens abroad has 
 also been anticipated by act of Congress, 
 by which it is made the duty of the Preei 
 dent to aflbrd such protection. 
 
 The platform further adopts the Repub- 
 lican policy in regard to the public lands. 
 
 'I'he administration of Andrew Johnson 
 is fully endorsed. 
 
 It enters up a long list of charges against 
 the Republican party, which have been in 
 the moutlf of every rebel and Copperhead 
 from the beginning of the rebellion to the 
 present time. 
 
 It will be seen by a careful perusal of 
 the Democratic platform that it practi- 
 cally confesses judgment upon every issue, 
 except that of the public faith and the res- 
 ton tion of the Union, and on these sub- 
 jects it declares substantially that, the cur- 
 rency shall be made good by violating the 
 national obligations, and' then issuing the 
 nation's promises to pay, just what it re- 
 fuses to pay. First, discredit the Govern- 
 ment paper and then force it upon the peo- 
 ple. And on the question of restoring the 
 Union it declares that, to the extent that 
 restoration has been effected, it shall be de- 
 stroyed, and the States be remitted to the 
 condition they were in at the close of the 
 rebellion, subject to the control of the rebel 
 leaders. As they declared the war a fail- 
 ure in 18G4, they declare restoration a fail- 
 ure in 1868. 
 
 But they further declare that, if entrusted 
 with power they will make restoration a 
 failure, by force of arms if needs be, and 
 by Executive power will compel the ad- 
 mission of rebel leaders into Congress and 
 the other departments of the Government. 
 
 Thus it its the Democrats contend for the 
 issue of an irredeemable currency and the 
 restoration of the rebellion ; and the Re- 
 publicans contend for the maintenance of 
 the public faith and the restoration of the 
 Union. These are the issues, and the only 
 issues, presented by the Democracy. 
 
 THE TESTIMONY. 
 
 When the rebellion was at its zenith, in 
 the very height of its powrr, Fer.vaxdo 
 Wood, then as now, a Democratic leader, 
 said: 
 
 "The war should cease, because it should 
 never have been commenced, inasmuch as 
 there is no coercive military power in the 
 Federal Goverumeitt as against the States, 
 are sovereign, and in possession of all which 
 power not delegated. If power of coercion 
 exists at all, it is legal and not military." 
 
 Mr. Wood desired to have the Union 
 armies withdrawn, and the rebellion put 
 down by a suit in court. He denied the 
 power of coercion, but insisted that if it 
 existed at all it was legal and noi military. 
 
HOW IS IT XOW? 
 
 Mr. Wood and his associates do not like 
 the reconstructed governments. What is 
 the remedy they propose? Is it legal or 
 military 1 General Blair has already an- 
 swered, on a precedin;^ P^gc that, it is 
 military and not legal; That the Demo- 
 cratic President to bo elected must, in dc- 
 liance of law and of the law-making power, 
 destroy thoseStates, undo what has been 
 done, ibrce the representatives of the rebel 
 oligarchy into the Cabinet and the Na- 
 tional Councils, and ^'compel the Senate to 
 submit," And it was because of this de- 
 claration that F. P. Blair, Jr., was choacH 
 as tho representative of a proposed rebel- 
 lion which, tho Democratic Icadet.-J, North 
 and South, are advocating and organizing. 
 
 WII.iT THE DEMOCKATIC LEADERS SAY. 
 TOOMBS. 
 
 Mr. Robert Toonabs, in his late Georgia 
 speech argued that all the action of the 
 Government in reference to the South for 
 the last three years was void and of no 
 effect. 
 The St. Louis Times declares : 
 " If Mr. Blair become President, and 
 swear to obey the Constitution, and fail to 
 overthrow the oligarchy established by 
 Brownlow in Tennessee, Blair would be 
 perjured." 
 
 "There is but one way to restore the 
 Government and the Constitution, and that 
 is for the President elect to declare these 
 (reconstruction) acts null and void, compel 
 the army to undo its usurpations at the 
 South, disperse the carpet-bag State gov- 
 ernments, allow the white people to reor- 
 ganize their own governments, and elect 
 Senators and BcprGseutativcs.'" — Blair's 
 letter. 
 
 GOVERNOR VAKCE. 
 
 ''What the Confederacy fought for would 
 be won by the election of Seymour and 
 Blair." 
 
