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gtorn which some pedantic Professor inigbt either devise for his own gratifica ti; n, or might cause to be adopted as the j aW 0 f the land, by availing himself of the most infamous and unscrupulous in trigues that are known to party organiza tions. To suffer this, would be, indeed, equivalent to a relinquishment of dignity as mcn . Such a thing the Church can ncvor do, nor will the Christian people, under her guidance, submit to it, without a druggie. Our struggle, for such a pur pose, would be one eminently pleasing to God; it would be a struggle for our highest and best boon—a struggle against the lowest and most degrading of tyrannies; f, r never yet has any people been asked to -iilnnit to a more degrading servitude than that which it is proposed to fasten upon them by this new system, of what is known as the “modern State.” Frointht New York World. n sos the Democratic loudldates. HORATIO SEYMOUR. deratio Seymour, the Democratic can p; o for President of the United States, Wii ;>oru in Poutpey, Onondaga county, S ,v fork, in the year 1811, and iseonse v about fiity-seven years of age. Xi:-; family to which Mr. Seymour be ] descended from Richard Seymour, v. * vas one of the original settlers of Hertford, Connecticut. Major Moses Sey jiiour, the fourth lineal descendant, served in the Devolution ary War, and subse n’iuntiy represented Litchfield in the R. _ J-uure of Connecticut lor several y Os his five sons, Henry Seymour, fa icrof Horatio, was born in 1780. He renewed to Utica, in this State, served in . iio Legislature with signal ability,and was for many years Canal Commissioner, occupying a prominent position in the poii ►es and legislation of the State. One ;i:- brothers was a distinguished mem h of the United State Senate from V . :nt f t twelve years. Hon. Origen 8. inc ur, fur some time Representative i roncress from the Lichtield District, of Core eticut, was the sou of another brother n; n ”i Ozias. The maternal grandfather of ir. Seymour, Col Porman, served thro ;h the Revolutionary War in the No v Jersey line. v fo. Seymour received ,i liberal artel so ■ ■di education in the best institutions of -h State. His instincts and preferences naturally led him to the study of the law, vvhico he pursued with great vigor and lu ll: is :.y. He was admitted to the bar when nly a- little more than twenty years of age, a a i it once commenced the practice of his ; : :b'don in the city of Utica. The death of his father, however, soon afterward de veloved upon him so great responsibilities in connection with the settlement of the family estate, as to require the most of his time and attention, obliging him, much against his wish, to relinquish the practice of his profession. The death of his wife’s father, the late John 11. Bleecker, occur ring about the same time, added to his numerous cares in the adjustment of im ponant property interests. Some of the beyears of Mr. Seymour’s life were ab sorbed in tills work, hut no doubt his mind was being schooled, as it could not other wise have been, for the graver responsi ble i:ie ■> and duties that were to come in afterlife. Up to this time Mr. Seymour had icted no prominent part in political life, although from youth, as were his an cenors before him, he had always been strongly attached, through sympathy and taste, to the Democratic party. in the fail of 1841, when not thirty years of age, Mr. Seymour consented to the use of his name as a Democratic candidate for meal ier of Assembly. Although the Whigs at th i: 'itiic were largely in the acccndancy in iJtica, Mr. Seymour was elected by a large majority. In the Legis lature Mr. Seymour at oi.ee took a com manding position upon the great questions involving the interests of the State, engag ing m the leading debates with great fer vency and assisting largely in shaping the iemNation of the session. Among his legislative associates were John A. Dix, Michael Hoffman, David 11. Floyd Jones, George Pi, Davis, Semucl Stetson, and Calvin T. liulburd. The Democrats at that time were in the ascendancy in both branches of the Legislature, and the great measure of the session was Michael Hoff mim’s celebrated bill in relation to finances, which was supported and passed by the A mocrats. In the success of this measure, which was designed to restore the depre ciated financial credit of the State, Mr. Seymour took an active and sympathetic interest, displaying for the first time the forensic ability and oratorical powers that cave once distinguished him. In the spring of 1842 Mr. Seymour was elected Mayor of the city of Utica, despite [j- e continued hostility and opposition of \\ nigs. In the fall of 1843 he was again elected a member of the Lower no use of the Legislature, and was re jected to, and served in the same position during the sessions of 1844 and 1545. The session of 1844 was an important and ex citing one, the Assembly being agitated with acrimonious contests, chiefly spring ing from contemplated opposition to the administration of Governor Bouck. The »eader in the debates of the session were Mr. Seymour and Mr. Hoffman, the rec ognized leader of the Legislature in 1848, and a formidable antagonist in debate, bu^ Mr. Seymour appears to have coped with him successfully, and to have won not only the plaudits of his political associates but thejraises of his constituents like wise. The session of 1845 opened with a changed spirit, based upon the victorious election of Mr. Polk to