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yhe daily SATURDAY Morning .August 12. jlany of our exchanges are trying to show what the “"New Departure” means. To all such we would say they had better be considering what the late victory in Kentucky means. If any want information on that sub ject let them read the article in to day’s paper from the Rockford (Indi ana) Democrat, and the able and truly eloquent speech of Hon. J. Proctor Knott, of Kentucky, just on the eve of the election. A. H. S. public Sentiment Elsewhere. SUN old “iron ribbed” Democracy yet— and that the true men of the Party do not intend to run away from their guns in the contest of 1872, nor to (•■pike them either. They intend to stand by them and give from them just such broadsides as the “Bour bons” of Kentucky gave in their late contest and by which so'brilliant and glorious;_a victory lias been achieved. A. H. S. THE NEW DEPARTURE. The Law, the Logic, and the History of the So-called A men (Intents. As an indication of the real tone of sentiment prevailing with the masses of the Democracy in different parts of the country, we take the lib erty of presenting to our readers, to day, extracts from two letters, just at hand: one from "Washington City, the great centre of political action, and the other from New York, the great cen tre of trade and commerce, as well as the headquarters of the. “New Depart ures.” These letters come not from poli ticians, or those engaged in the work of trying to manufacture public opinion, but from men who look upon goYcrnment- as something intended for higher objects than the mere ob- tainment of the spoils of office; men, also, of sense, -who mix with the peo ple, and sympathise with their feel ings and wants; with their oppres sions and their patriotic yearnings for redress, through the proper,*the peaceful, the quiet, the constitutional, and all powerful agency of the ballot box. The letter from New York was penned under the immediate shadow of the New York World, the great leader of those “disaffected Denu> crats” who are now.making such gi gantic efforts to persuade the rank and file of the Party, everywhere, to abandon their principles, go over en masse to the enemies’ ground take possession of it, occupy and “build upon it.” This leading or gan of the “disaffected,” established as a Radical sheet, and having es poused, nominally, the cause of the Democracy only since about the close of the war; not at all liking the Jeffersonian doctrines announced in the Platform of the Party in 1868, it will be recollected, took its “Depart ure” therefrom just before the elec tion of that year, and contributed no little to the defeat of Seymour and Blah*. Like the “ lame captain” in the story, it was the first to “depart,” and has ever since been beating up most lustily for recruits and followers. This “lame captain” who thus signalized his course by abandoning the principles and cause of the Democ racy in the very lieat of the first great contest he was ever engaged iu under that banner, now assumes to be leader of the party! That paper is truly entitled to the leadership of all those who wish to leave or “depart” from their Demo cratic associations for any Teason or purpose whatever—either because they don’t like the Jeffersonian doc trines upon which the organization is founded, or because they think it will “not paif’ to maintain them; but it is entitled to no leadership in the Democratic hosts of the United States—the three millions from whom it so ingloriously departed in 1868! The extracts of the letters referred to are as follows: Speech of Hob. J. Proclor Knott at Eminence, Ky. Democratic Faitli is Policy. ricnio.-mtic ~Washington Crrr, D. C., 1 Uf Fellow-Citizens : In rasp Hiding to the very complimentary invitation I have received to address you on the present occasion, I am oppressed with a painful consciousness that I Ehall not be able to meet the expectations of the large and intelligent audience I have the pleasure of seeing before me. I have but little capacity for mere rhetorical display, even under the most favorable circumstauces, and, worn down as I am to some extent “by the severe physical suffer ing under which X have been laboring for nearly two days past, I feel compelled to appeal to your hind forbearance to excuse me from attempting anything of the kind, as I am satisfied it could only end in a mortifying failure. I trust, also, that you will par don me if I pretermit entirely the ordinary topics of political discussion which have occupied the popular mind during the present canvass, and confine myself exclusively to one which Is every day being brought more and more prominently into view, and upon which public opinion is yet iu the process of forma tion. I allude to the question ns to what should be the policy of the Democratic party with regard te the so-called amendments to the Federal Constitu tion. I would not be understood as underestimating the importance of the various questions arising out of the tariff, internal taxation, and other kindred subjects which have been so thoroughly and ably discussed by the several candidates almost every where throughout tho State during the summer, but this I consider paramount to them all; for, iu my judgment, it not only involves the existence of the Democratic party, but the prosperity of our form of government and tho liberties to which we are-entitled under it. I will crave your indulgence, therefore, while I shall attempt to give it a calm and dispassion ate consideration. TnE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT. With regard to the Thirteenth Amendment, I have simply to say that I suppose there is not an intelli gent Democrat in Kentucky or elsewhere who pro poses to raise a question as to its validity, or who en tertains an idea that it ever will, or ever can. be dis turbed. Infamous as was the breach of faith in volved in the act of forcing it upon those States whose Legislatures refused to ratify it, and whose people were literally robbed, through its operation, of millions upon millions of dollars worth of prop erty; reluctantly as it may have been assented to by those States which had been recently crashed to tho very earth beneath the remorseless heel of a terrible and destructive war, and which were, therefore, in no condition to offer any material opposition to its adoption, it was nevertheless proposed, as all con cede, by two-thirds of all the members who had been elected to either honse of Congress, and ratified by tbo requisite number of States through legisla tures chosen by electors possessing tho qualifica tions prescribed by tho several States themselves in their respective constitutions, and having thus be come a part of the organic law of the land in pursu ance of. the terms of the constitution, and having received the acquiescence of those most materially affected by it, no one that I know of either proposes or desires that it should he repealed or interfered with in any manner whatever. At any rate, that the Democratic party entertains any such idea or inten tion is something that will bo asserted by no ono who possesses the intelligence of an ordinary oys ter, or moral honesty enough to keep his hands out of his neighbor’s corn-crib. The so colled FOUFTEENTH AND FJFTTENTH AMENDMENTS, however, stand upon very different grounds. I hn.vo asserted elsewhere, and I propose to maintain, the truth of the proposition hero to-day, that if there is a single particle of senso or meaning in the provis ions of the Federal constitution, presenting the man ner in which amendments may be made to that in strument, neither