APPENDICES.

National Republican Calls, Delegates, Platforms and Acceptances.

1856.

CALL FOR THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION.

The people of the United States, without regard to past political differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present administration, to the extension of slavery into the territories, in favor of the admission of Kansas as a free State, and restoring the action of the federal government to the principles of Washington and Jeffer son, are invited by the National Committee, appointed by the Pittsburg Convention of the 22d of February, 1856, to send from each State three delegates from every Congressional district, and six delegates at large, to meet at Philadelphia, on the 17th day of June next, for the purpose of recommending candidates to be supported for the offices of President and Vice-President of the United States.

E. D. MORGAN, New York,
JOHN M. NILES, Connecticut,
A. P. STONE, Ohio,

JOHN Z. GOODRICH, Massachusetts,
ABNER R. HALLOWELL, Maine,
CHARLES DICKEY, Michigan,
A. J. STEVENS, Iowa,
LAWRENCE BRAINARD, Vermont,
WYMAN SPOONER, Wisconsin,
E. D. WILLIAMS, Delaware,
JAMES REDPATH, Missouri,
WASHINGTON, March 29, 1856.

FRANCIS P. BLAIR, Maryland,
DAVID WILMOT, Pennsylvania,
WILLIAM M. CHASE, Rhode Island,
GEORGE RYE, Virginia,
E. S. LELAND, Illinois,
GEORGE G. FOGG, New Hampshire,
CORNELIUS COLE, California,
WILLIAM GROSE, Indiana,

C. M. K. PAULISON, New Jersey,
JOHN G. FEE, Kentucky,

LOUIS CLEPHANE, Dist. of Columbia.
National Committee.

DELEGATES BY STATES.

DELEGATES BY STATES. Continued.

This convention of delegates, assembled in pursuance of a call addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences. or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present administration, to the extension of slavery into free territory, in favor of admitting Kansas as a free State, of restoring the action of the federal government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson, and who purpose to unite in presenting candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President, 'do resolve as follows:

1. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the federal Constitution is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions, and that the federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States, shall be preserved; that, with our Republican fathers, we hold it to be a self-evident truth that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior design of our federal government were to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction; that, as our Republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, it becomes our duty to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it for the purpose of establishing slavery in the United States, by positive legislation probibiting its existence or extension therein; that we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, of any individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States while the present Constitution shall be maintained.

2. That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the territories of the United States for their government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the erritories those twin relics of barbarism-polygamy and slavery.

3. That, while the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established by the people in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty," and contains ample provisions for the protection of the life, liberty and property of every citizen, the dearest Constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them; their territory has been invaded by an armed force; spurious and pretended legislative, judicial and executive officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced; the right of the people to keep and bear arms has

been infringed; test-oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office; the right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an impar tial jury has been denied; the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, has been violated; they have been deprived of life, liberty and property without due process of law; the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged; the right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect; murders, robberies and arson have been instigated and encouraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished; that all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanction and procurement of the present administration -and that for this high crime against the Constitution, the Union and humanity, we arraign the administration, the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apologists and accessories, either before or after the fact, before the country and before the world; and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious outrages and their accomplices to a sure and condign punishment hereafter.

4. That Kansas should be inmediately admitted as a State of the Union, with her present free constitution, as at once the most effectual way of se curing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil strife now raging in her territory.

5. That the highwayman's plea that might makes right," embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect unworthy of American diplomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any government or people that gave it their sanction.

6. That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean by the most central and practicable route is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country, and that the federal government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction; and, as an auxiliary thereto, to the immediate construction of an emigrant route on the line of the railroad.

7. That appropriations by Congress for the improvement of rivers and harbors of a national character, required for the accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution and justified by the obligation of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens. 8. That we invite the affiliation and co-operation of freemen of all par ties, however differing from us in other respects, in support of the principles herein declared, and, believing that the spirit of our institutions, as well as the Constitution of our country, guarantees liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens, we oppose all legislation impairing their security.

FREMONT'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.

NEW YORK, July 8, 1856. GENTLEMEN :-You call me to a high responsibility by placing me in the van of a great movement of the people of the United States, who. regard to party differences, are uniting in a common effort to bring back the action of the federal government to the principles of Washington and Jef ferson. Comprehending the magnitude of the trust which they have declared themselves willing to place in my hands, and, deeply sensible of the honor which their unreserved confidence, in this threatening position of public affairs, implies, I feel that I can not better respond than by a sincere declaration that, in the event of my election to the Presidency, I should enter upon the execution of its duties with a single-hearted determination to promote the good of the whole country, and to devote solely to this end all the powers of government, irrespective of party issues and regardless of sectional pride. The declaration of principles embodied in the resolves of your convention express the doctrines in which I have been educated, and which have been ripened into convictions by personal observation and experience. With this declaration and avowal, I think it necessary to revert to only two of the subjects embraced in those resolutions, and to these only because events have surrounded them with grave and critical circumstances, and given them special importance.

I concur in the views of the convention deprecating the foreign policy to which it adverts. The assumption that we have the right to take from another nation its domains because we want them, is an abandonment of the honest character which our country has acquired. To provoke hostilities by unjust assumptions would be to sacrifice the peace and character of the country, when all its interests might be more certainly secured and its objects attained by just and healing counsels, involving no loss of reputation. International embarrassments are mainly the result of secret diplomacy, which aims to keep from the knowledge of the people the operations of the government. This system is inconsistent with the character of our institutions, and is itself gradually yielding to a more enlightened public opinion, and to the