704 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



feeling or from party or private motives, would give 

 any other direction to the efforts of our arms are un- 

 just and unworthy to be intrusted with power, and 

 would cause all our exertions, extraordinary and 

 unparalleled as they are, to prove futile in the end. 



4. That we justly view with alarm the reckless ex- 

 travagance which pervades some of the depart- 

 ments of the Federal Government ; and that a return to 

 rigid economy and accountability is indispensable to 

 arrest the systematic plundering of the public treas- 

 ury by favorite partisans ; and in view of the recent 

 startling developments of fraud and corruption at the 

 Federal metropolis and throughout the country, that 

 we hold an entire change in the Administration to 

 be imperatively demanded. 



5. That the party of fanaticism or crime, whichever 

 it may be called, that seeks to turn the slaves of the 

 Southern States loose, to overrun the North, and to en- 

 ter into competition with the white laboring masses, 

 thus degrading and insulting their manhood by plac- 

 ing them on an equality with negroes in their occupa- 

 tions, is insulting to our race, and merits our most 

 emphatic and unqualified condemnation. 



6. That we denounce Northern abolitionism and 

 Southern secession as the cooperating sources of our 

 present calamities alike treasonable to the Constitu- 

 tion and inimical to the Union. The only way to a 

 restored Union and a respected Constitution, with re- 

 turnig peace and prosperity, is through the overthrow 

 of both. 



7. That the democracy of Pennsylvania is equally 

 opposed to all sectional legislation and geographical 

 parties, which base their hopes for continued partisan 

 success on the agrarianism of emancipation and hy- 

 percritical philanthropy, abolition, because neither 'is 

 known to the Constitution, and both are intended to 

 aid disunion aud subvert the Constitution, and to pre- 

 vent the restoration of unity, peace, and concord among 

 the States and the people. 



8. That the Constitution and the laws are sufficient for 

 any emergency, and that the suppression of the freedom 

 of speech and of the press, and the unlawful arrest of 

 citizens, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, 

 in violation of the Constitution in States where the 

 civil authorities are unimpeded, is most dangerous to 

 civil liberty, and should be resisted at the ballot box 

 by every freemau in the land. 



9. That this is a Government of white men, and was 

 established exclusively for the white race ; that the 

 negro race are not entitled to and ought not to be ad- 

 mitted to political or social equality with the white 

 race, but that it is our duty to treat them with kind- 

 ness and consideration as an inferior, but dependent 

 race; that the right of the several States to deter- 

 mine the position and duty of the race is a sov- 

 ereign right, and the pledges of the Constitution re- 

 quire us as loyal citizens not to interfere there- 

 with. 



10. That Congress has no power to deprive any per- 

 son of his property for any criminal offence unless that 

 person has first been duly convicted of the offence by 

 the verdict of a jury, and that all acts of Congress like 

 those lately passed by the House of Representatives, 

 which assume to forfeit or confiscate the estates of 

 men for offences of which they have not been convict- 

 ed by due trial by jury, are unconstitutional, and 

 lead to oppression and tyranny. It is no justification 

 for such acts that the crimes committed in the prose- 

 cution of the rebellion are of unexampled atrocity, nor 

 is there any such justification as state necessity k'nown 

 to our Government or laws. 



11. That the Constitution and the Union and the 

 laws must be preserved in all their proper and rightful 

 supremacy, and that the rebellion now in arms against 

 us must be suppressed and put down, and that it is our 

 duty to use all constitutional measures necessary and 

 proper to that end. 



The republican, or, as it -was called, " Union " 

 State convention, assembled at Harrisburg on 



the 17th of July, and nominated Thomas E. 



Cochran for auditor-general, and ! 



for surveyor-general. The views of the 



convention on national affairs were expressed 

 by the following resplutions : 



Resolved, That the convention, representing as it 

 does the loyal citizens of Pennsylvania, without distinc- 

 tion of party, reaffirm the sentiments embodied in the 

 resolution adopted at the meeting of the loyal mem- 

 bers of Congress at the national capitol, July 12 1862 

 That we hold it to be the duty of all loyal men to 

 stand by the Union in this hour of its trial, to unite 

 their hearts and hands in earnest patriotic efforts for its 

 maintenance against those who are in arms against it, 

 to sustain with determined resolution our patriotic Pres- 

 ident and his Administration in their energetic efforts 

 for the prosecution of the war and the preservation of 

 the Union against enemies at home and abroad to 

 punish traitors and treason with fitting severity, and 

 to crush the present wicked and causeless rebellion, so 

 that no flag of disunion shall ever again be raised over 

 any portion of the republic ; that to this end we invite 

 the cooperation of all men who love their country in 

 the endeavor to rekindle throughout all the States 

 such a patriotic fire as shall utterly consume all who 

 strike at the Union of our fathers, and all who sympa- 

 thize with their treason or palliate their guilt. " 



Resolved, That we have continued confidence in the 

 honesty, capacity, and patriotism of President Lincoln 

 and his constitutional advisers ; that we approve the 

 principles on which his policy, both foreign and do- 

 mestic, has been conducted ; that we sanction and sus- 

 tain all the measures that he has found it necessary to 

 adopt to guard the Government against the assaults of 

 traitors, their sympathizers and abettors; and we es- 

 teem it eminently fortunate that, in this most trying 

 crisis of our cherished Union, we have at the helm of 

 public affairs one so upright, temperate, prudent, and 

 firm as he has proved himself to be. 



Resolved, That we cordially approve of the adminis- 

 tration of Andrew G. Curtin, governor of this com- 

 monwealth, marked as it has been by extraordinary 

 vigor in the discharge of all public duties, by untiring 

 zeal in the cause of the country, and especially in re- 

 cruiting forces for the national army, by enlarged and 

 liberal care for the sick and wounded soldiers of the 

 State, by a wise and prudent economy in the expen- 

 ditures of the funds committed to his care, and by the 

 unsparing devotedness of all its members, and in par- 

 ticular the governor himself, to the constant harass- 

 ing, complicated, and novel labors which the exigen- 

 cies of the great rebellion has imposed. 



Resolved, That we acknowledge but two divisions of 

 the people of the United States in this crisis, those who 

 are loyal to its Constitution and every inch of its soil, 

 and are ready to make every sacrifice for the integrity 

 of the Union and the maintenance of civil liberty with- 

 in it, and those who openly or covertly endeavor to 

 sever our country, or to yield to the insolent demands 

 of its enemies ; that we fraternize with the former and 

 detest the latter; and that, forgetting all former party 

 names and distinctions, we call on all patriotic citizens 

 to rally for one undivided country one flag one des- 

 tiny. 



Resolved, That the Government of the United States 

 and its people, with an occasional exception among 

 the reckless inhabitants, where this rebellion was fos- 

 tered, have wisely and studiously avoided all interfer- 

 ence with the concerns of other nations, asking and 

 usually enjoying alike non-interference with their own, 

 and that such is and should continue to be its policy. 

 That the intimations of a contemplated departure from 

 this sound rule of conduct on the part of some of the 

 nations of Europe, by an intervention in our present 

 struggle, is as unjust to them as it would be to us, and 

 to the great principles for which we are contending; 

 but we assure them, with a solemnity of conviction 

 which admits of no distrust or fear, and from a knowl- 

 edge of and a firm reliance upon the spirit and forti- 



