MINNESOTA. 



605 



question of impartial manhood suffrage be sub- 

 mitted to the popular vote at the ensuing an- 

 nual election." The proposition to strike the 

 word white from the constitution had already 

 been submitted to the people in 1865, and 

 again in 1867, and rejected by them on both 

 occasions. At the late presidential election, 

 however, it was carried, with the rest of 

 the Eepublican ticket. Governor Marshall 

 congratulated the Legislature on that success, 

 while the Democrats affirmed that such re- 

 sult was owing only to deception and fraud 

 practised by the Republicans upon the voters : 

 first, because the question of "negro suffrage " 

 had been proposed to the people, not by itself, 

 but mixed together with the question of 

 President and Yice-President on the same 

 ticket, by which means the voter, as he could 

 not divide the question on the ticket and give 

 to each a separate answer, was compelled to 

 vote for, or against, all the questions, with the 

 same answer ; and secondly, which they regard 

 to be still worse, because the said question of 

 "negro suffrage" was proposed to the people, 

 not in open words, but concealed under a cover, 

 impenetrable to the sight of most of the voters, 

 namely, as "an amendment of section 1, article 

 7, of the constitution," so that those who voted 

 for the Eepublican candidates did also vote 

 blindly for "negro suffrage," without so much as 

 imagining that they were so doing ; it being cer- 

 tain that the greatest number of them had no 

 knowledge that the section 1 of article 7, which 

 they were voting to amend, referred to "negro 

 suffrage " and excluded it. They declare those 

 two facts to be the more assuredly a proof of 

 meditated deception, because by acts, passed 

 in the same session of the Legislature, and 

 approved on the 5th and 6th of March, 1868, re- 

 spectively, two more amendments to the consti- 

 tution were submitted to the people at the same 

 election, namely, on "internal improvement 

 lands" and on "grand juries;" but both of 

 these points were presented to the voter sepa- 

 rately and distinctly in clear, open words; 

 each of their respective acts having purposely 

 provided that, on the ballots, and in favor of 

 the amendment, regarding the internal im- 

 provement lands, there should Jbe written or 

 printed "internal improvement lands 

 Amendment to Article 15th of the Constitu- 

 tion Yes ; " and for the amendment relating 

 to grand juries "there should be written or 

 printed on the ballots the words "Against the 

 Grand Juries;" whereas, in regard to the 

 amendment concerning "negro suffrage," the 

 act relating to it makes no mention of those 

 words, but prescribes that "the voters, voting 

 in favor of such amendment, shall have, on their 

 general ballots, used at said election, written 

 or printed, the following words, " Amendment 

 to Section 1, Article 7, of the Constitution 

 Yes." 



The Democratic State Convention, which 

 assembled in the month of February, 1868, 

 elected its 4 presidential electors, and 8 dele- 



gates to the National Democratic Convention, 

 to be held in New York on the 4th of July, for 

 the purpose of nominating the Democratic 

 presidential candidates. In regard to the Bitu- 

 ation of the country and the political questions 

 agitating it, the convention, before closing its 

 session on February 27th, adopted the resolu- 

 tions submitted by its Committee on Resolu- 

 tions, as follows : 



Resolved, That the Democracy of Minnesota con- 

 gratulate the country upon the improved aspect of 

 political affairs, as evinced by the State elections of 

 1867, and that they look forward with hope and con- 

 fidence to the result of that momentous struggle upon 

 which depends, in so great a degree, the future peace 

 and prosperity of the Union. 



Resolved, That we are unalterably opposed to the 

 legislation which leads to consolidation ; we renew, 

 with unflagging zeal _and increased energy, our at- 

 tachment to that political creed, which has ever been 

 so stanchly adhered to by our organization through 

 days of trouble and disaster as well as prosperity ; 

 which was that opinion expressed by Thomas Jeffer- 

 son, " with justice to all men, of whatever standing, 

 and the promotion of peace, commerce, and harmo- 

 ny ; friendship with all nations, entangling alliances 

 with none ; the support of the State governments in 

 all their rights as the most competent administrators 

 of pur domestic concerns, and. the surest bulwark 

 against anti-republican tendencies ; the preservation 

 of the General Government in its whole, its constitu- 

 tional vigor as the safeguard of peace at home and 

 safety abroad ; adjures the care of the rights of elec- 

 tions by the people : the supremacy of the civil over 

 the military authority." 



Resolved, That we condemn the legislative acts of 

 Congress, and, particularly, the civil act of recon- 

 struction so called, as the violation of the honest 

 agreement and compact between the States, and as 

 utterly subversive of every principle of sound gov- 

 ernment that distinguishes a free people. 



Resolved, That we are opposed to any measures 

 which recognize that the integrity of the Union was 

 ever broken ; that any of its members were ever out, 

 and that we determinedly insist that the Southern 

 States, no longer being in insurrection or at war 

 with the Federal Government, are entitled to the full 

 State recognition and constitutional representation 

 in Congress, and the electoral privileges given to 

 all States, and that denial to them by Congress, and 

 its efforts to dictate by military force a government 

 for them, are unconstitutional and despotic. 



Resolved, That we are opposed, both _ in principle 

 and policy, to negro suffrage, and that this State, hav- 

 ing by a large ma.iority rejected it for herself, is sternly 

 opposed to its enforced imposition upon other States, 

 and that we stigmatize its imposition by the Federal 

 Government as a most base usurpation. 



Resolved, That the practical effect of the so-called 

 reconstruction acts of Congress is to deliver over ten 

 States to the political and social control of negroes ; 

 and to place the lives, liberties, and fortunes of the 

 people into the hands of a barbarous people, that it 

 would lead either to a war of races, or to the desola- 

 tion of the South. 



Resolved, That, while we denounce the enormous 

 conceded frauds in the creation of the public debt, 

 the faith of the country is pledged to the payment, 

 principal and interest, according to the terms of the 

 several acts of Congress under which these bonds 

 representing the debt were issued, but not otherwise, 

 and we are opposed to any plans for extending the 

 time of payment, thus increasing the amount of gold- 

 interest to more than original principal, or to any 

 declaration by Congress that the principal is payable 

 in gold. 



Resolved, That never forgetting nor denying our 

 ancient faith, that gold and silver coin form the cur- 



