Show special Bp ecial to the DESERET NEWS mews y ADDRESS 1 THE philadelphia convention C to td the people of the united states having met in convention convention at the city of philadelphia in in the state of pennsylvania this lath day of august 1860 as representatives of the people in all ail aff sections and from all the states and territories of the union to consult upon the condition and wants of our common country we address to you this deel deci declaration of our principles and of the political purpose purposes 9 we seek to promote since the meeting of the last national convention in the year 1660 events have occurred which have changed the character of our internal politics and given the united states a new place among the nations of the earth our government has hag passed through the vicissitudes and perils of a civil war which though mainly sectional in its character has hils nevertheless decided political differences that from the very beginning of the government had threatened the unity of our national existence and has left its impress deep and ineffaceable upon all the interests sentiments and the destiny of the republic while it has hag inflicted upon the whole country severe losses in life and in property and has imposed burtrens bur which must weigh on its resources for generations ene rations to come it has developed a agree agree of national courage in the presence of national dangers a capacity for military organization and achievement and a devotion on the part of the people to the form of government which they have ordained and andio to th the e i principles of liberty which that government was designed to promote which must confirm the confidence of the nation in the perpetuity of lt its republican institutions and command the respect of the civilized world like mike all great contests which rouse the passions and test the endurance of nations this war has given new scope to the ambition of political part parties les aud and fresh impulse to the plans of innovation innovation and reform amidst the eha cha chaos Os of conflicting sentiments inseparable from such an era while the public heart is keenly alive fo all the passions that can sway public judgment and efie effect act public action while the wounds of war are still fresh and bleeding on erther either side land kand an d fears for the future take gunj unjust proportions from the memories and resent ments nen ts of the past it is a difficult hut but imperative duty which which on your behalf we who are here assembled have lave undertaken to perform for the first time after six siv long iong years yeara of bf alienation and conn conf conflict liet we have come to together ether from every state and every section of our land as citizens of our common country under that flag the symbol again of our common glory to consult together how best lest to cement cerneant aad rd perpetuate that union which is ag again ain aln i the object of our common love J and thus secure the ble bie blessings sings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity in the first placere place we invoke you to remember always and everywhere that the war is ended tended and aud that the nation is again at pace dlce the spirit of contending conten contending din diu arms iio ilo no longer as assails alis ails alls the shuddering shu d de ri nj heart of the republic the insurrection ag against a dinst the su supreme P reme authority of the nation na on has been suppressed i and that authority has his been again acknowledged vy b y word and act in every state and by every citizen within its jurisdiction we are no longer required or permitted to regard or treat each other as enemies not No toniy only tonly have acts of war been discontinued aud and the weapons of war laid aside iad bul but Dutia a state of war no longer exists and the sentiments the passions ana and aha the relations of war have no longer lawful or rightful place anywhere 3 throughout ghost our broad domain we are again the people of the united states fellow citizens of one country bound by the duties and obligations of a common patriotism and having neither rights nor interests apart from a common destiny the duties that devolve upon us now are again the duties of peace and no longer the duties of war we W have assembled s here to take counsel concern ing the interests of peace to decide how we may most wisely and effectually heal the wounds barbas made and perpetuate the benefits it has secured lured and 0 o the blessings which under a wise kise and bedni benign jg n providence have sprung up in its lis S fiery track this is the coir work not of passion but of calm and sober judg ment not of resentment for past offenses prolonged beyond the limits which justice and reason prescribe but of lib eral states statesmanship statesmen ship ip which tolerates what it ft cannot canoot prevent ent fut and alid builds its plans and its hopes for fa he fu future tuie rather r ath er agon union urion a community of interest than u pon upon distrust is and the weapons of force secondly jn in the next place we call upon you to recognize in their full significance ance and accept with all their legitimate bon consequences sequences the political results of the virjust var just closed in t two w 0 most important particulars the victory hehl achieved eved by the national government has been final and decisive first it has established beyond all further farther controversy and by bythe the highest of all human sanctions the absolute supremacy of the national government as ds defined and andi lunsted by the constitution and the permanent integrity and land indissolubility of national union unida as a necessary consequence and secondly finally and forever to tb the existence 01 of slavery upon the sailor soil soli or within the jurisdiction j U ris of or the united states both these points became directly involved in the contest and the controversy upon both was ended absolutely and finally by the result in lri the third we deem it of the utmost importance that the real character of the war and the victory by which it was closed should be accurately kinder understood der stood the war was carried on by the government of the united states in the maintenance of its own authority authority and in defence of its own existence bot both of which were menaced by the insurrection which it sought to suppress the suppression of that insurrection accomplished that result the government of the united states maintained by force of arms the supreme authority over all the territories and over all the states and people within its jurisdiction which n hieb hleb the constitution confers upon it betit acquires thereby no new power no enlarged jurisdiction no noughts rights either of territorial possession os ssi b n or of civil authority gd ne which it did n not 0 t possess before the rebellion broke out all the rightful power it can ever possess is that which is conferred upon it either in express terms or by the fairest necessary imp imn implication 11 I 1 ca tiong by the constitution of the united states it was that power and that authority which the rebellion sought to overthrow the victory af the federal arms was simply the defeat of that attempt the thee government of the united states acted throughout the war on the len men sive it sought only to hold possession bf what was already its own neither the war nor the victory by which it was war closed changed in any way the constitution odthe of he united states the war was carried on by virtue of its provisions and under the limitations which they prescribe and the thin result lof Jbf the war did not either elther enlarge abridge drin or in an any y way change or affect the powers it confers upon the federal government or release that government from the restrictions which it has imposed the constitution of the united states is ig today da y precise precisely ily vly as it was before thy the e war the supreme law of the land