the Presidency. At the outset of this session Mr. Seymour was induced by his friends to enter the contest for Speakership, to which position he was triumphantly elected, despite a violent factional tight, which seriously threatened his prospects. One of the prominent and important events of this session was the election of Daniel S. Dick inson to the United States Senate, in which Mr. Seymour took a leading and active part. He also engaged with fervent spirit in the discussion relative to the call for a convention to amend the Constitu tion, but voted against the bill providing for that measure. With this session Mr. Seymour’s legislative career was brought to a close. For the succeeding five years Mr. Sey mour was not prominent in public life, having resumed the practice of law in the city ot Utica. By the action of the Legis lature of 1850, providing for the enlarge ment and improvement of the Erie canal, and appropriating the revenue of the State in contravention to the provisions of the Constitution, Mr. Seymour again as sumed a leading position in State politics, and most earnestly resisted this effort to override the provisions of a constitution so recently adopted. On account of his strenuous opposition to that measure, he was that year (1850), for the fir.-t time, placed in nomination for Governor ot this State, in opposition to Washington Hunt. The result of the election was, lor Sey mour, 214,352 votes; for Hunt, 214,614. Mr. Seymour having been defeated by 262 votes. In 1852, Mr. Seymour was again placed in nomination by the Democratic party, in opposition to Washington Hunt (Whig) and Minthorne Tompkins (Free Soil), with the following result: Seymour, 264,121 [ Tompkins, 19,299 Hunt, 239,736 { Mr. Seymour was triumphantly elected over two competitors as the chief execu tive officer of the State. His administra tion of State affairs, as generally conceded, was rendered by ability, tact, and good judgment. While occupying the guberna torial chair in 1852, he vetoed ti.e noto rious Maine law, and the correctness of his views as to the power of the Legislatury to pass sumptuary laws was fully established by a formal decision of the Court of Appeals. In 1854 Mr. Seymour was nominated by the Democracy for re-election, with Myron 11. Clark (Republican), Daniel Ullrnan (American), and Greene C. Bronson (Hard Shell Democrat), as opponents. The fol lowing was the result ot the election : Seymour, 156,495 j Ullrnan, 122.282 Clark, 156,804 | Bronson, 33,850 Although the election resulted in Mr. Seymour’s defeat, it demonstrated very satisfactorily the unwaning popularity with the people, and his certainty of success with the party united and working for one candidate. At the conclusion of this con test Mr. Seymour again resumed the work of his profession at Utica. In everything appertaining to the success of the Democ racy, he took <4ll active and sympathetic interest. He attended National and State Conventions with great regularity, and was always accorded a leading position in the councils of the same. At the National Democratic Convention at Charleston, in 1860, he was proposed by the Southern delegates as a compromise candidate be tween Douglas and Breckinridge, but owing to the opposition of the New York delegation his name was withdrawn. _ In 1862 Mr. Seymour was the fourth time placed in nomination for Governor of this State by the Democrats, against Gen. Wadsworth, the Republican nominee. The result of the election was as follows : Seymour, 386,649 Wadsworth, 295,887 Mr. Seymour was thus for the second time elected Governor of this State by the handsome majority of 10,752. After an able administration of two years he was, in 1864, nominated for re-election, this time against Reuben E. Fenton, by whom he was defeated. At the National Democratic Convention held in Chicago in 1564, Mr. Seymour was with great unanimity chosen its President, and how ably and efficiently he discharged the duties and responsibilities of that im portant position, the records and the his tory of the Convention will indisputably show. Since that time Mr. Seymour has delivered many powerful Democratic speeches in various parts of the country, entering each successive campaign in this State with his accustomed vigor, fearless ness and efficiency. At his home in Utica, as well as through out the State, he is esteemed and respect ed with the fervor that springs only from true friendship. He has been from early boyhood a faithful and energetic member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the interest of which he has labored earnestly to promote, both as an individual member and a leader in her legislative councils. He takes especial interest in educational establishments and in the Sunday School, whose usefulness and influence he labors zealously to promote and advance. FRANCIS PRESTON BLAIR, JR. The gallant soldier and statesman who has been nominated for the office of Vice President of the United States by the Na tional Democratic Convention, and who will certainly fill that office, was born in the quaint old town of Lexington, Ken tucky, February 19, 1821, and is now in ■ MliMiTsf gas" ~ his forty-eighth year. In his twentieth year he graduated at Princeton College, and removed to St, Louis, Missouri, and there began the study of law, in which profession he made rapid progress. In 1845, being then in his twenty-fifth year, he made a journey to the Rocky Moun tains with a party of trappers for the im provement of his health, which had