American Citizen

National Convention Platform.

The following is the platform of principles adopted by the Philadelphia Convention:

The National Union Convention, now assembled in the city of Philadelphia, composed of delegates from every State and Territory in the Union,

Admonished by the solemn lesson which for the last four years it has pleased the Supreme Ruler of the Universe to give the American people;
Profoundly gratified for the return of peace;
Desirous, as a large majority of the countrymen, in all sincerity, to forget the past;
Revering the Constitution as it comes to us from our ancestors;
Regarding the Union in its restoration as more sacred than ever;
Looking with deep anxiety to the future as of instant and continuing trial, hereby issues and proclaims the following declaration of principles and purposes, on which they have, with perfect unanimity, agreed:

1. We hail with gratitude to Almighty God the end of the war and the return of peace to an afflicted and beloved land.

2. The war just closed has maintained the authority of the Constitution with all the powers which it confers, and all the restrictions which it imposes on the general Government unabridged and unaltered; and it has preserved the Union with the lawful rights, dignity and authority of the States, perfect and unimpaired.

3. Representations in Congress of the United States, and in the electoral college is a right recognized by the Constitution as abiding in every State, and as a duty imposed upon its people, fundamental in its nature, and essential to the exercise of our Republican institutions; and neither Congress nor the general Government has any authority or power to deny this right to any, or withhold its enjoyment under the Constitution from the people thereof.

5. The Constitution of the United States and the laws thereof are the supreme law of the land, anything in the constitution or laws of any States to the contrary notwithstanding
All the powers not conferred by the Constitution upon the general Government nor prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States or the people thereof; and among them the right to prescribe qualifications for the elective franchise thereon, which right Congress cannot interfere with.

No State, or combination of States, has the right to withdraw from the Union, or to exclude through their action in Congress or otherwise any State or States from the Union. The Union of the States is perpetual

6. Amendments to the Constitution of the United States may be made by the people thereof as they may deem expedient; but only by the mode pointed out in it. In proposing such amendments whether by Congress or a convention, and in ratifying the same, all States of the Union have an equal and indisputable right to vote thereon.

7. Slavery is abolished and forever prohibited; and there is neither desire nor purpose on the part of the Southern States that it should ever be re-established upon the soil or within the jurisdiction of the United States,
And the enfranchised slaves in all States of the Union should receive, in common with all inhabitants, equal protection in every right of person and property.

8. While we regard as utterly invalid, and never to be assumed or made of binding force, any obligation incurred or undertaken in making war against the United States, we hold the debt of the nation to be sacred and inviolable, and we proclaim our purpose in discharging this, as in performing all other national obligations, to maintain unimpaired the honor and the faith of the Republic

9. It is the duty of the National Government to recognize the services of the Federal soldiers and sailors in the contest just closed by meeting promptly and fully all their just and rightful claims for the services they have rendered the nation, and by extension to those of them who have survived, and to the widows and orphans of those who have fallen, the most generous and considerate care.

10. In Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, who, in his great office, has proved steadfast in his devotion to the laws and interests of his country, unmoved by persecution and undeserved reproach, having faith immeasurable in the people and in the principles of the government, we recognize a Chief Magistrate worthy of the nation and equal to the great crisis upon which his lot is cast, and we tender to him, in the discharge of his high and responsible duties, our profound respect and the assurance of our cordial and sincere support.