752 



UNITED STATES. 



put forth by the convention, showing its position 

 upon all the great questions which now agitate the 

 country. As the presiding officer of that convention, 

 I am familiar with their scope and import. As one 

 of its members, I am a party to their terms. They are 

 in accord with my views, and I stand upon them in 

 the canvass upon which we are now entering, and I 

 shall strive to carry them out in the future, wherever 

 I may be placed, in political or private life. 



I have stated that I would send you these words 

 of acceptance in a letter, as is the customary form. I 

 see no reason, upon reflection, to change or qualify 

 the terms of my approval of the resolutions of the 

 convention. I have delayed the mere formal act of 

 committing to you in writing what I thus publicly 

 said, for the purpose of seeing what light the action 

 of Congress would throw upon the interests of the 

 country. Its acts since the adjournment of the cpn- 

 vention show an alarm lest a change of political 

 power will give to the people what they ought to 

 have a clear statement of what has been done with 

 the money drawn from them during the past eight 

 years. 



The remainder of the letter presented forci- 

 ble objections to the measures and policy of 

 the Republican party. 



Mr. Frank P. Blair, the nominee for the 

 vice-presidency, in a letter dated July 13th, 

 accepted the nomination. He said : 



I accept without hesitation the nomination tendered 

 in a manner so gratifying, and give you and the com- 

 mittee my thanks for the very kind and compliment- 

 ary language in which you have conveyed to me the 

 decision of the convention. 



I have carefully read the resolutions adopted v by 

 the convention, and most cordially concur in every 

 principle and sentiment they announce. 



My opinions upon all of the questions which dis- 

 criminate the great contending parties have been 

 freely expressed on all suitable occasions, and I do 

 not deem it necessary at this time to reiterate them. 



The issues upon which the contest turns are clear, 

 and cannot be obscured or distorted by the sophis- 

 tries of our adversaries. They all resolve themselves 

 into the old and ever-renewing struggle of a few men 

 to absorb the political power of the nation. This ef- 

 fort, under every_ conceivable name and disguise, has 

 always characterized the opponents of the Democratic 

 party, but at no time has the attempt assumed a shape 

 so open and daring as in this contest. The adversa- 

 ries of free and constitutional government, in defiance 

 of the express language of the Constitution, have 

 erected a military despotism in ten of the States of the 

 Union, have taken from the President the powers 

 vested in him by the supreme law, and have deprived 

 the Supreme Court of its jurisdiction. The right of 

 trial by jury, and the great writ of right, the habeas 

 corpus shields of safety for every citizen, and which 

 have descended to us from the earliest traditions of 

 our .ancestors, and which our Revolutionary fathers 

 sought to secure to their posterity forever in the fun- 

 damental charter of our liberties have been ruthlessly 

 trampled under foot by the fragment of a Congress. 

 Whole States and communities of people of our own 

 race have been attainted, convicted, condemned, and 

 deprived of their rights as citizens, without present- 

 ment, or trial, or witnesses, but by congressional 

 enactment of ex post facto laws, and in defiance of the 

 constitutional prohibition denying even to a full and 

 legal Congress the authority to pass any bill of at- 

 tainder or ex post facto law. The same usurping au- 

 thority has substituted as electors in place of the men 

 of our own race, thus illegally attainted and disfran- 

 chised, a host of ignorant negroes, who are supported 

 in idleness with the public money, and combined to- 

 gether to strip the white race of their birthright, 

 through the management of Freedmen's Bureaus and 

 the emissaries of conspirators in other States ; and, to 



complete the oppression, the military power of the 

 nation has been placed at their disposal, in order to 

 make this barbarism supreme. 



The military leader under whose prestige this 

 usurping Congress has taken refuge since the con- 

 demnation of their schemes by the free people of the 

 North in the elections of the last year, and whom 

 they have selected as their candidate to shield them- 

 selves from the result of their own wickedness and 

 crime, has announced his acceptance of the nomina- 

 tion, and his willingness to maintain their usurpa- 

 tions over eight millions of white people at the South, 

 fixed to the earth with his bayonets. He exclaims : 

 " Let us have peace." " Peace reigns in "Warsaw," 

 was the announcement which heralded the doom of 

 the liberties of a nation. " The empire is peace," 

 exclaimed Bonaparte, when freedom and its defend- 

 ers expired under the sharp edge of his sword. The 

 peace to which Grant invites us is the peace of des- 

 potism and death. ****"* 



A convention of colored men of the States 

 of Maryland, New Jersey, Missouri, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Delaware, and Virginia, assembled in 

 Baltimore, on August 5th, and passed resolu- 

 tions approving of the nomination at Chicago, 

 and insisting that the colored men should be 

 enfranchised in all the States. 



The result of the elections for State officers, 

 held in the months of September and October, 

 especially in the States of Maine, Ohio, and 

 Pennsylvania, were so unfavorable to the Demo- 

 cratic party, that it was openly demanded, in 

 one of their important newspapers in New 

 York City, that Mr. Seymour should withdraw 

 and the committee of the convention desig- 

 nate another candidate. This proposition was 

 met by such a storm of indignation as to arouse 

 the party to extreme efforts. Addresses of 

 encouragement were made by the National 

 Democratic Committee, and by the New York 

 State Committee. Mr. Seymour came forward 

 to address the people in Buffalo, Detroit, Chi- 

 cago, Indianapolis, Columbus, O., and else- 

 where. The following dispatch from Presi- 

 dent Johnson was also made public : 



EXECUTIVE MANSION, ) 

 WASHINGTON, October 22, 1868. f 

 Hon. Horatio Seymour : 



I see it announced in the papers of this morning, 

 that you will enter the presidential canvass in person. 

 I trust this may be so, as the present position of public 

 affairs justifies and demands it. It is hoped and be- 

 lieved by your friends that all enemies to constitu- 

 tional government, whether secret or avowed, will not 

 be spared, and that their arbitrament and unjust usur- 

 pation, together with their wasteful, profligate, and 

 corrupt use of the people's treasure, will be signally 

 exposed and rebuked. The masses of the people 

 should be aroused and warned against the encroach- 

 ments of despotic power, now ready to enter the 

 citadel of liberty. I trust that you may speak with 

 an inspired tongue, and that your voice may pene- 

 trate every just and patriotic breast throughout the 

 land. Let the living principles of the violated Con- 

 stitution be proclaimed and restored, that peace, 

 prosperity, and fraternal feeling may return to our 

 divided and oppressed nation. 



ANDEEW JOHNSON. 



The election took place on the Tuesday after 

 the first Monday of November, which was No- 

 vember 3. 



The result was as follows : 



