11. Foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much to the wealth, development, and resources, and increase of power to this republic—the asylum of the oppressed of all nations—should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy.
12. This convention declares itself in sympathy with all oppressed people struggling for their rights.
13. That we highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and forbearance with which men who have served in the rebellion but who now frankly and honestly co-operate with us in restoring the peace of the country and reconstructing the Southern state governments upon the basis of impartial justice and equal rights, are received back into the communion of the loyal people; and we favor the removal of the disqualifications and restrictions imposed upon the late rebels in the same measure as the spirit of disloyalty will die out, and as may be consistent with the safety of the loyal people.
14. That we recognize the great principles laid down in the immortal Declaration of Independence as the true foundation of democratic government; and we hail with gladness every effort toward making these principles a living reality on every inch of American soil.
Nominations now being in order, John A. Logan, in a few words remarkable for their force and beauty, nominated Ulysses S. Grant for President. After the enthusiasm had abated the roll of the States was called, and the unanimous vote of the delegates, 650 in number, was given to Gen. Grant, and the audience went wild with delight. The great contest of the Convention now came over the nomination for Vice-President. Henry Wilson, Schuyler Colfax, Benjamin F. Wade, Reuben E. Fenton, James Speed, Andrew G. Curtin, Hannibal Hamlin, James Harlan, S. C. Pomeroy, J. A. J. Creswell and William D. Kelley were nominated. The leading candidates were Benj. F. Wade, of Ohio, Mr. Colfax, of Indiana, Mr. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, and Mr. Fenton, of New York, all of whom had rendered the most conspicuous services to the party. Five ballots were taken as follows:
1st 2d 3d 4th 5th
Ballot Ballot Ballot Ballot Ballot
Wade ………. 147 170 178 206 38
Wilson …….. 119 114 101 87
Colfax …….. 115 145 165 186 541
Fenton …….. 126 144 139 144 69
Curtin …….. 51 45 40
Only the votes for the leading candidates are here given. Mr. Colfax was therefore nominated on the fifth ballot, and it was felt that his name added great strength to the ticket. He was then Speaker of the House, to which he had been elected with the organization of the party in 1854, and had served with great ability for six terms.
The Democratic Convention met in New York in Tammany Hall on July 4, 1868. It was a gathering composed principally of Southern leaders and Generals and Northern Copperheads. After a troubled session of six days the Chairman of the Convention, Horatio Seymour, of New York, was nominated for President on the twenty-second ballot, and Francis P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, was nominated for Vice-President. The platform advocated the payment of the national debt in depreciated currency, the overthrowing of all that had been done under the reconstruction policy of Congress and the taxing of Government bonds. The platform practically doomed the party to defeat before the campaign had really opened. The canvass was exciting, but the October States practically decided the contest, and the election on November 3d registered what had long been conceded. Grant and Colfax received the 214 electoral votes of twenty-six States; Seymour and Blair only carrying eight States, New York among them, with their 80 electoral votes. The popular vote gave Grant and Colfax 3,012,833, and Seymour and Blair 2,703,249.
The third session of the Fortieth Congress assembled on December 7, 1868. One phase of the slavery question still remained unsettled, that of giving the negro the right of suffrage. For several years a strong sentiment had shown itself in the North in favor of granting this right, and Congress had already recognized this sentiment by giving the negro the right to vote in the District of Columbia, which act was passed over President Johnson's veto. The great injustice of freeing the negro and withholding from him the means of protecting his freedom by the right of suffrage was not generally felt, and it remained now for a Republican Congress to crown with a great act of justice the long labors of the party, to remove all the evils of insufferable bondage, and to complete the work of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.
On February 27, 1869, Congress proposed, through the Department of
State, the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution: