PENNSYLVANIA. 



693 



honest loyalty and gratitude, but with such 

 evidence of defiance and hostility as to impel 

 us to the conviction that they cannot safely be 

 intrusted with the political rights which they 

 forfeited by their treason, until they have 

 proven their acceptance of the results of the 

 war by incorporating them in constitutional pro- 

 visions, and securing to all men within their 

 borders their inalienable rights to life, liberty, 

 and the pursuit of happiness ; " urging that the 

 rebellious States, having been conquered, should 

 be held in subjection, and that the treatment 

 they should receive, as well as the laws which 

 should govern them, " should be referred to the 

 law-making power, of the nation, to which it 

 legitimately belongs ; " recommending that the 

 property-holders of the South should be com- 

 pelled to pay the expenses of the war, and 

 u that Congress should declare as forfeited and 

 vested in the Government, the property of all 

 rebels whose estates exceed the sum of ten 

 thousand dollars, and that the proceeds of the 

 property so confiscated should be applied to in- 

 crease the pensions of those entitled thereto by 

 the casualties of the war, to pay the damages 

 done by the enemy to loyal citizens, and to re- 

 duce the burden of the national debt ; " advis- 

 ing such a revision of the revenue laws as would 

 insure increased protection to American indus- 

 try ; asserting any attempt by foreign nations 

 to establish monarchical government on the 

 American continent to be evidence of a design 

 to destroy republican institutions ; in favor of 

 the payment of the full Federal bounty to all 

 honorably discharged soldiers; commending 

 and thanking Edwin M. Stanton and his col- 

 leagues in the cabinet for their " services in the 

 cause of liberty and law ; " thanking Gov. Cur- 

 tin for his devotion " to the best interests of 

 the State and nation during the last four 

 years ; " recognizing the claims of the citizen 

 soldiers to confidence and gratitude, and recom- 

 mending that especial regard be paid to their 

 deserts in nominations for offices. The twelfth 

 and last resolution accused the Democratic 

 party of having constantly obstructed the ef- 

 forts of the constituted authorities to maintain 

 the life of the Eepublic 



By inflaming the passions of their ignorant follow- 

 er against the legally elected officers of the Federal 

 Government, and refraining from all reproach against 

 treason or armed traitors : 



By procuring a decision from the Democratic 

 judges of our Supreme Court,' denying the right of 

 the Government to the services of the citizens of this 

 State for the defence of their imperilled country : 



By discouraging men from volunteering into the 

 armies of the union ; thus rendering it necessary to 

 succumb to treason, or to pay large counties, and so 

 burdening every ward, township, and borough in the 

 State with debt to fill the ranks of our armies : 



By opposing the enlistment of negroes for our de- 

 fence, although one white man less was required for 

 every black one who could be enlisted, and this at 

 the very moment when the battle of Gettysburg was 

 raging on the soil of Pennsylvania, and the result of 

 that decisive battle was uncertain : 



By denying to our soldiers the right to vote while 

 fighting for the flag of our fathers, on the plea that 



such rights were not allowed by our Constitution, 

 and by opposing an amendment which removed their 

 objections, and relieved our brave soldiers from dis- 

 ability : 



By exaggerating the public indebtedness, denying 

 the public credit, and teaching that the financial re- 

 sources of the North were unequal to the suppression 

 of the rebellion : 



By a shameful opposition to measures for extending 

 relief to the families of Union soldiers, and by a 

 malignant effort by these means to secure the suc- 

 cess of the rebels in the field, or such a protraction 

 of the war as would exhaust the natron in its effort 

 to subdue their friends : 



By now heaping abuse upon the Gonverment for 

 punishing assassins and their accomplices; by de- 

 manding the release of leading traitors, by frowning 

 down all attempts to bring to punishment the fiends 

 who starved our soldiers, and by assuring rebels that 

 neither in person nor property shall they be punished 

 for their crimes : 



And if any thing were wanting to complete their in- 

 famy, we have it in their determined opposition to 

 free'labor, and to a tariff which, while it would make 

 labor profitable by protecting the workingmen of 

 Pennsylvania from British competition, would largely 

 increase the revenue essential to the maintenance of 

 the public faith and credit. 



The Democratic State Convention assem- 

 bled also at Harrisburg on the 24th of August. 

 The preamble to the resolutions asserted that 

 the men and the party who had administered 

 the Government since 1861, had " betrayed their 

 trust, violated their sacred obligations, disre- 

 garded the commands of the fundamental law, 

 corruptly squandered the public money, denied 

 justice to the people, perverted the whole Gov- 

 ernment from its original purpose, and thereby 

 brought untold calamities upon the country. 

 Twelve resolutions were adopted, asserting that 

 the Democratic party was, and always had been, 

 faithful to the Union of the States, and while 

 opposing secession with all its influence, had 

 been without sympathy with that party in the 

 North which pronounced the Constitution a 

 " covenant with death and an agreement with 

 hell ;" asserting that if the counsels of the Dem- 

 ocratic party had prevailed, " the Union would 

 have been saved in all its honor and integrity, 

 without the slaughter, debt, and disgrace of a 

 civil war;" asserting that the Constitution is 

 entitled to unqualified respect and obedience, 

 and that " the oath to support it is binding, re- 

 ligiously, morally, and legally, at all times, un- 

 der all circumstances, and in every part of the 

 country," and that it is " only by a strict en- 

 forcement of its obligations in all the Stales, 

 that we can hope for union, liberty, or peace ;" 

 claiming that among the rights guaranteed by 

 the Constitution are, " a free press, freedom 

 from arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment, 

 trial by jury, the writ of habeas corpus, the 

 perfect immunity of all persons not in the 

 army or navy from any species of punishment 

 for crime or pretended crime which is not the 

 legal consequence of a legal conviction by an 

 impartial jury, the absolute subordination of all 

 military power to the civil authority, and the 

 privilege of white citizens to vote at the State 

 elections according to the laws of the State ;" 

 concurring with President Johnson in the con- 