of these pretended articles pos sesses any more validity or effect as a part ol' the organic law of this government, or any more bind ing force upon the several States of this Union, either morally or legally, than the resolutions of a mob as sembled in the streets of your town. I am aware that there are those who disdain any thing like a calm, logical investigation of any ques tion, from a constitutional standpoint; who ignore the simplest and plainest dictates of common rea son, and roundly assert the validity of these so- called amendments upon the gratuitous assumption that they are the legitinnte results of the war. I know/too, that it has recently become the habit of seme, who have hitherto acted with the Democratic party, to repeat this flimsy dogma as flippantly as: if they had learned to lisp it with tho first faltering accents of prattling infancy. Notwithstanding i ; seems to my mind that this specious cl3p-trap, with which the faction In power have sought to palliate, if not to justify, every crime it has committed against the constitution of the country, and tho liberties of the people for years past, is as false in principles as it is utterly unfounded in fact. LEGITIMATE RESULTS OF THE WAR. It is one of tho simplest suggestions of natural remson, one that has been recognized by every pub licist from Aristotle down to the very latest writer upon interhationallaw, and one which it seems to me ought to commend itself at once to the apprehension of the commonest capacity in the universe, that nothing can bejustl.v considersed the logical results of a war beyond the'accomplishment of the purpose for which that war was declared and waged. If this were not so there would be no limit to national ra pacity whatever. The unsuccessful party in every international conflict would have been liable to the most cruel outrage that could be conceived by the maUce, or inspired by the passions, of its more powerful adversary, even to the indiscriminate slaughter of its entire people. Unless, therefore.it can be truthfully said that the war was declared and carried on for the avowed purpose of manumiting and enfranchising the negroes of the south; nay more, unless it can be truthfully averred that the war was inaugurated and prosecuted for the express purposes of depriving the States of the last vestage of their reserved rights, and to vest all power in the General Government, to be exercised by it according to the unlimited discretion of Congress, it cannot be pretended wtth any show of either truth or reason that these amendments arc to be classed among its legitimate results, any more than they are the ncces- sarv and logical consequences of tho discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, even, conceding that the limitations in the written constitution may be swept away bv the military arm of the very gov ernment established by it, and that, too, in defiance ofthe plainest provisions of the instrument itself. Now WHAT ABE THE FACTS? Certain States asserted their right to sever their connection with the Federal Union. That right was denied by the general government, and in order to decide the issue thus raised between them, an appt al was made to arms, the ultimate arbitrator of nations. There was, however, as all will remember, a wide spread distrust as to the ultimate purposes of the party which had just acceeded to power, not only in the minds of the Southern people, but with large numbers throughout the North. And In order to dispel any misapprehension wherever it might exist, Congress^ soon alter the commencement of hostili ties, declared with a unanimity and an apparent ear nestness and sincerity scarcely paralleled in tho leg islative annals of mankind, that the war was *‘uot habitants may be permanently divested of all politi- pledged itself to the great principle—so fee as the ail advantages and treated as a foreign territory— * ■*■““ “ •“ error; a grave and dangerous error. * * * 'When the United States take pos session of a rebel district they merely vindicate their pre-existing title. Under despotic governments con- nscation may be unlimited, but under our govern ment the right of sovereignty over any portion of a Btate is given and limited by the constitution, and will be the same after the war as it was before.”— Sucn was thfj theory or every department of the Government during the progress of the war, and the facts were exactly coincident with it when tire rebel lion wae suppressed. The only legitimate results of tne contest were simply the establishment of the principle that a State had no right to secede, and the reassertion of the supremacy of the constitution over Ahe States lately in revolt as over the other members of the Federal Union. When the storm of war pas sed away it left the Southern States precisely in the condition it found them—each with its own consti tution, its own local government, republican inform as it had ever been, its own laws, it3 own institutions and its own dignity and equality as a component part of the Federal Union. These facts were not only recognized by the judi ciary immediately after the war, but were deliberate ly acknowledged by both the legislative and executive departments of the Government in the very act of proponingand submitting the Thirteenth amendment to the Legislatures of those States for their ratifica tion. That amendment was itself a solemn admis sion of record that not even the despised institution cf slavery had been overthrown by the war. while its submission to the Legislatures of the secediug States for their ratification was ail equally solemn and de liberate admission—not only" that they were still States, with governments constitutionally organized, and in full operation, but tli?.t eacn oi them was en titled to an equal voice in the ratification of any pro posed amendment to the organic law of the General Government. This is a conclusion from which reas on or logic can furnish no possible means of escape, and it seems to me that no intelligent and unpreju diced mind will attempt to deny_or evade it. HIST^Y O* THE AMENDMENTS. August 7,1871 Hon. Alexander H. Stephens : My Dear Sir—As it has been four or five yeaTS since I \vrote to you, pardon me for dropping you a line or two. * * * * * * * I fullv approve everything you have said in* The Sun, and if there is any salvation for the country it must be on the line you have indicated. All the Democrats I have conversed with agree that yon are right, &c., * * * I am very truly yours. —— New York, Aug. 6, 1871. Hon. A. 77. Mepliens: waged on onr part in any spirit of oppression, nor My Dear Sir—Absence from tne city j for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or pur- delayed the writing of this letter, there- pose of overthrowing or interfering in «»y way with J ... ,, & 1 the 'rights or establlsh-d institutions of those States, fore you 'Will allow 1U8 at tilis time ^ to eX- J and maintain the constitution, and to press to you rnv unqualified admiration I preserve the Union with all the rights, dignity and of your‘‘New York World once more.” .»