 A. II. Stephens said, when tho Confed- 
 eracy was organized that, it was to estab- 
 lish a government whose corner-stone was 
 slavery. That is what tho Coaederacy 
 fought for, it is what Vance says they will 
 gain by the election of Seymour and Blair. 
 
 ANDREW JOHNSO.V. 
 
 In his late veto message, Mr. Johnson 
 says: 
 
 "All the State governments ocganized in 
 those States under acts of Congress, and 
 under military control, are illegitimate and 
 
 of no validity whatever ; and the votes cast 
 in those States for Preeident and Vice Pres- 
 ident, in pursuance of acts passed since the 
 4:th of March, 18G7, and in obedience to the 
 so-called reconstruction acts of Congress, 
 cannot bo legally received and counted ; 
 while tho only votes in those States that 
 can be legally cast and counted will be those 
 cast in pursuance of tho law.i in force in 
 tho several States prior to the legislation 
 by Congress upon the subject of reconstruc- 
 tion.'' 
 
 Will Mr. Johnson, as General Blair sug- 
 gests, use the array to abolish tho reorgan- 
 ized States ? Tie has by solemn proclama- 
 tion declared that the governments found 
 in the rebel States when the war closed 
 were usurpations and void, and he abolished 
 them by military edict. He now declares 
 that all the governments organized under 
 acts of Congress are illegitimato and of no 
 validity. What then? Only this, that the 
 governments organized by the military 
 without authority of law, are legal, and 
 votes under these governments must be 
 counted; while governments organized under 
 military rule, and under authority of law, 
 are of no validity and votes under them want 
 not be counted. 
 
 So that in the mind of Mr. Johnson, Gen- 
 eral Blair and the Democratic party, it is 
 the law enacted in pursuance of the Consti- 
 tution which vitiates tlic Government, and 
 the absence of law which validates them. 
 
 This is precisely the position assumed in 
 tho Democratic platform, only the Conven- 
 tion was too cowardly to state it as clearly 
 as has Mr. Johnson, Gen. Blair and Gov- 
 ernor Vance. But lot us call otlior wit- 
 nesses. 
 
 GENERA?. I.AWTON. 
 
 . 'I'he ex-Confedoratc General A. R. Law- 
 ton, said in a speech at Savannali, Ga. : ' 
 "Now, for the first time, we have aplat- 
 foim of principles and leaders around whom 
 we could rally. It was tho noblest, best, 
 boldest declaration of principles ever laid 
 down in the United States, and the demon- 
 stration hero to-night thows it was in. uni- 
 son with the feel jigs of the people. There 
 was nothing that the South wanted that 
 was not there. The military despotism 
 which has held us in thraldom was there 
 set in its proper light. Fur the first time 
 we have a platform we can adhere to. We 
 have a work to do which can be accom- 
 plished. We have leaders to rcpu-sent those 
 principles who will carry u.s out of the 
 'Slough of Despond." Peace has it8 vie- 
 
tones as well as war ; those great principles 
 for which we fonght. aud which we- feared 
 were lost, may yet be achieved." 
 
 A KEBEL NEWSPAPER. 
 
 The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, a bitter 
 anti-reconstruction journal, quotes Sey- 
 Eiour's speech delivered on his election as 
 permanent President of the New York 
 Convention, and Blair's infamous letter. 
 It then says : 
 
 " The sentiments expressed by both can- 
 didates are consonant with the views and 
 wishes of the Southern people, who only 
 seek for that measure of justice which the 
 Constitution and laws guaranty to every 
 State and citizen. General Blair has only 
 one way ia which these oiitrages on the 
 Constitution can be checked a.nd remedied 
 and the Government restored. It is this : 
 The President shall declare the reconstruc- 
 tion acts null and void, compel the army 
 to undo its usurpations at the South, dis- 
 perse the carpet-bag State governments, 
 allow the white people to recognize their 
 own governments and elect Senators and 
 Representatives." 
 
 The Mobile Tribune SLSserts : 
 
 "The great Democratic party will rise 
 in its might and majesty, and pulverize 
 and purge the Congress, just as Cromwell 
 purged the long Parliament. The signs of 
 the times are pregnant with resistance to 
 Radical tyranny, and the dagger of Brutus 
 may aid in accomplishing our redemption 
 from Radical rule, ruin, and usurpation." 
 
 Does this mean that they will murder 
 Seymour, if elected, that Blair may rule? 
 
 MGRK REBEIi WITNESSES. 
 
 At the Democratic convention held in 
 Atlanta, Ga., one of the speakers, Clarke by 
 ijame, "pledged himself before God to 
 fight to the last the new governments that 
 had been set up in the South." 
 
 The Memphis (Tenn.) Avalanche, in al- 
 luding to Blair's letter, says : 
 
 "For uttering similar sentiments to the 
 above we have been denounced and called 
 impudent. Had the above extract appeared 
 in the AvalancJic as editorial, the political 
 fossils would have raised their hands in 
 holy horror, and stigmatized us as a revo- 
 lutionist. We would have been taunted 
 with the worn-out stereotyped complaint 
 that such imprudent expressions injure the 
 Northern Democracy and the Southern peo- 
 ple in the North. But, strange to say, it 
 was the publication of the letter, from which 
 we take the above extracts, that secured 
 
 Mr. Blair his nomination for the Vice Pres- 
 idency. Thus it will be seen that the North 
 is far ahead of the South. They are rife 
 for revolution." 
 
 The Charlottville (Va.) Chronicle says : 
 
 "General Blair was an Abolitionist and a 
 war man •, but those are dead issues, and, 
 if he was sincere in his recent letter, he- 
 will anstuer our purpose." 
 
 Humphrey Marshall asserted in his Louis- 
 ville speech that if the Democratic ticket 
 Avas elected his party would "wipe out" all 
 that had been done in the wuy of recon- 
 struction, and the fourteenth amendment 
 to the Constitution. 
 
 John Forsyth proclaims, through the col- 
 umns of tlie Mobile Advertiser: 
 
 "Mississippi must vote, and the Democ- 
 racy loill see to its being counted. Texas 
 and Virginia cannot go through with the 
 forms of the Radical programme in time 
 to bo admitted before the election, as Con- 
 gress will adjourn beforehand. But they 
 must votei^ 
 
 AYc summon thc!^e rebel witnesses — first, 
 because they have the control of the Dem- 
 ocratic pai-ty, and, second, because they 
 arc franker and honester men than the 
 Copperheads'. 
 
 Lest this may be disputed we place upon 
 the stand 
 
 EX-REBEL GENERAL WADE IlA.MrTON. 
 
 In his speech at Charleston, after his 
 return from the Democratic Convention, 
 Mr. Hampton told the people that being 
 on the committee onresolutions in the 
 Tammany Convention, when itwas proposed 
 to insert the clause declaring that the 
 "right of suffrage belongs tothe States," 
 he shrcwedly asked what wasto be under- 
 stood by "States." 
 
 " I agreed to the propositions, but at the 
 same time said that it seemed to me that 
 they had omitted one very vital point, 
 which was to declare to what States the 
 doctrine applied. I thought it was neces- 
 sary to guard and limit that declaration, 
 and to the end that we might know at what 
 time we could go back and say who were 
 the citizens of the States, I asled that they 
 icoidd declare that these questions belonged 
 to the States imdcr ;]ieir Constitutions up 
 to the year IS65.'' 
 
 To this the Northern and Western men 
 in the Convention objected as imprudent: 
 
 " Gentlemen were there from the North, 
 South, East, and West, and by all we were 
 met with extreme cordiality. They paid 
 they were willing to cive us everything de- 
 
sired ; but xve of the South must rcracmher 
 that they had a great fight to make, and it 
 would not he •policy to place vpon fliat 
 'platform that xchichwoidd engender preju- 
 dice at the North. They, however, pledf^cd 
 themselves to do all in their poM'er to re- 
 lieve the Southern States, and to restore to 
 us the constitution as it had existed. As we 
 were met in such a kindly spirit, I could 
 not but reciprocate it. I kncv that I was 
 representing; the feelings of my people 
 when I did so, and I told them that I 
 would withdraw all the resolutions I had 
 offei'ed, and no doubt other Southern dele- 
 gates would do the same, and would accept 
 the resolutions oQered by Hon. Mr. Bayard, 
 the Senator from Delaware, which declared 
 that_ the right of suffrage belonged to the 
 States. I said I would take the resolutions 
 if they would allow me to add Ijut three 
 •words, which you will find embodied in the 
 platform. I added this : ^And we declare 
 thatthe Reconstruction acts are revolution- 
 aryj unconstitutional, and void'' When 
 I proposed that, every single member of 
 the committee — and the warmest men in it 
 were men from the North — came forward 
 and said they would carry it out to the 
 end. Having thus pledged themselves, I 
 feel assured that when the Democratic 
 party come to triumph they will show us a 
 remedy for our misfortunes in their own 
 good time, for which I am perfectly willing 
 to wait. Such is the history of our plat- 
 form, and such were the motives which 
 governed the committee in its formatiou." 
 
