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
set forth in the address of our presiding officers. Our Convention is com posed of two thousand delegates, elected to represent every State and Terri tory in the Union, who have all served in the Union army or navy, every
one of whom firmly believes that in co-operating at this time with the con servative party of the country, he is still engaged in the same cause for which
he risked his life during the war, viz., to preserve the Union and maintain
the supremacy of the Constitution. (Loud applause.) We believe that the
objects now being perpetrated in the name of Republicanism and loyalty are
not less alarming than were those committed by the armed foes of the gov ernment during the war. (Applause.) The party now in power has de stroyed the equality of the States, has forced the Southern States to submit
to have their constitutions and laws framed by ignorant negroes just released
from a condition of servitude, while at the North it has denied the negro
(although comparatively well educated) the right of suffrage. (Cheers.) It
has attempted to influence the decision of the highest judicial tribunal of the
laud, by calling public meetings of excited partisans to condemn, in advance,
all members of the court who might refuse to act in accordance with their
dictation, while the leading journalists of the party, since the clot of the
impeachment trial, have denounced and vilified in the most unmeasured terms
the once chosen leaders of their own party, going so far in some instances
as to threaten them with personal violence, and for no other reason than
that they were unwilling to perjure themselves at the behest of party.
(Cheers.) It has freely removed political disabilities from men at the North,
who, before and during the war, were the most violent and malignant rebels, but
who have since become the sycophants of the party in power, while it continues to persecute those in the same localities who have always been true to
the Union, but are now unwilling to be ruled by their recently emancipated
slaves at the South. (Applause.) It has denied official positions to hundreds of
the veterans of the war, most of whom are disabled by wounds received in
battle, while it has foisted into place partisans of its own, having no claims
upon the government, several of whom, fortunately for the country, have,
during the past few months, become inmates of penitentiaries. It has placed
the general of our armies beyond the control of the President of the United
States (to whiom the Federal Constitution makes him subordinate), has nominated him for the Presidency, and the events of the last few months indicate
thlat, by the use of the army thus under his supreme control, there is a determination to cause the electoral votes of the Southern States to be cast for
himself through force and fraud. (Cheers.) We solemnly declare our colnvictions that the free institutions of the country have never been in lgreater
jeopardy than at this time, and we look to the deliberations of the Democratic
party nlow assembled in Convention with the deepest anxiety, feeling that
upon its action depends the future prosperity of our nation. We earnestly
trust and believe that no devotion to men or adherence to past issues wvill be
permitted to endanger the success of the great party to which the country
now looks with anxious eye for permanent peace and the prosperity of our
free institutions. (Loud applause.) We believe that there are living half a
million men who have served in the Union army and navy, who are in sympa.thy and in judgment opposed to the acts of the party in power,
and at least another half a million of men who have heretofore acted with the
Republican )party, but who, reviewing with alarm the recent acts of that party,
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