—««- ~vee.ist.teo unimnaired.” Ami I have no words to adequately express to you my approval of your article under the above mentioned title. It clears r.p the fog about the 14th and 15th amendments clearly and effectively. There are no other issues in the contest of 1S72, so living and vital as State Bights on the one side, and centralization of power on the other. * * * I bless you in my heart for your explo sion of "the “New Departure” which says we don’t condemn the wrong itself, but only the means by which it has been accomplished. * “ * * * Yours most truly, We coulcl add many more similar demonstrations of popular approval, coming almost daily from Maine to California and Oregon, but neither time nor space will allow. We give eoualitv oi the several States unimpaired.” And not onlv was the design to conquer or subjugate, in any manner interfere with the rights or institu tions of auv State, thus declared by Congress iu the strongest possible language, but both the co ordinate deoartments of the government were com mitted to the same doctrine in terms equally explic it, emphatic and unequivocal. The very first pledge of the executive, then recent ly installed, was that while he bad neither the right nor the inclination to interfere with the institutions of any State, he would see that the laws of the Union should be enforced in all the States of the Union alike, while the judiciary, in every case in which the point was directlv or Incidentally adverted to, de clared that the status of the several States would be tta same after the war as before in THE 8L-PFRESSIOS OF THE REBELLION CONFERRED NO RIGHTS OF CONQUEST. I will be pardoned for citing one case especially, not only because it put* this question beyond con troversy, but because it derives ten-fold more author ity from having been decided in the very focal center of all wisdom, human and divine. I allude to the celebrated case of Amy Warwick, decided in the Uni ted States District Court of Massachusetts—a case long since familiar to every legal mind in the coun try la Ills opinion, delivered in that cr.ee. Judge Sprague, the distinguished jurist, before whom it tins tried, made use of the following plain, emphatic i and unmistakable language: ”It lira been suppled ; Iihyc tho r giits oi a ocllir" Proceeding then upon the hypothesis, thus acted upon by'every department of the Government, and which those especially who denied the right of se cession must admit to be true, that the States lately in rebellion had been restored by the logical result* of the war to their previous condition as co-equal States in the Union, or rather that their condition had never been changed at all, but that they still re tained all their rights, dignity and equality as such, let ue see how these pretended amendments were proposed and ratified. Having rescinded their sev eral ordinances of secession, and ratified the Thir teenth amendment, the eleven Southern States pro ceeded to elect their Senators and Representatives in Congress. Their Senators were elected by the very Legislatures who had just been called upon by Con gress to exercise the highest function in tho entire range of their authority, and whose ratification of the Thirteenth amendment had been accepted and pro mulgated by it as valid iu every particular. Their representatives were chosen by the identical consti tuencies who had elected the members of-those Leg islatures, and whose constitutional right to do so was not disputed by any one, but acknowledged by all. Those Senators and Representatives presented themselves at the Federal capital, and asked to be admitted to their seats to which they were entitled under the constitution, and for which they possessed every qualification prescribed in that instrument.— They were, however, refused admittance, and their States denied their constitutional right to a represen tation iu either branch of Congress. Iu vain they ap pealed to the constitution, which plainly and em phatically guaranteed to their respective States an equal voice in the Senate, and a representation in the House in proportion to their numbers. In vain they demanded that their respective qualifications should be;determined by the same standard which had been applied to the Senators and Representatives from other States standing on precisely the same constitu tional footing with their own. It did not suit the revolutionary purposes of the faction in 'possession of tho legislative department of the government to admit them, so the doors of Congress were con temptuously slammed in their faces, and tho entire powers of Federal legislation assumed by au usurp ing fragment of that body, which, with an effrontery amounting almost to absolute sublimity, proposed what is called the Fourteenth amendment to the constitution, and demanded its ratification at the hands of the very States whose Senators and Repre sentatives it had just, ruthlessly spurned from tho vestibule of the Federal capitol. FROrOSED BY A MINORITY. If you will take the trouble to extmino the jour nals you will find that the proposition was carried in the Senate by a vote of 33 to 11—three Democrats and two Radicals not voting—and in the House by a vote of 13S to'3G—three Democrats and seven Radicals not oting. You will further find that if the delegations from the eleven Southern States had been admitted they ought to have been, in order to give a consti tutional existence to Congress, there would have been, upon a full vote, a clear majority of three against it in the Senate, while it would have failed in the House by sixteen votes. Yet we are told that we must admit that this amendment was proposed in accord ance with the terms of the Constitution, which ex pressly requires tho concurrence of two thirds of both branches of Congress for such a purpose. But if the spirit of the Const itution, to say the least of it, was thus (grossly outraged iu the manner in which this amendment was, proposed, what shall be said of its PRETENDED RATIFICATION? I confess that my limited command of language deprives me of suitable terms ill which to character ize the corruption, outrage, and official crime involv ed in it front beginning to end. It would bankrupt the vernacular itself and I will not attempt it. I will content myself with a bare recital of facts. It was submitted to all the States, but failed to receive the ratification of the requsite number by four—thirteen of them, ten of the seceding States, with Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky, having promptly and in dignantly rejected it Having been thus fully and fairly acted upon by the legislatures of all the States, and its ratification clearly defeated, it was, according to every principle of common reason, and every parliamentary rule and precedent with which I am familiar, dead to all in tents and purposes, and could only he resurrected by being again proposed and again submitted to all the States. But a new and very different principle was applied. It was deliberately determined to hold on to the votes of those States which had ratified it, without allowing any of them the privilege of recon sidering andreversing their action, and then by forced fraud, and every other appliance that might be found necessary, compel—aye, compel—a sufficient num ber of the recusant States to give it their formal as sent to satisfy the letter of the constitution, and thus make a show of having complied wlth the forms of the law. Ten States which, asl have already shown, had been time and again recognized as coequal States of tho Federal Union notwithstanding their rebel lion, standing precisely upon an equal footing with all the other States, were accordingly throttled by the ruthless hand of revolutionary force. Their con stitutions were annulled, their laws abrogated, their legislatures disbanded, the ermine stripped from their judges, and their Governors displaced, and all the functions of civil government committed to mil itary satraps, whose dominion over the life, liberty and property of every man, woman and child in their respective districts was as unlimited and irresponsi ble as that of any absolute