 To clinch the nail, the men of Hampton's 
 mind secured the nomination of JMr. Blair, 
 who had already declared publicly that the 
 State governments in the Southern States 
 must be, and if he had power should be, 
 overthrown, by military force if necessary. 
 
 There is a whole volume in this short 
 speech of General Uarapton. It disclosed 
 the fact, Grst, that he, (Hampton,) an ex- 
 rebel general, dictated the Democratic 
 flatform on the subject of reconstruction, 
 s not this a complete surrender to the 
 rebel leaders? AVhat more could the reb- 
 els ask than to dictate tJio terms of settle- 
 ment, had they been the conquerors instead 
 of being the conquered? Did Leo pre- 
 scribe terms to Grant at Appomattox? 
 Yet here is (iencral Hampton prescribing 
 terms to tlic Democratic Convention. 
 Could subserviency go lower, or cowardice 
 sink a party deeper, tlian does this one fact ? 
 
 But, second, Mr. Hampton says he let 
 up on the Democracy because they liad a 
 hard row to lioo ia the loyal States, and 
 
 they thought, therefore, that a plain dccla- 
 tion of what they meant imprudent. It 
 would not do to let the people of the North 
 know just what they intended. The 
 real purpose of the platfcrm must 1^ kept 
 from the people. But the committee prom- 
 ised him all he desired, and the warmest 
 men in making these pledges were from 
 the North. It was because of these warm 
 demonstrations that General Hampton con- 
 sented to withdraw his other propositions. 
 He could not find it in his heart to force 
 these Northern Democrats to tell the hon- 
 est truth before the people. Therefore he 
 considerately joined in to help cheat the 
 people of the North, where the fight was 
 to be hard, but in the South he must and 
 would tell the truth. 
 
 Any one who will carefully read this 
 speech of Hampton's will be convinced 
 that the whole Democratic platform is a 
 swindle, as are the candidates, and but for 
 Hampton's courage and Blair's folly in 
 disclosing the cheat, and making known 
 the real purposes of the party, they would 
 have stood a little chance of imposing 
 upon some honest Democrats ; but now 
 that the fraud is expose* their plan is 
 ruined. 
 
 MORE WITXESSKS. 
 
 But here are a few more choice crumbs 
 from rebel sources : 
 
 " The Montgomery (Confederate) con- 
 stitution is better than oars, (United 
 States.") — Horatio Seymour to Judge liug- 
 gles, ill 18G1. 
 
 ' ' The -Ith of July has ceased to be of the 
 slightest interest to the Democracy, partic- 
 ularly of the South." — Richmond Exam- 
 iner. 
 
 " The spirit of Wilkes Booth still lives, 
 thank God! Therefore, take courage 1' 
 Seymour, Blair, and the revival of the 
 great cause is the motto . of every true 
 man ! ' '—Pine Bluff ( Ark. ) Vindicalor. 
 
 The New York 11 orZii says : 
 
 "For as many crimes against law. Con- 
 stitution, and human nature as our Con- 
 gress C(^mmit?, the British people would 
 smash Parliament and hang peers and com- 
 moners in Hyde Park. 
 
 "Blood is tliicker than water. Race stands 
 by race, all except rump Congressmen. 
 They stand by the negroes whom they stir 
 up to rebellion. 
 
 "The new rebellion will array the people 
 of the United States against two hundred 
 thousand negroes and two hundred whir^ 
 
negroes in Congress. God save the radical 
 rebels if Ihey bring on more var, for the 
 people won't 8ave them. 
 
 " In case of a new rebellion Jefferson 
 Davis Avill have a chance to go bail for his 
 bondsman, whose paper now stirs up the 
 war." 
 
 THE IIONKSTY A.VD PATRIOTISM OF SEY.\I0VK 
 EXPLAINED. 
 
