1864 Democratic Convention and Platform
Presidential Candidate, George McClellan.—On
Aug. 29, 1864, the Democratic National Convention assembled in Chicago,
Ill., and nominated General McClellan for the Presidency on the
following declaration of principles:
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. |
1864
Democratic Presidential Nominee, General George B. McClellan
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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 pretence of military
necessity, or 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 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 are to preserve the federal Union and the rights of
the States unimpaired ; and they hereby declare that they consider the
administrative usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers not
granted by the Constitution; the subversion of the civil by the military
laws 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
by the administration of its duty in respect to our fellow-citizens who
are now and have long 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 seamen of our navy, who are and have been in the field
under the flag of their country; and, in the event 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. See
the Incredible 1864 Thomas Nast Illustration Interpreting the
Democratic Platform |