despot that ever lorded it over any portion of the Almightj’’s footstool. There was inaugurated all over the entire South such a SATURNALIA OF OFFBESSION, violence, outrage, and official crime of every descrip tion, as was never seen before among civilized men, and such as I trust in God will never be seen again. Every guarantee in the bill of rights, every safeguard to personal right, as well as eve.y bulwark of State independence, was swept away like shreds of gossa mer. The press was muzzled; freedom of speech was suppressed; the sanctity of the homestead and the security of the person were at .the mercy of ev ery petty subaltern; the erdinary machinery of jus tice was displaced by tho military commission and the drumhead court-martial; the citizen was seized without warrant, accused without indictment, tried without a jury, condemned without law, stripped of his property without compensation, imprisoned without the benefit of the kabcas corpus, and denied even the privilege of appealing to the civil arm of the government for protection or re dress. In the meantime the habiliments of citizen ship were stripped from thousands and tens of thou sands of the mastpntelligent portion of the white pop ulation, through the operation of wide-sweeping bills of attainder and infamous ex post facto enactments, enforced at the point of the bayonet; while the bal lot, which had been tom from tho white man, was, by an usurpation as monstrous as it was unauthor ized, placed in the hands of the recently manumitted slaves. Nor was tbat all. nor half. If pandemonium itself had taken an emetic, it conld not have vomited up such an offseouring of miserable miscreants 3s the hordes of loathsome vermin who, allured by the' rich prospect of plunder, swarmed from every por tion of the Union to fatten, like gangs of hungry wolves, upon the fallen prosperity of that unhappy section of cur country. (Great applause.] I know this may sound like the extravagant lan guage of exaggerated hyperbole, but I know, and you know, it is the literal truth. And no man who knows anything of the first elements of civil liberty, who ever felt any of the more generous impulses of the human heart, can review the long and damning catalogue of bitter, burning wrongs which were per petrated upon that poor, oppressed, down trodden people, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, with out feeling a thrill of indignant horror permeating every fibre and tissue of his being. (Applause.] In a single word (he partv in power, by the sheer exer- "rise of brute force', and in open and shameful'defi ance of every obligation of the constitution, created a set of mere instruments, utterly subservient to its own will; commanded them to organize just such pretended legislatures as suited its own purposes, and then compelled these so-called legislatures to give their formal assent to its revolutionary proposi- tions to amend the 1 -Federal 'constitution'-under the penalty cf perpetual military vassalage- This is the plain, simple truth of the matter, and no one with the slightest regard for veracity wiltpretendto deny it. [Applause!] . loyal State* were concerned at least—that the right to regulate the elective franchise was inherent in the several States. Yet scarcely, had the shouts of tri umphs which greeted their success died away before they made this proposition to strip the States of the last vestige of independence by robbing them of this great paramount right Their candidate elected up on that platform was under every obligation that could influence an honorable gentleman to maintain and defend, for those who had honored him with |heir confidence, the principles avowed in it. Yet while the acclamations that greeted his inauguration were echoing along the heights of Arlington and Georgetown, he was leading his imperial mandate before the State Legislatures to violate the very first pledge it contained. When it was before the Senate the proposition was Bade that it should be submit ted to Legislature to he elected, in order that the people themselves night be heard, but it was promptly and contemptuously rejected. What right had tho people to be heard on a question like that, or any other involving the destruction of their liberty ? It was submitted to tie States, and, like the Four teenth had been, was fairly defeated upon a full and final action of their several Legislatures. But the ruling party was determined that it should have at least the appearance «f a formal ratification at all haz ards. And what was done ? Georgia, whose Legis lature had rejected itj was absolutely expelled from the Union, and compelled to reverse her action and ratify it under pain cf being subjected indefinitely to the tender mercies of the military despotism to which she was sumnarily remitted, while the vote of New York was retained in favor of it, notwithstan ding her Legislature had withdrawn her assent to itsTatification. The Legislature of Indiana never legally acted upon it £t all, less than a constitutional quorum being present when it was voted upon. Yet, when her Legislature subsequently protested against the unconstitutional aid unauthorized act of a revo lutionary fragment ofher former General Assembly being taken as the voile of her people, their remon strance was spurned with disdain and contempt, and the act held valid. PARALLEL CASES. Now, suppose thatthese amendments had been re jected by the New England States, and that Cnogrcss had thereupon declared them mere military depend encies upon the General Government, driven their delegations from thei? seats, overthrown their State Governments, limited the right of suffrage to a par ticular class of its ow» selection, and compelled tbiat class, through revolutionary assemblies,'to give, its assent to them underpain of being deprived of every vestige of free government until it should .do so, woulditbe contentedfor a.single moment that a rati fication procured in such a manner would have made them valid or bindiig on any one? It would not; hut why ? Because the Constitution no where confers upon Congress any sich power. But where, let me ask, does it get any nore authority to throttle South Carolina, and compel her to obey its unconstitutional and revolutionary beiests, than it has to treat Massa chusetts in the same manner? What should bo in that Massachusetts? Why should that name bo sounded more than South Carolina? Write them to- i jether, South Carolina is as fair a name; sound them, :.t doth become the mouth as well; weigh them; it is as heavy; conjure with them, South Carolina will start a spirit as soon as Ha“sachiisetts.” [Laughter, and applause.] Again Iask you: Suppose Congress had gathered up on Pennsylvania arenue a motley crowd of igno rant negroes, vagrant carpet-baggers, and contempt ible scalawags, called it the legislature of- Virginia, and compelled it to ritily in that name these pre tended! amendments, would you pretend, for a soli tary instant, that such a ratification would have made them valid or binding upon any body not compelled to submit to them by mere brute force? You would not. The most ultra Radical between the oceans would not, and why? You answer again/ because there is no such power delegated to Congress in the Constitution. But where, tell :ne, is the provision in that instrument which either expressiy or by any kind of implication confers .upon Congress any more authority to overturn the government of Virginia, disfranchise her white voters, and put negroes in their places, by arbitrary edicts enforced bymilitary power, than it has to confer all the sovereign powers of that Comic omvealth upon any hundred vagabond negroes it might see proper to select in the streets of the city cf Washington? DEMOCRATIC FAITH. 