Record Data
"Pennsylvania," The American Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1866 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1873), 614.
Transcription
The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
Resolved, by the Democracy of Eastern and Central Pennsylvania, in mass convention assembled, That the contest upon which we are now entering is simply whether the Federal Union, under the Constitution, as adopted and construed by its illustrious authors, with the reserved rights of the States unimpaired, shall continue to be our form of government, or whether we shall have forced upon us, by Congressional usurpation and revolutionary action a central consolidated government, bound by no constitutional restraints, and in which the liberties of the people would be at the mercy of a bare majority of Congress, controlled by a self-constituted and irresponsible central directory.
Resolved, That the Democratic party are now, as ever, the only true Union party of the land; that we point with pride to the unselfish and untiring efforts made by all Democrats and Conservatives in and out of Congress, to preserve the Union before the war commenced, by conciliation and compromise, the only means by which it was formed, and without which it will never be more than a name; that the refusal of the Republican party to yield their partisan prejudices for the sake of peace and union was the immediate cause of the war, and posterity will hold them responsible.
Resolved, That we hold all departments of the government to its official and solemn declaration that the war was not prosecuted for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, but to maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; that the war having ended by the surrender of the rebel armies, the people of the South are subject only to such penalties as the Constitution of our common country, and the laws passed in pursuance of it, may prescribe, and are entitled to all the rights which that constitution insures to all the people of all the States.
Resolved, That we are opposed to negro suffrage, believing that the white men of America are able to govern themselves without the aid of an inferior race, and that we disapprove of the amendment to the Constitution, it being nothing but the offer of a reward to the States for granting negro suffrage, and the threat of a punishment in case of refusal.