Newspaper Page Text
THE COUNTRYMAN.
367
for their consideration and vote. The or
dinary rights secured under the consfcitu-
tion, and the laws of the country, have
been, violated, and extrordinary pow
ers have been usurped by the Ex
ecutive. It is directly before the people,
now to say whether, or not, the principles
established by the Revolution? are-worth
maintaining.
If, as we have been taught- to believe,
those guarantess for liberty which made
the distinctive value, and glory of our coun
try,are in truth inviolably sacred, thenthere
must be a protest against their arbitrary
violation, which.had not even the excuse
of-necessity. The schism is made by
those who force the choice between a
shameful silence, or a protest, against
* wrong. In such .considerations originated
the Cleveland Convention. It was among
its objects to arouse the attention of the
people to such facts, and to bring them to
realize that, whjle we are saturating
Southern soil with the best blood of the
country, in the name of liberty, we have
really parted with it at home.
To-day, we have, in the country, the a-
buses of a military dictation, without its
unity of action, and vigor of execution—
an administration marked, at home, by its
disregard of constitutional rights, by its
violations of personal liberty, and the lib
erty of the press, and, as a crowning
shame, by its abandonment of the right
of asylum—a right equally dear to all free
nations—abroad. Its course has been char
acterized by a feebleness, and want of
principle,by which it has misled European
Powers, and driven them to a belief that
only commerceial interests, and personal
aims are concerned, and that no great
principles are involved in the issue. The
admirable conduct of the people, their
readiness to make every sacrifice demand
ed of them, their forbearance and silence
under the suspension of everything that
could be suspended, their many acts ofhe-
roism,and their sacrifices, were all render
ed fruitless by the incapacity, or to speak
more exactly, the personal ends for which
the war was managed.
This incapacity and selfishness natur
ally produced such results as led the Eu
ropean Powers, and logically enough, to
the conviction that the North, with its
greatly superior population, its immense
resources, and its credit, will never be
able to recover the South. Sympathies,
which should have been with us from the
outset of the war, were turned against us,
and in this way the Administration has
done the country a double wrong, abroad.
It creates hostility, or at best indifference,
among those who would have been its
friends, if the real interests of the people
could have been better known, while, at
the same time, it neglected no occasion for
making the most humiliating concessions.
Against this disastrous condition of af
fairs, the Cleveland Convention was a pro
test.
The principles which form the basis of
its platform have my unqualified, and cor-
. dial approbation, but I cannot so heartily
'concur in all the measures which you
propose. I do not believe that confisca
tion, extended to the property of the rebels,
is practicable, and if it were so, I do not
think it a measure of sound policy. It is,
in fact, a- question belonging to the peo
ple- themselves, to decide, and is a proper
occasion for the exercise of their original,
and sovereign authority. As a war mea
sure, in the beginning of a revolt, which
might be quelled by prompt severity, I
understand the policy of confiscation, bat
not as a final measure of reconstruction,
after the suppression of an insurrection.
In. the adjustments which are to follow
peace, no considerations of vengeance can
consistently be admitted.
The object of the war is to make per
manently secure the peace and happiness
of the whole country, and there was but a
single element in the way of its attain
ment. This element of slavery may. be
considered practically destroyed in the
country, and it needs only your proposed
amendment of the Constitution, to make
its extinction complete.
With this extinction of slavery, the par
ty divisions created by it have also disap
peared. And if, in the history of the
country, there has ever been a time when
the American people, Without regard to
one or another of the political divisions,
were called, upon to give solemnly their
voice in a matter which involved the safe
ty of the United States, it is assurredly
the present time. .
If the Convention at Baltimore will
nominate any man whose past life justi
fies a well-grounded confidence ip his fi
delity to our cardinal principles, there is
no reason why there should be any divi
sion among the real patriotic men of the
country. To any such, I shall be most hap
py to give a cordial, and active support.
My own decided preference is to aid in
this way, and not to be myself a candi
date. But if Mr. Lincoln should be re-
nominatod, aa I believe It would be latal
to the country to endorse a policy, and re
new a power which has cost us the lives
of thousands of men, ffcid needlessly put
the country on the road to bankruptcy,
there will remain no alternative but to or
ganize against him every element of con
scientious opposition, with the view to
prevent the misfortune of hifl re-election.
In this contingency, I accept the nomi
nation at Cleveland, and as a preliminary
step, I have resigned my commission in
the army. This was a sacrifice it gave
me pain to make ; but I had, for a long
time, fruitlessly endeavored to obtain ser
vice. I make this sacrifice, now, only to
regain liberty of speech, and to leave noth
ing in the way of discharging, to my ut
most ability, the task you. have set for
me.
With my earnest, and sincere thanks for
your expressions of confidence and regard,
and for the many honorable terms in
which you acquaint me with the action of
the committee, I am, gedtlemen, very re
spectfully, and truly yours,
John G. Fremont.
New York, June 4, 1864.
To Messrs. Worthington G. Snethen of
Maryland, Edward Gilbert of New
York, Caspar Butz of Illinois, Charles
E. Moss of Missouri, N. P. Sawyer, of
Pennsylvania, a committee, <Spc.
Abolition Convention—Their Nomi
nees and Platform.—The Cleveland Con
vention met at Cleveland, on the 31st of
May, and adjourned the same day.
‘ Three hundred and fifty, to four hun
dred delegates were in attendance.’ John
C, Fremont was nominated for the presi
dency, and John Cochrane, of New York,
for the vice-presidency.
The speeches were radical abolition, de
nunciatory of Lincoln, for the weakness
and corruption of his administration, and
advocated the expulsion of Maximilian
from Mexico. The following is the ‘ plat
form as adopted i'
ll That the Federal Union must be pre
served..
2. That the Constitution and laws of
the United States must be observed and
obeyed.
3. That the rebellion must be suppres
sed by force of arms, and without com
promise.
4. That the right of free speech, free
press, and habeas corpus, bo held inviolate,
save in districts where martial law has
been proclaimed.
5. That the rebellion must be suppres
sed by destruction of its motive cause,
slavery.
6. That integrity and economy are de
manded at all times, in the administration
of the government, and that, in time of
war, the want of them is criminal.
7. That the right of asylum, except for
crime, and subject.ta law, is a recognized
principle of ^American liberty ; that any
.violation of . it cannbt be overlooked, an<L
must not go unrebuked.-.
8. That the national policy, known as the
‘ Monroe doctrine,’ has become a recog
nized principle, and thatthe establishment
of an anti-republican government, on this
continent, by any foreign power, cannot
be tolerated.
9. That- the giatitude and support of
the nation is due to the faithful soldiers,
and earnest leaders of the Union army
and navy, for their heroic ^achievements,
and deathless valor, in defence of our im
periled country, and of civil liberty.
10. That the one term policy for the
presidency, adopted by the people, is
strengthened by the force of the existing
crisis, and should be maintained by con
stitutional amendments.
.11. That the constitution should be so
amended that the President and Vice-
President shall be elected by a direct vote
of the people.
12. That the question of the reconstruc
tion of the rebellious states, belongs to the
people, through their representatives in
congress, and not to the executive.
13. That the confiscation of the lands
of the rebels, and their distribution among
the soldiers, and actual settlers, is a mat
ter of justice.
Mr. Cochrane said in his speech;—
‘ When we have got through with the re
bellion, we will prove to the world that we
have, still left, will and vigor enough, to
preserve the American continent free from
the polluting tread of the myrmidons of
foreign powers.’