1 T"! ?TI ■■ ■■■■" 1 ■— 1 " the purest meu iu our laud—because I believe an im partial and enlightened judiciary would wipe that foul and damning blot from our escutcheon any way; not because it seeks to enshrine the interests of the bondholder forever, bayond tho reach of the labor ing tax-payer—for I have never doubted the integrity of the people, or that they would discharge the last cent of their honest obligations if lot alone, anyway; nor yet because of thejshameful attempt to repudiate the millions of dollars justly due the people of my native State, for I thank God they can live without it [applause]; but because there is not a# encroachment upon State authority, there is not an outrage upon State rights, there is not a single stretch of usurpa- " — — ■ » one professing to be a Democrat at that time. A ■ for myself 1 know 1 as conscientiously believed the opin ion uttered in this resolution to be correct iu every particular as I do that I have to die. But let ns ava lize this a little. Hero the Democratic party dis tinctly state in 1868, that the right of granting, regu lating and controlling the privilege of suffrr.g rri the States—and, of course, that includes the tin South ern States—belonged exclusively to those s res pectively, and that any attempt by Cong; css to de prive them of that right, or interfere wit!: it: ter- cise on any pretext, or in any manner whatever is flagrant usurpation of power without auy warrant in the constitution. Now can we _ admit that tion of any kind; however monstrous or dangerous j this statement was untrue? We cannot without it may be, that may not, and will not be perpetrated , admitting that wo either did not h»vo .sufficient As for myself, reared as I havo been in the ancient Democaatic iaith, I have always thought and always shall think, until my mental and moral organization are entirely changed, that Congress has no power not delegated to it in the constitution. That whatever it does outside of or in contravontion to the provisions of that instrument—the very charter that gives it an existence—is absolutely null and void, and that if the entire population of the United States should gather in one vast assemblage and adopt a platform, declar ing it a “fixed fact,” and declaring any ono who would question its validity a resurrectionist of “dead issues,” it would nevertheless be still as utterly null and void, with no binding effect npon any one either legally or morally. If I am mistaken in this, how ever; if amendments can be made to the constitu tion in this way, proposed by a fragmentof Congress while keeping whole delegations out of their seats by force, ratified by mere organized mobs whom Con gress may see proper to call States, and made “fixed facts” by the Democracy’s simply “departing” from its ancient faith—“folding its tents and stealing quietly away,”—then we are under a consolidated government with no limitations upon its powers be yond its own discretion ; our Federal system is a miserable sham, and tho States mere subordinate municipalities to be made and unmade whenever it may suit the revolutionary designs of any faction who may get two-thirds of each HouSo of Congress to place them under the crushing heel of a military despotism. _ ' SACRED THINGS. Yet it may bo eo, for vro nro told that these amend ments are sacred things, which no unhallowed hand must touch. To taste the “shewbread” on the alter was sacrilege; to look upon the shekinahwa3 allowed alone to the High Driest, and to him only when clothed in sacred vestments, he entered the sanctum sanctorum oi the Holy Temple; to even stretch forth the hand to stay the tottering ark was ceatain and in stantaneous death. But the sanctity of all these com bined could not compare to the holiness wjiich in vests these household gods of Radicalism which the entire Democratic party is commanded to fall down and worship in abject humility. [Laughter and ap plause.] The' wretch who would suggest their re moval from the exalted pedestal upon which they have been placed, is doomed to a political damnation beyond the utmost reach of pardoning grace. [Great laughter.] They are “fixed facts,” as immutable: the firm foundations of the everlasting universe. “The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself; Yea, allwhich it inherits shall dissolve. And, like an insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not arack behind.” But these amendments, the twin offspring of an incestuous dalliance of brutal force with unblushing fraud, must stand forever the sublime objects ofthe supreme adoration of unquiet Democratic ghosts through all the unending cycles of eternity. [Great laughter and applause.] THE IMPORTANCE OF RESTORING THE CONSTITUTION, It has been said, hbwever, that these amendments have accomplished their ends and spent their force; that they are now but harmless excrescences upon the body of the organic law. But granting this to be so, which I think I can show you is far, very far, from being true, still, in my judgment, it should be the constant, increasing aim, the determined, in vincible purpose of every patriot, to have them au thoritatively annulled, if for no other reason than as solemn and emphatic condemnation of the iniqui tous manner in which they have been forced upon the country, a standing memorial, a perpetual pledge of the stern determination of an enlightened people never to submit to any such tampering with their organic law and system of government in fu ture. The error of to-day is the precedent for to morrow. That in its turn will become the prolific parent of others perhaps more dangerous. Admit thatthese amendments are valid and binding; admit that alterations may be made in the organic law, in the manner in which they have been attempted to be made, and tell me how long it will be until you have others of a still more alarming character fastened upon you in the same way? How long will it be be fore you have your Senators elected for life, and the Chief Magistracy made hereditary in some large and respectable family, like that of your illustrious Chief Magistrate for instance. [Laughter.] Do not imagine, my fellow-citizens, that I intend th .se suggestions as an idle jest. I tell you I am speaking in all seriousness, It has been iny duty for several years past to watch the progress of pub lic events, and I have done so closely and vigilantly. Day after day I have seen some new and startling usurpation of power by the dominant party in this go-ernnicut, until have seen each in turn made the, precedent, the pretext,tho stepping-stone, to arcth- er still more alarming; and 1 warn you now sol emnly and deliberately, that if the American people shall acquiesce either tacitly or expressly in the man ner in which it has been attempted to engrait these amendments upon the constitution; if they shall suffer themselves to become committed to any such modes'of-tinkering with the organic ^aw of their government by lying supinely upon their backs'in CONTROL or SUFFRAGE WRESTED FROM THE STATES : : jjf defiance of a popular veto. Now; every thing 1! have said of the manner in which the Fourteenth Amendment was proposed —id pretended to be ratified is equally true of the Fif teenth, and more. The Fifteenth as a grand master piece of party fraud, as a sublime Insult to the popn- lar sense was an improvement even upon the mon strous features of its predecessor. The proposition to admit the negro to tho right of suffrage had been but a year or two