5. NATIONAL POLITICS, 1866

Secretary Seward on the Questions at Issue

[1866]

Annual Cyclopedia, 1866, p. 755. EXCUSE me for expressing surprise that you ask me whether I approve of the call of a proposed National Union Convention at Philadelphia.

After more than five years of dislocation by civil war, I regard a restoration of the unity of the country as its most immediate as well as its most vital interest. That restoration will be complete when loyal men are admitted as representatives of the loyal people of the eleven States so long unrepresented in Congress. Nothing but this can complete it. Nothing more remains to be done, and nothing more is necessary. Every day's delay is attended by multiplying and increasing inconveniences, embarrassments, and dangers at home and abroad. Congress possesses the power exclusively; Congress after a session of seven months, still omits to exercise that power. "What can be done to induce Congress to act?" This is the question of the day. Whatever is done must be in accordance with the Constitution and laws. It is in perfect accordance with the Constitution and laws that the people of the United States shall assemble by delegates, in convention, and that when so assembled they shall address Congress by respectful petition and remonstrance, and that the people in their several States, districts, and Territories, shall approve, sanction, and unite in such respectful representations to Congress. No one party could do this effectually or even seems willing to do it, alone; no local or popular organization could do it effectually. It is the interest of all parties alike; of all the States, and of all sections - a national interest; the interest of the whole people.

Platform of National Union Party

McPherson, History of Reconstruction, p. 241. Adopted at Philadelphia. [August 14, 1866] The war just closed has maintained the authority of the Constitution with all the powers with which it confers, and all

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the restrictions which it imposes upon the General Government, unabridged and unaltered, and it has preserved the Union, with the equal rights, dignity, and authority of the States perfect and unimpaired.

3. Representation in the Congress of the United States, and in the electoral college is a right recognized by the Constitution as abiding in every State, and as a duty imposed upon the people, fundamental in its nature, and essential to the existence of our republican institutions, and neither Congress nor the General Government has any authority or power to deny this right to any State, or to withhold its enjoyment under the Constitution from the people thereof.

4. We call upon the people of the United States to elect to Congress as members thereof none but men who admit this fundamental right of representation, and who will receive to seats therein loyal representatives from every State in allegiance to the United States, subject to the constitutional right of each House to judge of elections, returns, and qualification of its own members.

5. The Constitution of the United States, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, are the supreme law of the land, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. All the powers not conferred by the Constitution upon the General Government, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, or to the people thereof; and among the rights thus reserved to the States, is the right to prescribe qualifications for the elective franchise therein, with which right Congress cannot interfere. No State or combination of States has the right to withdraw from the Union, or to exclude, through their action in Congress or otherwise, any other State or States from the Union. The Union of these States is perpetual.

6. Such amendments to the Constitution of the United States may be made by the people thereof as they may deem expedient, but only in the mode pointed out by its provisions; and in proposing such amendments whether by Congress or by a convention, and in ratifying the same, all the States of the

Union have an equal, and indefeasible right to a voice and a vote thereon.

7. Slavery is abolished and forever prohibited, and there is neither desire or purpose on the part of the Southern States that it should ever be reëstablished upon the soil, or within the jurisdiction of the United States; and the enfranchised States in all the States of the Union should receive, in common with all their inhabitants equal protection in every right of person and property.

8. While we regard as utterly invalid, and never to be assumed or made of binding force, any obligations incurred or undertaken in making war against the United States, we hold the debt of the nation to be sacred and inviolable; and we proclaim our purpose in discharging this, as in performing all other national obligations, to maintain unimpaired and unimpeached the honor and faith of the Republic.

9. It is the duty of the National Government to recognize the services of the Federal soldiers and sailors in the contest just closed, by meeting promptly and fully all their just and rightful claim for the services they have rendered the nation, and by extending to those of them who have survived and to the widows and orphans of those who have fallen, the most generous and considerate care.

IO. In Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, who, in his great office, has proved steadfast in his devotion to the Constitution, the laws, and interest of his country, unmoved by persecution and undeserved reproach, having faith unassailable in the people and in the principles of free government, we recognize a chief magistrate worthy of the nation, and equal to the great crisis upon which his lot is cast; and we tender to him, in the discharge of his high and responsible duties, our profound respect and assurance of our cordial and sincere support.

Cleveland Convention Platform

McPherson, History of Reconstruction, p. 243. This convention was composed of Union soldiers and sailors who supported the administration. [September 17, 1866]

THE Union soldiers and sailors who served in the army and

navy of the United States in the recent war for the suppression of the insurrection, the maintenance of the Constitution, the Government, and the flag of the Union, . . determined now, as heretofore, to stand by the principles for which their glorious dead have fallen, and by which the survivors have triumphed, being assembled in National Mass Convention in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, . . do resolve and declare

1. That we heartily approve the resolutions adopted by the National Union Convention held in the city of Philadelphia, composed of delegates representing all the States and Territories of the United States.

That our object in taking up arms to suppress the late rebellion was to defend and maintain the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired, and not in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest and subjugation; and that whenever there shall be any armed resistance to the lawfully constituted authorities of our national Union, either in the South or in the North, in the East or in the West, emulating the self sacrificing patriotism of our revolutionary forefathers, we will again pledge to its support "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

Pittsburg Convention Resolutions

McPherson, History of Reconstruction, p. 247. These resolutions were introduced by Gen. B. F. Butler and adopted by the Soldiers and Sailors Convention at Pittsburg. [September 26, 1866]

RESOLVED, That the action of the present Congress in passing the pending constitutional amendment is wise, prudent, just. It clearly defines American citizenship, and guarantees all his rights to every citizen. It places on a just and equal basis the right of representation, making the vote of a man in one State equally potent with the vote of another man in any State. It righteously excludes from places of honor and trust the chief conspirators, guiltiest rebels, whose perjured crimes have drenched the land in fraternal blood. It puts into the very frame of our government the inviolability of the national debt

and the nullity forever of all obligations contracted in support of the rebellion.

2. That it is unfortunate for the country that these propositions have not been received in the spirit of conciliation, clemency, and fraternal feeling in which they were offered, as they are the mildest terms ever offered to subdued rebels.

3. That the President, as an executive officer, has no right to a policy as against the legislative department of the Government; that his attempt to fasten his scheme of reconstruction upon the country is as dangerous as it is unwise; his acts in sustaining it have retarded the restoration of peace and unity; they have converted conquered rebels into impudent claimants to rights which they have forfeited, and places which they have desecrated. If consummated, it would render the sacrifices of the nation useless, the loss of the lives of our buried comrades vain, and the war in which we have so gloriously triumphed, what his present friends at Chicago in 1864 declared to be a failure.

4. That the right of the conqueror to legislate for the conquered has been recognized by the public law of all civilized nations; by the operation of that law for the conservation of the good of the whole country, Congress has the undoubted right to establish measures for the conduct of the revolted States, and to pass all acts of legislation that are necessary for the complete restoration of the Union.

5. That when the President claims that by the aid of the army and navy he might have made himself dictator, he insulted every soldier and sailor in the Republic. He ought distinctly to understand that the tried patriots of this nation can never be used to overthrow civil liberty or popular gov

7. That the Union men of the South, without distinction of race or color, are entitled to the gratitude of every loyal soldier and sailor who served his country in suppressing the rebellion, and that in their present dark hours of trial, when they are being persecuted by thousands, solely because they are now, and have been, true to the Government, we will not