Resolved, That while the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established by the people in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, and secure the blessings of liberty, and contains ample provision for the protection of the life, liberty, and property of every citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them; their territory has been invaded by an armed force; spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, and executive officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the Government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced; the rights of the people to keep and bear arms have been infringed; test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office; the right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury has been denied; the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures has been violated; they have been deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law; that the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged; the right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect; murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and encouraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished; that all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanction, and procurement of the present administration; and that for this high crime against the Constitution, the Union, and humanity, we arraign the administration, the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apologists, and accessories, either before or after the fact, before the country and before the world, and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious outrages, and their accomplices, to a sure and condign punishment hereafter.
Resolved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a State of the Union, with her present free Constitution, as at once the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil strife now raging in her territory.
Resolved, That the highwayman’s plea, that “might makes right,” embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect unworthy of American diplomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any government or people that gave it their sanction.
Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most central and practical route, is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country, and that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction; and, as an auxiliary thereto, the immediate construction of an emigrant route on the line of the railroad.
Resolved, That appropriations by Congress for the improvement of rivers and harbors, of a national character, required for the accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution, and justified by the obligation of Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens.
The American or Know-Nothing party had become the leading factor of the opposition elements to Democracy in the elections of 1854–55. In some sections the Whig party was entirely obliterated, and in the South there was no organization opposed to Democracy but the American. The cardinal principle of its faith was that “Americans must rule America,” and its opposition to the Catholic Church was positive and pronounced. It had gravitated from the original Native Americans of 1844 into the Order of United Americans, and it coalesced with the remnants of the Whig party and with the antiadministration Democrats in most of the Northern States. It had reached about its highest measure of strength in 1855, chiefly because of its strong hold in the South. In New England and the far Western States the Americans had been very generally absorbed in the Republican organization when the battle opened for the Presidency in 1856.
The American National Council was called to meet in Philadelphia on the 19th of February, 1856, and nearly all the States were represented. The Council was a secret body, in accordance with the usages of the party. After three days of animated discussion it adopted a party platform, and on the 22d of February the Council adjourned and organized the American National Nominating Convention. Ephraim Marsh, of New Jersey, was made president. An earnest effort was made in the convention to antagonize the right of the National Council to make the platform for the party. Mr. Killinger, of Pennsylvania, offered a resolution, declaring that the Council had no authority to prescribe a platform of principles, and that the convention should nominate no man for President or Vice-President “who is not in favor of interdicting the introduction of slavery into territory North 36° 30´ by Congressional action,” but his proposition failed by a vote of 141 to 59. The failure of this resolution led to the retirement from the convention of the more pronounced antislavery delegates or North Americans, as they were called. The convention then proceeded to ballot for President as follows:
| 1st Ballot. | 2d Ballot. | |
|---|---|---|
| M. Fillmore, New York | 71 | 179 |
| George Law, New York | 27 | 24 |
| Garrett Davis, Kentucky | 13 | 10 |
| John McLean, Ohio | 7 | 13 |
| R. F. Stockton, New Jersey | 8 | — |
| Sam. Houston, Texas | 6 | 3 |
| John Bell, Tennessee | 5 | — |
| Kenneth Raynor, North Carolina | 2 | 14 |
| Erastus Brooks, New York | 2 | — |
| Lewis D. Campbell, Ohio | 1 | — |
| John M. Clayton, Delaware | 1 | — |
After the 2d ballot, Mr. Fillmore was unanimously declared the nominee, and on the 1st ballot Andrew Jackson Donelson, of Tennessee, who was the adopted son of General Jackson, was nominated for Vice-President, receiving 181 votes to 8 for Governor Gardner, of Massachusetts, 8 for Percy Walker, of Alabama, and 8 for Kenneth Raynor, of North Carolina. The following platform was then unanimously adopted:
1. An humble acknowledgment of the Supreme Being, for his protecting care vouchsafed to our fathers in their successful Revolutionary struggle, and hitherto manifested to us, their descendants, in the preservation of their liberties, the independence and the union of these States.