before voted down .in nearly every .. , -f Li,- 3n„i- I TiT^iTrT’Ye ri-veerr ..eut have the rights or a Dellige- Northern State - by ovenrhelnnim majorities. The tllCSe tWO aS samples 0- the Y\ liOm. j then »f*e- t'-e retieHion is suppressed it will i Radical party itself, in the v<-ry platform upon which v that there is life m the 1 have tho rights of corn and justified by an unscrupulous faction, under the pretext of enforcing them, if they are to be accepted and retained as a part of the Federal constitution. One by one the States will be stripped of their local municipal powers. Every law upon which you de pend for tho protection of your life, liberty, or prop erty will be supervised, altered, or annulled, as may suit the will or subserve tho purposes of the central power. The tenure of every local office will be made to depend upon the pleasure of the consolidated gov ernment, whose hordes of commissioners, marshals, detectives, pimps, and. spies will swarm upon every community like the frogs and tho lice of Egypt, feast ing like maggots upon the mangled and testering members of tho body-politic. The last bulwark of Republican liberty will be swept away. In the fierce clash of contending factious, or the vain stvugglo to recover the corse of murdered freedom, internecine strife will drench your land in blood. A Marius, a Sylla, a Fompey, a Cjesar, aye, perchance, a Brutus, will again appear in tho eve’r-shifting, ever repeating drama of history, and, at last, the aspiring hand of some Octavius will seize the imperial diadem anil wave his iron sceptre over the debauched and ener vated fragments of a once proud and powerful peo ple. ltUtT.T7.En already. Do you tell me that those are hut the horrid chimeras of a diseased imagination, the insubstantial exhalations of a disordered brain? Do you tell me that we really have none of these things to Stsa/L Look what has already been done. You have teen citizen after citizen throttled in his. native forum by the strong hand of Federal power, dragged hun dreds of miles from his home, and put upon his trial before a strange jury, in a court that has no constitu tional jurisdiction of his person, or of the offense of which he has been charged, ana condemned to im prisonment or death for tho violation of no law that Congress ever passed or ever had the power to pass. You have seen information after information lodged in thei Federal Court to inquire by what authority your attorney general, your judges, your sheriffs, your clerks, and perhaps your legislators, presume to discharge the functions of the offices to which they have been regularly chosen by tho people. You havo seen your judges indicted like malefactors in the district court for the faithful and conscientious discharge of their sacred duties, according to their official oaths. And you have asked in terror and amasement, why all these strange and alarming pro ceedings? By what authority is the province of the State thus invaded? Ah, my friends, the Federal au thorities have simply been carrying out the provis ions of an act to enforce the provisions of thoFour- teenih and Fifteenth Amendments to the Federal constitution. D'ait till your next Congressional elec tion, and you will see them enforce the. supplement al provisions of the same act. You see your morn ing papers teeming with teise and forcible denunci ations of • THE KU-KLUX BILL. Day after day yon hear its fierce feaiures described, and its monstrous provisions denounced in the fer vid tones of indignant eloquence by orators and statesmen, tho latchet of whose shoes I am not wor thy to unloose. Your curiosity becomes excited, and you turn to the bill itself, and your blood ebbs back, chilled and curdled to its vital centre, when you dis cover that the life, liberty, and fortune of every hu man being in the Commonwealth may -at any moment become subject to the irrespesi ble fiat of a single will, that the whole machinery of your State government may he stopped in an instant: yonr constitution susponded, your laws superceded; and the benign goodness of justice dethroned by the grim, misshaped, hell-born demon of marshal law. You seo the shimmer of tho bayonet through every paragraph. You catch the fierce bright gleam of the sword-blade in every sentence. Yon hear tho sharp click of the trigger in every lino. You look abroad over tho State, and in almost every town you behold detachments of Federal troops in Etern battalion, with fixed bayonets and shotted guns, ready to en force its fierce provisions to the bloodiest letter. You may even hear some callow fledgling, fresh from the ball-rooms of the military school, impatient to flesh his maiden sword upon some harmless citizen, sigh for the signal to the flay as ho glances at the untarn ished epaulette upon which he feels the superincum bent weight of the entire government added to the ponderous burden of hi3 own mighty genius.. [Great laughter and applause.] And you ask why all this ? Look at the title of the bill, my friends. Don’t you see it is a bill to enforce the provisions of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution? Y, T ill you tell me now, in full view of all these things, when you have calmly contemplated them as I have endeavored to do, in all their bear ings, and traced them all to their ultimate and logi cal consequences, that I am laboring under a tempo rary aberation when I tell you these amendments are fraught with danger to -our form of government and the rights and liberties it was designed to protect?— “I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.” I tell you it is as true as yon sun in the. heavens that your govern ment muv be destroyed through the instrumentality of these bills alone. Yet 1 would say to those gen tlemen who are clay after day inveighing' against them with all the fervor of eloquence and all the power of logic, while secluously maintaining the va lidity and sanctity of the foul source from whence they sprung, that they ore only holding the anes thetic to tho patient’s nostril while, perhaps unwit tingly, they aggravate the disease that is sapping the foundation of his life. 1 would say to those who are expending all the resources of their genius iu en deavoring to arouse the people to a sense of their clanges by vivid and startling portrayals of the fright ful features of these fearful measures, they had far better tear aside the veil at once, and expose to the affrighted gaze of their fellow-citizens all the hideous deformity of the monsters which gave them birth, and whose prolific wombs are yet teeming with atroc ities still more monstrous. I tell them they had as well attempt to turn back the resistless tide of the Niagara with a straw, as to think of arresting the seething flood of unlimited power that is sweeping us onto the vortex of centralization and despotism, while these fountain-he&dfl.of Congressional iniquity remain. YVhy how long will it be - before Mr. Siun- ner’6 famous bill shall become a law, enforcing, un der heavy penalties, the absolute social level as well as the political equality of the races ? How long" be fore your school bouses will be forced, open, the black and the white child seated on the same form, and your common school fund divided between them, under the pretext of securing equal immuni ties to all the citizens of the Commonwealth under the 14th amendment to the constitution ? How long will it be before every voting place throughout the State will bristle with Federal bayonet* under the pretext of enforcing the 15th amendment to the con stitution ? And then how long will it be before the central power will have absolute control of every thing through the farce of an election conducted un der such auspices? And finally, tell me how long even the semblance of your present form of govern ment will exist ? Yet we are told we must acquiesce; that all other provisions of the constitution may be changed at pleasure, hut these must never ho moles ted. The man whose impious tongue presumes to suggest the thought is guilty, of a deadlier crime than the fearful sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. YYe must not even allude to them save “in a bondsman’s key with bated breath and whispering humbleness,” with our hands on our mouths and our months in the dust. They are more inviolable than “the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whoso mortal taste Brought death into the world and all our woe.” Let one of .them be touched and some infallible keeper of the Democratic conscience waves in kingly majesty his imperial truncheon, “Off with his head!” and the unhappy varlet, whose impious hand dared the sacreligious deed, .. . “Cut off in theiblossom of his sin, Uhhouseletl, disappointed, unaneled” Glides'into a political perdition from which there is no redemption. [Great laughter.]. HOW CAN DEMOCRATS;RATIEY THESE INIQUITIES? But let me ask how in all seriousness;'and I do it with the utmost deference to the opinion; and with the highest respect for the purity of motive and pa triotic -intention of any gentleman who may differ with me on this proposition, can the Democratic Ipafty With any reasonable degree of self-respect, or any plaueible show of consistency, agree not only to a quiet acquiescence in these amendments but pled capacity to dircern the truth, or enough sincerity to tell it. But if it was true theu, what has occuu ed to make it any the less so now? If the principle is ad mitted to be true now, how can wo admit that Con gress had the right to throttle those ten State i as it did for no other purpose than to compel them to rat ify these amendments? OrifwosayfhatCongress had no right thus to overthrow tboso States, how call we contend that their act, committed without authority* • du- mo- „ _ _ .de liberately, that if this usurpation shall bo sanct'n ned by tho people, it will subvert our form i t govern ment, destroy tho States, aad establish on tho ruins of the RepubUcacousoiidatcddespotism. Iua word, that it will bring about a revolution thorough »ud complete. Arc we to admit that we are rov< iltiHon- ists? That we not only sauctiou and acquiesce in it, but pledge ourselves to assist in bringing it about by sustaining the very cause that is to produce it? Are wc to say that we will not only acquiesce In and agrcee to a total destruction of the state s, and the centralisation of all power in an absolute despotism to he erected on the ruins of tho Republic, but pro test against any thing being dono to prevent it. Nay more, that we will actually assist iu carrying on the great work by enforcing these amendments as a part of tho fundamental law of the land. Yet we must admit all this, or wc must admit tho resolution I have read to be false, both in premise and conclu sion. Yet wc are told there will bo no inconsistency in all this; no departure from principle; none what ever. Then, by all means, let us doit, and if con sistency is a jewel, as some say, why we will bo in possession of a gem which it would bankrupt tho exchequer of every crowned head in Europe to pur chase. [Laughter.] I may be mistaken, but to my mind it really looks like a “departure,” though they y it is not in fact, however much it may rescmblo ono in the eye of a strict construction Democrat. FOB WHAT VOLITICAL SFTECX ? But suppose wo do depart, what are we to gain by it? Do you think any member of tho Radical party will have any more respect for us, or confi dence in us if we do ? "Will they join our party any the sooner for it ? If yon know anything of human nature you must be satisfied that they would not. But let me say to you, feliow-cUizens, there aro thousands and tens of thousands oi as honest, pure minded, patriotic gent'emon in the Radical ranks ae ever breathed tho vital air of heaven; man of noble, generous impulses, but men who have hitherto acted from mistaken impressions of fact. 1 knew many of that character even among their representative men Congress. Men who desire tho perpetuity of our Federal system as much as you or I do. Those men joined the Radical party perhaps when it professed the doctrine.it promulgated in I860, in it3 platform on which Lincoln was elected, the same doctrine that tho Democratic party has over maintained, namely, “that the maintainanco inviolate of the rights of tho States was essential to tho balance of power on which the perpetuity and endurance of our political system depends.” Those meu have seen, and are begin ning to see more clearly every day, that their party has long since abandoned this great cardinal princi ple, and are moving right on steadily and surely to the fearful mafistrom of centralization anil despot ism, and havo consequently been flocking to tho Democratfo standard by thousands, becauso thoy have seen the grand old party stand by and main tain its ancient faith as firmly and manfully in the dark hour of defeat as it did in the noontide of suc cess. And they will continue to do so as long as wa give them reason to believe us to be honest, earn est, consistent men, who believe what we profess and dare assert what wa behove. CAN WE GAIN VOTES BY IT? Is this not so? I appeal to tho facts. When I en tered the Fortieth Congress the entire Democratic delegation consisted of a forlorn hope of a little over forty members. In tho Forty-first we had, I believe, over seventy, at any rate, I know wo have In tho present Congress 103, with a certainty of a further increase. With tho same ratio of gain the next Congress, as well as the electorial college, will be ours, and there is no reason why wo should not havo it if we will only bo true to ourselves. Where, then, is the necessity of our departing a single hair’s breadth from our time-honored principles, fortified as they are by the highest impulses of patriotic manhood, even tf party success is so desirable as to justify a sacrifice of sound political principles to attain it? YVhy, then, should wo sound au igno minious retreat, or tamely surrender our standard just when victory is holding out her glittering chap let to onr grasp ? It may be sound strategy to do so—deep, profound strategy—but I don’t think Al exander or Hannibal, or Cjesar or Marlboro, or Na poleon or Lee, or Yon Moltke, ever saw it in that light. [Laughter.] A FICTION OF THE ENEMY. But I may be asked what I propose that the Dem ocratic party should do ? Should it resist tho en franchisement by force ? By no means, nor do I suppose that any sane man iuaido or outside of tho party entertains any such idea, but I do suppose that any one who is familiar with the platform of tho Kentucky Democracy ought to know what it to proposed to do without auy suggestion frjm me whatever. It said in plain, emphatic and unmis takable language that it was “ready to join in all lawful and just measures to reverse the tyranicai acts of the party in power, whereby it sought to strip the States of their rights and concentrate all the powers of the Government in a great centralized despotism.” .That language is plain enough, I sup pose, for the comprehension of anybody; and I sup pose, moreover, that anybody who km. vs anything about the sterling manhood, the integrity, sincerity and honesty of the great mass of the Democracy df Kentucky, will admit that they men just what