 Captain jMarshall, a brother of Thomas 
 Marshall, said, at a recent Kentucky Dem- 
 ocratic ratification, "that ho was enthusias- 
 tic in support of Seymour, and gave his 
 reasons therefor. Seymour was nominated 
 as a War Democrat, for the reason that no 
 other could win. He was called a. AVar 
 Democrat, but ho had never given any aid 
 or support to the Government in prosecu- 
 tion of the war when it could be avoided. 
 In ISGIi, when the rebel troops were in 
 Pennsylvania, and the Government called 
 on Seymour, who was then Governor of 
 New York, to furnish troops to expel 
 them, he answered in the same manner, if 
 not in the same language, as the Governor 
 of Kentucky in 18G1, viz : that he would 
 not send them.* He did send them, how- 
 ever, for the reason that he was unable to 
 do otherwise." 
 
 UxicA, N. Y., July 21, 18G8. 
 
 DeauSii; : — Your letter of the 16th inst. 
 to Governor Seymour is received. He 
 directs me to answer your interrogatories, 
 and say he docs not o'.vn a United States 
 bond, and never did own one ; and he never 
 dealt in bonds or Ijanking of any kind. 
 Vcrv respectfully yours, 
 
 B. D. Noxox, Jr. 
 To it. 11. DuNX, Esq., Bloomingtoii, lU. 
 
 This testimony ought to be satisfactory 
 to rebels, it certainly will be to loyal men. 
 Mere is his own statement that he would 
 not trust the Government, and of his friend 
 that he never aided it, even in his official 
 capacity, except as he was forced to. Nom- 
 inated as a War Democrat: 1st. Because 
 they could elect no other ; and 2d. Because 
 he was opposed to the war and sympathised 
 with the rebellion. Seymour and the i^lat- 
 form arc an exact match. Cotli swindles, 
 contrived and selected to cheat the people 
 of the loyal States, and serve the purposes 
 of the rebel leaders. Seymour himself ad- 
 mitting that ho would be dishonored if lie 
 accepted the nomination. No witnesses 
 are needed to prove that he then spoke the 
 truth. 
 
 In view of the facts hereinbefore pre- 
 sented, we charge the Democratic party : 
 
 1st. That it has proved false to its early 
 record and history, false to liberty, false 
 to the country, its laws and Constitution, 
 and false to the people whom it seeks to 
 govern. 
 
 2d. That it in no honest sense represent? 
 the loyal people of the nation, bat on the 
 contrary; is consorting with, and controlled 
 by, the disloyal and despotic partisan 
 leaders who organized and conducted a 
 gigantic rebellion against Constitutional 
 liberty and in the interests of a slave-hold- 
 ing oligarchy. 
 
 3d. That by the confession of its own 
 leading advocates it has, by its national 
 delegates in convention assembled, adopted 
 and published to the country a platform of 
 principles for the purpose of cheating the 
 loyal people into its support, while it rests 
 under secret pledges to rebel leaders to 
 give them all they desire. . 
 
 4th. That while professing veneration 
 for the Union and the Constitution, it 
 stands pledged to destroy the one and dis- 
 regard the other. 
 
 .'ith. That its candidate for the chief 
 office by the confession of his own partisans 
 is, and has been, a foe to the Government 
 and a friend to the conspiracy for its de- 
 struction; that professing to be a War Demo- 
 crat, he is and was a rebel in disguise, as 
 is proven by his past record and the un- 
 contradicted statements of the rebel lead- 
 ers who placed him in nomination. That 
 he has been thrust upon the party, against 
 the judgment and wishes of its honest sup- 
 porters, and by a clique of corrupt and 
 disloyal leaders. 
 
 6th. That its candidate for the second 
 office is in open and undisscmblcd sym- 
 pathy with the rebel leaders, and pledged 
 to re-open the conflict against the Union 
 if entrusted with power. 
 
 7th. That, as claimed by the rebel lead- 
 ers and press of the South, and not denied 
 by leaders or press in the North, the elec- 
 tion of these candidates upon this platform 
 will be the defeat of loyalty, the triumph 
 of treason, and the renewal of rebeUion. 
 If these are the objects for which Demo- 
 crats desire to vote, tlien Seymour and 
 Blair arc the men to vote for. If there 
 are Democrats, and we believe there are, 
 who desire a restored Union, just laws, 
 the niaintenance of tlic public faith, and 
 tlie peace and prosperity of the llepublic, 
 let them vote for Grant and Cqlfax. 
 
 riUXTED at TlIK C:KI; at P.EPL-Bl.lC okvick, wasiiixgtox, d. c.