Democratic Party Platform, 1864
Resolved, That in the future, as in
the past, we will adhere 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 framework 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 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
of an ultimate convention of 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 the States.
Resolved, That the direct interference of the
military authorities of the United States in the
recent elections held in Kentucky, Maryland,
Missouri, and Delaware was a shameful violation
of the Constitution, and a 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 they
hereby declare that they consider that the administrative
usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers not granted by the Constitution
— the subversion of the civil by 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
is 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 and 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
soldiery of our army and sailors of our navy, who
are and have been in the field and on the sea
under the flag of our country, and, in the events
of its attaining power, they will receive all
the care, protection, and regard that the brave soldiers
and sailors of the republic have so nobly earned.
SOURCE: Reprinted in Donald Bruce Johnson,
comp., National Party Platforms, vol. 1, 1840-1956, rev. ed.
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), pages 34-35.
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