Resolved, That the national faith, pledged for the redemption of the public debt, must be kept inviolate; and that, for this purpose, we recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the public expenditures and a vigorous and just system of taxation; and that it is the duty of every loyal state to sustain the credit and promote the use of the national currency. Resolved, That we approve the position taken by the government, that the people of the United States can never regard with indifference the attempt of any European power to overthrow by force, or to supplant by fraud, the institutions of any republican government on the western continent, and that they will view with extreme jealously, as menacing to the peace and independence of this, our country, the efforts of any such power to obtain new footholds for monarchical governments, sustained by a f reign military force, in near proximity to the United States. 1864.-DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM, Resolved, That in the future, as in the past, we will here with unswerving fidelity to the Union under the constitution, as the only solid foundation of our strength, security, and happiness as a people, and as a frame-work of government equally conducive to the welfare and prosperity of all the states, both northern and southern. Resolved, That this convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretense of a military necessity of a war power higher than the constitution, the constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of all the states, or other peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace may be restored on the basis of the federal union of all the states. Resolved, That the direct interference of the military authority of the United States in the recent elections held in Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware, was a shameful violation of the constitution; and the repetition of such acts in the approaching election will be held as revolutionary, and resisted with all the means and power under our control. Resolved, That the aim and object of the democratic party is to preserve the federal Union and the rights of the states unimpaired; and that they hereby declare that they consider the administrative usurpation of extra ordinary and dangerous powers not granted by the constitution, the subversion of the civil by the military law in states not in insurrection, the arbitrary military arrest, imprisonment, trial, and sentence of American citizens in states where civil law exists in full force, the suppression of freedom of speech and of the press, the denial of the right of asylum, the open and avowed disregard of state rights, the employment of unusual test-oaths, and the interference with and denial of the right of the people to bear arms in their defense, as calculated to prevent a restoration of the Union and the perpetuation of a government deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed. Resolved, That the shameful disregard of the administration to its duty in respect to our fellow-citizens who now are, and long have been, prisoners of war, in a suffering condition, deserves the severest reprobation, on the score alike of public policy and common humanity. Resolved, That the sympathy of the democratic party is heartily and earnestly extended to the soldiers of our army and the sailors of our navy, who are and have been in the field and on sea under the flag of their country; and, in the event of our attaining power, they will receive all the care and protection, regard and kindness, that the brave soldiers of the republic have so nobly earned. EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, January 1, 1863. WHEREAS, On the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing among other things the following, to wit: "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom; that the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states, and parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any state, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such states shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such state, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States: " Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war-measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the states, and parts of states, wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre-Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. Marie, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the fortyeight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anna, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are, for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare, that all persons held as slaves within said designated states, and parts of states, are and henceforward shall be free; and that the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them, that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known, that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. CHAPTER XIX. LINCOLN'S AND JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 1865-1869. LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURATION. President Lincoln, in his second inaugural address, delivered on the 4th of March, 1865, spoke the following words: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and orphans, to do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN. The gentleness and greatness of President Lincoln were beginning to win general appreciation when he fell by the hand of an assassin. April 14, 1865, the Washington papers announced that Mr. Lincoln and General Grant would attend Ford's theatre on the evening of that day. The General was called away from the city and could not be present; but Mr. Lincoln, with reluctance, resolved to attend, that public expectation might not be disappointed. While he was listening to the play, James Wilkes Booth entered the box where the President was seated and shot him in the head with a pistol. The assassin then shook off and wounded Major Rathbone who had seized him, and jumped from the stage shouting "SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS, the south is avenged." He then rushed from the theatre, mounted a horse near the building and rushed into southern Maryland to find sympa thizing friends. The President continued to breathe until the next morning, when he died surrounded by the members of his cabinet and others. At the same time an unsuccessful attempt was made to assassinate Secretary Seward, who was at his residence, lying severely injured by a fall from his carriage. The assassination of Mr. Lincoln produced a profound impression throughout the civilized world. The martyr was carried to his last resting place attended by pageants unequaled at the funeral of any other national ruler of ancient or modern times. JOHNSON'S ACCESSION. On the morning of the 15th of April, a few hours after the death of Mr. Lincoln, Vice-President Andrew Johnson took the oath of office, as President of the United States. Many citizens were filled with forebodings concerning the future of the republic, for the conduct of Mr. Johnson, at his inauguration, on the 4th of the preceding March, had not been regarded as wise or prudent; but his promises were such as caused the country at first to confide in him. He had expressed himself so strongly against disunionists that it was generally believed his administration would be severe on the confederate states. To a delegation from New Hampshire, soon after his inauguration, he said that treason is a crime; that it must not be regarded as a mere difference of political opinion; that it must not be excused as an unsuccessful rebellion, to be overlooked and be forgiven; but it is a crime, before which all others sink into insignificance. He stated that his "past course must be the guaranty of his future conduct." The excitement was intense, and all looked with painful interest for coming events. RECONSTRUCTION. The business of re-organizing the states which had been in |