Official proceedings of the National Democratic convention, held at New York, July 4-9, 1868.: Reported by George Wakeman, official reporter of the Convention.

OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE
national affairs. Many Republicans have heretofore clung to their party who
have regretted the extremes of violence to which it has run. They have
cherished a faith that while the action of their political friends has been mistaken, their motives have been good. They must now see that the Republican party is in that condition that it cannot carry out a wise and peaceful
policy, whatever its motives may be. It is a misfortune, not only to a
country, but to a governing party itself, when its action is unchecked by any
form of opposition. It has been the misfortune of the Republican party that
the events of the past few years have given it so much power that it has been
able to shackle the Executive, to trammel the Judiciary, and to carry out-the
views of the most unwise and violent of its members. When this state of
things exists in any party, it has ever been found that the sober judgments
of its ablest leaders do not control. There is hardly an able man who helped
to build up the Republican organization, who has not, within the past three
years, warned it against its excesses, who has not been borne down and
forced to give up his convictions of what the interests of the country called
for; or, if too patriotic to do this, who has not been driven from its ranks.
If this has been the case heretofore, what will be its action now with this
new infusion of men, who, without a decent respect for the views of those
who had just given them their positions, begin their legislative career with
calls for arms, with demands that their States shall be regarded as in a condition of civil war, and with a declaration that they are ready and anxious to
degrade the President of the United States whenever they can persuade or
force Congress to bring forward new articles of impeachment?
The Republican party, as well as we, are interested in putting some check
upon this violence. It must be clear to every thinking man that a division
of political power tends to check the violence of party action, and to assure
the peace and good order of society. The election of a Democratic Executive, and a majority of Democratic members to the House of Representatives, would not give to that party organization the power to make sudden
or violent changes, but it would serve to check those extreme measures
which have been deplored by the best men of both political organizations.
The result would most certainly lead to that peaceful restoration of the
Union and re-establishment of fraternal relationship, which the country
desires. I am sure that the best men of the Republican party deplore, as
deeply as I do, the spirit of violence shown by those recently admitted to
seats in Congress from the South. The condition of civil war, which they
contemplate, must be abhorrent to every right-thinking man.
I have no mere personal wishes which mislead my judgment in regard to
the pending election. No man who has weighed and measured the duties of
the office of President of the United States can fail to be impressed with the
cares and toils of him who is to meet its demands. It is not merely to float
with popular currents, without a policy or a purpose. On the contrary,
while our Constitution gives just weight to the public will, its distinguishing
feature is that it seeks to protect the rights of minorities. Its greatest glory
is that it puts restraints upon power. It gives force and form to those
maxims and principles of civil liberty for which the martyrs of freedom have
struggled through ages. It declares the right of the people "to be secure
in their persons, houses, and papers, against unreasonable searches and
seizures; that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
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