faded somewhat, owing to close pursuit of his studies ; and on the breaking out of the Mexican war Blair joined the force under Kearney and the gallant Donephan in New Mexico, and served as a private soldier until 1847, when he returned to St. Louis and resumed the practice of his profession. In 1848, like his father, Francis P. Blair, Sr., he gave his support to the Free Soil party, and in a speech delivered at the Court-house in St. Louis, contended against the extension of slavery into the territories of the nation. In 1852 he was elected lroni St. Louis county, Missouri, as an avowed Free Soiler, and he was re elected in 1854, though Thomas H. Benton, the Congressional candidate of the Free Boilers, was beaten. In 1856 Mr. Blair was returned to Congress from the St. Louis district, over Mr. Kennett, who had de feated Colonel Benton two years before. In 1867 he delivered an elaborate speech in the House of Representatives in favor of colonizing the black popula tion ol the United States in Cen tral America. Mr. Blair was also an editor and writer on the Missouri Democrat at one time. The father of Mr. Blair was a firm and fast friend of Andrew Jackson; the General, when a child, was wont to play on the knees of Andrew Jackson in the White House. His father was at that time editor of the Globe in \\ ashington. In 1860 Mr. Blair con tested the seat in Congress of Mr. Barrett, from the St. Louis district, and soon after was returned to the House, after which he resigned his seat. In 1860 General Blair made a speech in Brooklyn in favor of Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency, and also delivered at the Metropolitan Hotel, in this city, in June, 1861, in favor of strong war measures, hinting that General Scott was rather a slow campaigner. Mr. Blair was very assiduous in raising volun teers in St. Louis, and was the first volun teer of the State of Missouri. He raised the first regiment of Missouri volunteers and acted as its Colonel, albeit he did not hold a commission as Colonel of the regi niorit. A difficulty arose between Colonel Blair and General Fremont, and Colonel Blair was unjustly placed under arrest by that officer, who was commander of that department. This arbitrary measure of General Fremont’s aroused great excite ment in St. Louis, where General Blair was universally known and respected, the journals in that city taking part in the quarrel at, the time. President Lincoln ordered Colonel Blair to he released from arrest in September, 1861, thereby caus ing a great feeling of relief to the numer ous friends of Colonel Clair in St. Louis. Tie was again arrested by Gen. Fremont, but finally released after considerable trouble and newspaper discussion by both parties. Col. Blair rapidly rose as a soldier, and became one of the most skillful Gener als in the Western armies. On the 22d of May, 1862, General Blair commanded a division in Sherman’s attack on Vicksburg. The brigades of Ewing, Smith and Kilby Smith composed his division. Frank Blair had the honor of leading the attack in per son, five batteries concentrating their guns on the rebel position. The attack was ter rific, and was repulsed. As the head of the column passed over the parapet a dense fire of musketry swept away all its leading files. The rear of the column attempted to rush on, but were driven back. Here, by the bad management of Grant, Blair was not supported, as the supporting divis ions were too far away to give him assist ance. At the capture of Vicksburg Blair’s division participated, and did the heaviest fighting in Sherman’s command. It was at this time that Grant pronounced Frank Blair to be the beA volunteer General in the United States Army, an opinion that was fully sustained by his conduct in action and his judgment as a campaigner. In the great march of Sherman to the sea, General Frank P. Blair commanded the Seventeenth Army Corps, the finest corps of the whole army. He crossed .the Ogee ehee near Barton and captured the first prisoners. His division laid pontoons across the river, and the two wings were thus united before Savannah. His division was the first to march into Savannah. — From Savannah the Fourteenth Corps was taken by water to Pocotaligo, whence it threatened Charleston, while Slocum with the Twentieth Corps and Kilpatrick’s cavalry marched up the Augusta to Sist er's Ferry threatening an advance 011 Sa vannah at Tallahatchie. Blair waded through a swamp three miles wide with water four feet deep, the weather being bitter cold. Here the Seventeenth had another fight and lost a number of killed and wounded but drove the rebels behind the Edisto, at Branchville. The army then marched on Orangeburg. Here the Seventeenth carried the bridge over the South Edisto by a gallant dash, Blair lead ing his men, as usual, up to the battery’s mouth, which was covered by a parapet of cotton and earth, extending as far as could be seen. Blair threw Smyth’s division in front, while his other division crossed be low and carried the bridge after a bard fight. A half a dozen men of Blair's corps were the first to enter Columbia. The Seventeenth corps, however, were not guilty of the burning of this city, as has been charged. At the battle of Benton ville, N. C., on the march up to Rich mond, the Seventeenth were engaged heavily. It is not necessary to go further into detail of the glorious services and gal lantry of our candidate for the Vice-Presi dency. His name appears in the history of the great civil war as one of the