Dear Sir: The platform adopted by the patriotic Convention over which you presided, and the resolutions which so happily supplement it, so entirely agree with my views as to a just national policy that my thanks are due to the Delegates as much for this clear and auspicious declaration of principles as for the nomination with which I have been honored, and which I gratefully accept. When a great Rebellion, which imperiled the national existence was at last overthrown, the duty of all others, devolving on those intrusted with the responsibilities of legislation, evidently was to require that the revolted States should be readmitted to participation in the Government against which they had erred only on such a basis as to increase and fortify, not to weaken or endanger, the strength and power of the nation. Certainly no one ought to have claimed that they should be readmitted under such rule that their organization as States could ever again be used, as at the opening of the war, to defy the national authority or to destroy the national unity. This principle has been the pole-star of those who have inflexibly insisted on the Congressional policy your Convention so cordially endorsed. Baffled by Executive opposition, and by persistent refusals to accept any plan of reconstruction proffered by Congress, justice and public safety at last combined to teach us that only by an enlargement of suffrage in those States could the desired end be attained, and that it was even more safe to give the ballot to those who loved the Union than to those who sought ineffectually to destroy it. The assured success of this legislation is being written on the adamant of history, and will be our triumphant vindication. More clearly, too, than ever before, does the nation now recognize that the greatest glory of a republic is that it throws the shield of its protection over the humblest and weakest of its people, and vindicates the rights of the poor and the powerless as faithfully as those of the rich and the powerful. I rejoice, too, in this connection, to find in your platform the frank and fearless avowal that naturalized citizens must be protected abroad at every hazard, as though they were native-born. Our whole people are foreigners, or descendants of foreigners; our fathers established by arms their right to be called a nation. It remains for us to establish the right to welcome to our shores all who are willing, by oaths of allegiance, to become American citizens. Perpetual allegiance, as claimed abroad, is only another name for perpetual bondage, and would make all slaves to the soil where first they saw the light. Our National cemeteries prove how faithfully these oaths of fidelity to their adopted land have been sealed in the life blood of thousands upon thousands. Should we not, then, be faithless to the dead if we did not protect their living brethren in the full enjoyment of that nationality for which, side by side, with the native-born, our soldiers of foreign birth laid down their lives. It was fitting, too, that the representatives of a party which had proved so true to national duty in time of war, should speak so clearly in time of peace for the maintenance, untarnished, of the national honor, national credit and good faith as regards its debt, the cost of our national existence. I do not need to extend this reply by further comment on a platform which has elicited such hearty approval throughout the land. The debt of gratitude it acknowledges to the brave men who saved the Union from destruction, the frank approval of amnesty based on repentance and loyalty, the demand for the most thorough economy and honesty in the Government, the sympathy of the party of liberty with all throughout the world who longed for the liberty we here enjoy, and the recognition of the sublime principles of the Declaration of Independence, are worthy of the organization on whose banners they are to be written in the coming contest. Its past record cannot be blotted out or forgotten. If there had been no Republican party, Slavery would to-day cast its baleful shadow over the republic. If there had been no Republican party free press and free speech would be as unknown from the Potomac to the Rio Grande as ten years ago. If the Republican party could have been stricken from existence when the banner of Rebellion was unfurled, and when the response of “No Coercion” was heard at the North, we would have had no nation to-day. But for the Republican party daring to risk the odium of tax, and draft laws, our flag could not have been kept flying in the field until the long-hoped for victory came. Without a Republican party the Civil Rights bill—the guarantee of equality under the law to the humble and the defenseless as well as the strong—would not be to-day upon our National Statute book. With such inspiration from the past, and following the example of the founders of the Republic, who called the victorious General of the Revolution to preside over the land his triumphs had saved from its enemies, I cannot doubt that our labors will be crowned with success; and it will be a success that shall bring restored hope, confidence, prosperity, and progress South as well as North, West as well as East, and above all, the blessings under Providence of National concord and peace.
Very truly yours,
SCHUYLER COLFAX.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- Changed “CHAPTER LXXXV.” to “CHAPTER LXXXV.—Social Condition.” on p. [xv]
- Changed “proportion vicious” to “proportion of vicious” on p. [338].
- Changed “chevaux-de-frize” to “chevaux-de-frise” on p. [200].
- Silently corrected typographical errors.
- Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.