they say. [Applause.] But I have heard it suggested that the language I have just read is revolutionary. But had it not been for the very high opinion I entertain of the intellect of some who have done so, I should be tempted to treat the suggestion as being scarcely up to the level of ordinary nonsense. THE REMEDY. It is held by far wiser men than I am, and men of far more legal ability than I ever hope to possess, that upon a proper ease made, tho invalidity of these amendments can be settled by the Federal judiciary. Wlilie, on the other hand, I have heard it denied that the courts had either the power or tho integrity to do so; that the political departments of the govern ment having recognized the caipet-bag governments ofthe Southern States, the courts of the country aro estopped from questioning their right to ratify an amendment to the constitution, and that if they were not they would not do so. How that may he I win not now attempt to argue, but it is certain that tho question can only bo settled when the experiment is tried, and certainly no one will say that it would be either unlawful, unjust, or revolutionary to try it But, waiving the consideration of all other methods by which it might be done, it can not he denied that these iyranical and revolutionary proceedings can be reversed and annulled through the same agencies which brought them about, by the joint action of Congress and the States. Ah, but I am told that that will he impossible. Certainly it will, if we sit down supinely and never try it. It may, and doubtless will, require long, persistent, determined, and continued effort to accomplish the reversal*W these measures in this manner, but are we for that reason to sit down supinely, fold our hands in de spair, and look quietly on? Nay, assist in the de struction of our government, and the overthrow of our own liberties without making au effort for the preservation of either because it will require perhaps a long and patient effort to accomplish it ? It has been the mission of the Democratic party to preserve the constipation, the.rights of the States, and the lib erties of the people iii all their original integrity, and its highest purno.-o now is to restore our tom* and mangled government to its pristine health and vigor, if indeed the gangrene has not so far fastened its fangs upon its vital centers ae to place it beyond, all surgery ; and when it rfiiall abandon that purpose, and lend its aid, if it ever should; to aggravate the wounds it should heal; when it shall become the mere camp follower of a faction which is waging a crusade against the life ofthe constitution and. all the liberties of the people under it, its destiny uriH be done, its glory will be departed, and “Ichr.bod” written upon its door-poet.-. Its efiaaces pf success, even as a party organization, and for the privilege of cipdi in its political creed, the preservation -rights c£ the States as the-'surest bulwark against auti republican fendehciVs, and the only safeguard to individual literiy. Saying nothing of ibis great principle which has been its polar star for (jVF v v* V *“6 Dupuavaj up'JL uivu XXX > 1 . v- * * [<viai •- lax -x - v'li supreme apathy and indifference to the usurpations, | seventy years, gcid-cg it alike under the bright skies outrages and wrongs in such, revolutionary proceed- j of domestiejpeace and amid the tempe'tt of ci vil war, ingg, it will not fee long beforethey will have aeon-i and which, I think, all must ad-i.it, will fade from soiidated despotism erected npon the mins of tlicir ' federal republic. Nay, if they admit that the man ner in which th^se amendments were proposed and ratified renders them valid and binding, Attorney Geneial Akerman was right. The States are mere dependencies upon the central power, and may be blotted out of existence and placed under a military despotism whenever it suits the sovereign! will of that power to order it to be done. What boots the sham pretence that even the letter of tho Law has been complied with in their enactment, -when its spirit -is crushed to death? Augustus was Edile, Augur, Pontiff^ tribune of the people, .Consul, Em peror,.despot, all at tho same time, and ali in pur suance of the letter of the Roman ccnstitution th^jrmament h< to re the more effulgent Rgnithat must illamice' its pathway in the “new departure” it :3 now invited to take; leaving that feature of the case out of view entirety, can.it afford, now, to ig nore its own record upon these very amendments ? Nobody has forgotten, or ialik ly to forget, that only three years ago there was one of tho largest conven tions of tile party that, has ever assembled, perhaps, since the earliest getlod in the history of its brgaaiz- tu>n. Nor hasanyffiody. forgotten that the most hes ticea-'.le feautnre. in all its deliverances on that oc~a- sion was tho feUowtag J “We do declare and r-solve. that c-ver since the people of tile.-- rtates.thrc-v off all subjection to the .British crown the privilege and trust of suffrage j iiave'belc-nged to the several States, and have been XHE BEST rOLICY.. I appeal to the student of history to point to a gle instance ' in the anna's of. the human family where r. people, or - political party ever arose tu power or achieved success save by a fixed, determin ed,' persistent adherence to some great iHirposs' ing a- —. o , tion of thanks to the battle-scarfed :igo.ent ya.To’fi legions b -cause they proudly and ieoantij bore aloft the Boman t-agh a as they a.. ■ a ly ana s.m lenly retreated from the disastrous fields Oi Cannx. And where was Carthage when tho.m eagles peached upon the bleak hills of Caledonia, or nestled amid toe rains of ancient Babylon, with an empire between They show "conquest; that a Stats and its in- jt had just succeeded in electing its President, had amended to suit his sovereign will. > But these ameml'mem are r • ...i -i.._'the j granted, regulated, and coniroled igcitttiTdyby the harmless things that some pretend. P warn you that l political power of each State respectively, sudtkat they are full of danger. They are srrekarged with! auy attempt by Congress, on auy pretext whatever, to peril to your system of government and the liberties j deprive any -rate f this right, or interuru with its to which you are entitled under it.' Not simply be- j exe rcise, is a flagrant usurpation of power, wuic-h ) t ]; , ,. cause the negro is-dedared to be a citizen; not be- ( cau find no war cause he goes to the polls and vote; is declareu that no Slate shall dij life, liberty, or property without for although the-c*Hiiral goverum; H repeated instances, eve if in times of profound peace., f au v.uuti - .1. : ;;-ru i>ci.-ta<*li.-h--d in i« - will; and has assumed unlimited power to do s-j now, no Fee oral t'ni n of eo equal States." one supposes.the States would, cr even could; do I Thi-; ;.-.ajr ;ph coutai inch a thing with impunitv:-not that th. basis of ! Ur-.- argument. It -tans my- . representation is sought to he changed; not because i petspicuoufcjl;.'. »«•« «•»dorses -m ! of the infamous bill of attainder, which suspends tlie 1 utmost letter, HmTTjs-eSujuwbd sword of Damocles over the leads of thousands of conclusions v erb t nderted mo: them ? J Applause.] Even should ail others desert them, let the gallaut Democracy of my the standard-bearers in I860, sti-i keep **, fre ' * aloft as good men. brave and true, am’ a “ 6 “ “ yet rally around it sufficient to reacoo onr govern ment from r Le iv around it sufficient to rescue our govero- om the vaudalic horde that menaces its exist (V . - -viihjut ; tu ’tttc-r i* it vriil go do^vli yonr ’iberties ;