first soldiers of the North. His life has been a romantic one, and full of strange and event ful occurrences. He bade farewell to his troops July 24, 1865, in an affecting ad dress. He was nominated Internal Reve nue Collector of Missouri, in March, 1866. His nomination was rejected by the Senate. His popularity in the West is very great. His past record insures him success. GEN, EWINgTsPEECH- We take the following extracts from Gen. Ewing’s great speech before the Sol diers’ and Sailors’ Convention, recently as sembled in New ork City. The speech is a masterly effort, and, barring the stale and foolish expressions about Rebels and the Rebellion, is creditable to the head and heart of the distinguished soldier. The extracts which follow relate more particu larly to our section and its sufferings, and hence we give it, not as a part of the his tory ol the times, but believing it to be of sufficient interest to our readers "’on- O orally to warrant its publication here : I am at a loss to understand how any American, proud of his race, and of our free system of government, can behold, without mingled disgust and indignation tue processes and results ol Congressional reconstruction and the pretences by which it is sustained. It is claimed to be in the interest of peace, while fomenting deadly and irreconcilable strife between the two races, subjecting the superior to the in ferior, and then leaving them to struggle for dominion; in the interest of free gov ernment and progress, while destroying ten great States of this Union, four of them of the old thirteen that founded the Republic; supplanting them by military despotisms in which the intelligent, cultivated white man is made the political slave of the brutal and ignorant negro; in the interest ol national prosperity, while destroying the accumulated wealth and the productive energies of the South, crippling every in dustry oqthc North and cutting off the great and eager markets for our manu factures and breadstuff's. What a spectacle . for gods and men does not this reconstruction present! sent! See (he negro population of the ►South pampered in idleness out ot the moneys wrung from the toil of the North ern whiteman (applause), filled with vain dreams «f ruling their former masters, and of .growing rich by confiscation of their estate, and becoming each year more ut terly and more irreclaimably idle and shift less. See the splendid cotton and sugar and rice plantations of the South, ?t once the evidence and product of a century of civilization, growing rank with weeds, the splendid machinery rusting idly in the sugar houses, the Mississippi roving over broken levies and abandoned plantations, and the boorish black field hands sitting down in content. Look at \ irginia, the Niobe of States, the mother of Presidents and illustrious statesmen ; she by whom the great blessed Government was founded (applause); she by whose free and generous deed the great States of the Northwest, upon the Ohio, were freely given to the United States. (Applause.) See the civil government founded by her Washing ton (applause), her Madisons (applause), her Ilenrys (applause), her Lees (ap plause), the foremost statesmen of their day upon this earth, stricken down, supplanted by a military despotism, that in time to be supplanted by a Constitution framed by in famous renegades like Uunnicutt and his associates (hisses). If this be prosperity, progress, liberty, God send us misfortune, reaction, despotism ! (Applause.) The Radicals attempt to smoothe the hideous visage of this reconstruction, by telling us who served in the army that it is indispen sable to prevent the Democratic party from coming into power, lest they should re verse the results of the war and repudiate the national debt. It is to prevent repu diation of the national debt that a scheme must be devised by which the majority of the electors of the States shall not be per mitted to rule them. If the calamity of national repudiation and dishonor ~be really impending over this republic, the feared event will not be long postponed by devising in the interest of a sectional party a scheme of reconstruction which violates the Constitution and the fundamental principles of our Government, breaks the pledges of the war to the soldiers, of in finitely more sacred obligation than the money debt, cripples every industry of the land, and while reducing one-half tlie ability of every tax-payer to pay his taxes, doubles the amount of them, the insepara ble and sole aim of which reconstruction is to secure the continued supremacy of a party which at this day does not represent one-third of the white people of this na ; don. Thank God, fellow-citizens, the Iff th of a republic, _ like the Union of the States, rests secure in the hearts of the people. [Applause.] The vast majority of them, of all parties, will preserve and defend it, as they did the Union. But if anything could shake or destroy the na tional credit, it would bo to have the pub lic creditors flock all into one party, and under the panoply of the national honor seek to perpetuate the power of that party at the cost of the established Constitution and the liberties of the States in the na tion. Now, gentlemen, it is not alone for driving ten States out of the Union, and the destruction of the liberties of one-third of the people of this country, that we com- plain of the Radical party. By prosecuting these unconstitutional designs, they have moreover, fundamentally changed our form of government, by