anything in the constitution of laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding and today to day also precisely as before the war ivar all powers powers not conferred bythe by the constitution upon the general government nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved by the several states or to the peo people le thereof Ms this position is vindicated not only by the essential nature of our government and the language A and spirit of the constitution but ty by all the acts and ian iau guage olour of our government in all its departments part ments and at all times from the outbreak of the rebellion to lo its final overthrow in every message and proc of the executive it was im in implicitly Ip p licitly I 1 id itly declared that the sole role object an and purpose of the war was to maintain the a authority pi of the constitution and und to preserve the integrity of or the union and congress more thian than once reiterated reiterated this solemn declaration and added the assurance that whenever this object should be attained should cease and all the states state should retain their equal rights arid and dignity unimpaired and it is only since the var war yar was as closed tha lother lothen rights have ha ve been asserted assir ted on behalf ef of one d department part ment of the general government government r if it has hay been proclaimed by congress that in addition to the tho powers conferred upon it by the constitution I 1 the federal government may nov claim over the states the territory and the he people involved in insurrection th we e rights of war the conquest and of confiscation fis cation the right to abrogate all existing governments government sin in those states and to make ma las laws to subject the territory conquered and its inhabitants to such laws jaws regulations and deprivations as the he legislative department of the gov may see fit to impose under this broad and sweeping claim that clause of the constitution which pro vides that no state bhail shall without its consent t be deprive deprived dof of its equal iliff suffrage rage I 1 in n the se senate n kte ite oft odthe e united states has be been en an annulled and ten states have been refused representation altogether in both branches branche 9 of the federal congress and the congress in which only a part apart of the states and of the people of the tho union are represented has assert asserted bd the right thus to exclude the rest from front represents represent atlon and from all share bhare in making their own laws or choosing their own rulers until they comply with such conditions and per perform forma forta such acts as this congress thus thu composed may prescribe that right has not only been beem asserted but is has been exercised and is practically enforced at the present time nor or does it nind find any support in the theory that the states stated thus excluded are in rebellion against the government 1 overn ment and are therefore P precluded preclude d from sharing its authority rhey f I 1 hey they are not thus in lel IEL re bellion they are one and all in ah a n attitude atti attl tudo of loyalty toward the government and of sworn allegiance to the constitution of the united stated in rn ao no one of them is there the slightest indication di of resistance to this authority or br the slightest protest aga against dinst its just and binding obligations this condition of renewed loya loyalty I 1 ty has bas been officially recognized by t the 11 e solemn proclamation of the execl executive t ive lve department the laws of the united unite d states have been extended by congress over all these states and the people thereof the federal courts coults have been reopened and federal taxes imposed and levieff levied and in every respect except that they are denied representation in congress and in the electoral college the states once in rebellion are recognized as holding the same position as owing the same obligations and subject to the same duties as the other states of our common union it seems to us in the exercise 0 of f fhe the he calmest and most candid judgment we can bring to the suh sub subject leet jeet that no claim so enforced involves so fatal an overthrow of the authority of the constitution and is as complete a destruction of the government and the union as that which was sought to be effected effect edby eiby by the states and people in armed insurrection against them both it carnot cannot escape observation that the power thus asserted to exclude certain states from representation sen tation is made to rest wholly in the will and discretion of the congress that asser asserts ic it is not made to depend upon ans any specified conditions or circumstances I 1 nor tobe to be subject to any rules or re regulation whatever the night right asserted and exercised is ig absolute without qualification oj restriction it is not confined to the states in rebellion nor to the states tha rebelled it is the right of any congress in formal possession 0 of f the legislative authority to exclude any state or states and any portion of people thereof at stany any time from representation in in congress and the electoral college at its own discretion and until they shall shail perform such acts and eor cor comply with iirth such conditions as is it may dictate obviously the reasons for such exclusion cl being wholly wit mit without hOlIt diserne tion congress may change them as congress itself shall change one congress may exclude a state from all share of government for one reason and that reason may be removed and the next congress 1 ress may exclude it for another one state may be excluded on one ground today and another may be excluded on an opposite ground tomorrow northern may exclude southern states from one coh CoL congress gress the tl aseen denes dency of western or southern in or of both combined may ex clu ciu cloae e northern or eastern states from the next improbable as such assertions assertion 9 ma may seem the establishment of the principle now asserted and acted upon by con on gress will wiil render them by no means impossible the character and indeed the very existence of congress and the union is thus made dependent solely and entirely upon the party arty and the sectional exigencies an and forbearances forbe arances of the hour we need not stop to show that such action not only finds no warrant in the constitution but is at war with every principle of our government and with the very existence of free institutions it is indeed the identical practice which has rendered fruitless all attempts hitherto to establish and maintain free governments in mexico and the states of south america party necessities assert themselves as superior to the fundamental law which is set aside in ze reckless ekless Oed obedience lence to their behests behesta beh ests stability whether in the exercise of power in the adminis of the government or in the enjoyment of rights becomes eleand and the conflicts of party which under constitutional government ar are he condition and means of political 1 progress are merged in the conflicts of arms to A which they directly or indirect ly tend etwas against this peril so conspicuous and so fatal to all free governments that our constitution was inteli intended ded especially peel ally aily to provide not states but the very existence of the government is made by its provisions to lo depend upon the the right and the fact of representation the congress upon which is conferred all the legislative power of the national government consists of two branches the senate and house of representatives whose joint concurrence or assent is essential to the tho validity of any law of these the house of representatives says the constitution ution ar article bicle isi let section 26 shall be composed of members members chosen every see second nd year by the people cople of the several states not only is t the e rf right of represent tation dation thus |