Congress usurping most of the great faculties and powers con fided to the President by the Constitution. They took from him the command of the army, which the Constitution gives to him, and confided the command of these in the Southern States to Gen. Grant and five District Commanders. [Hisses.] By this AA ac s. °*. usurpation, whose boldness strikes the military mind, they have con verted to Radicalism a large part of the officers of the regular army, and made them the willing instruments of their des potism. FVoices, “Not many.”] The I nrn talking about, and not all of them. They took from the President the power of removal, which the Constitution confides to him alone, prohibiting him even from removing the Cabinet officers, the adjutants, through whom he gives orders and receives reports. They strip him of the power of pardon by a sweeping bill of pains and penalties, inflicting the "punish ment of total deprivation from all right to hold office on almost all white men of the South, notwithstanding the pardons of the j Resident. And they now, themselves, avow their purpose to grant the Con gressional pardon to no Southern man who wii! nut eat tlie leek of Radicalism. (Hisses.) Men like Governor Brown, of Georgia, who, before the war broke out, drove and dragged their people into rebellion, and cow ard-like, seized our ports and arsenals while yet wearing the mark of loyalty, are accounted loyal; while men like George \\. Jones, of Tennessee, who was true to the Union from the first—who will not swallow the dose of Radical reconstruction, aie denounced as hot malignants, deserv ing only of proscription at the hands of the Sumners and Kelleys and Butler* in Uongress, (Great hisses, Cries: “Who stole the spoons?” “Dutch Gap,”) coun selors who write down judgments with pens hard nibbed; and Congress crowns its usurpation by an impeachment found ed upon a statute it had passed declaring it to be a crime for the President to exer cise the power conferred upon him by the Constitution as interpreted by every Ad ministration and Congress from the time of Washington down, (Applause.) Af ter having impeached him, while giving -mu a lynch-law trial, the Radical party, through its spokesmen and leaders, in Convention, with a diabolical ferocity nev er before equaled in the politics of this country, attempted to force Republican Senators to commit moral perjury by an insincere verdict. (Applause.) So vast an act never before was attempted by a par r y cr 1 uis nation. Had the 1 ’resident sought on y personal ease, or personal am bition. and consented to become the in strument of this faction, his great execu tive powers would nut have been usurped, nor would he as a criminal have been dragged to the bar of the Senate. But to his eternal honor (applause) he stood by the Constitution when assailed by his po litical friends, as he stood by the Union when the storm of war burst over him, Unshaken, unseduced, uuterrified, Ills loyalty lie kept, his love, his faith; Nor number nor example with him wrought. To swerve from truth or change his con stant mind. (1 hrec cheers for Andrew Johnson.) In any other Government than ours, usurpation so flagrant and funda mental would have led to revolution. In ours they can be overthrown by the people at the ballot-box. The people this Fall will decide whether the Radical party shall retain er surrender the powers it has thus used for the destruction of our liberties through our form of National Government. If the appeal could be taken so us to pre sent the living issues between the parties, free from the rubbish of dead questions, who can doubt the result ? If wc could present a candidate who would so thor oughly unite the opponents of Radical rule as General Grant’s supporters —- (hisses) —we would give to that candidate nine-tenths of the votes of the electoral college. (Applause.) The strength of the Radicals lies, not in their cause, but in the divisions oftheir adversaries. The war was a success ; not a failure. It set tled the doubtful question of secession against the right to secede. It settled, too, the subject of slavery. (Applause.) These, however, were unsettled questions in 1864, and were supposed to enter into the po litical conflict of that year. Whether for tunately or unfortunately, I think unfor tunately, . the passions of the war and of that political conflict of 1864, are not as dead as those issues in which they played their part. Upon them rest all the hopes of the Radicals, and all the fears of the friends of the Constitution and the Union. Rousing the slumbering passions of the war, and led on by one of its foremost Generals, the Radicals hope to fight over again the conflict of 1564. Shall they be permitted to do it ? (“No,” “no.”) 1 wish L could leave it to this Convention to answer. Another Convention must an swer that question. It is for the Democratic Convention, by its choice of leaders to de cide what shall be the battle-ground, and in short, whether the Democracy shall triumph on living issues or be routed on dead ones (applause), whether the Radicals shall be tried for what they are doing, or the De mocracy for what they did, or failed to do four years ago. Gentlemen, the records of the Adjutant General’s office in Wash ington show that 2,670,000 men were en rolled in the armies of the Union from the beginning to the end of the war. Os that number, making a deduction for re-enlist ment, two million will represent the num ber of men from first to last actually in the 5