Democratic party (1864) The real Chicago platform, as expounded by the Democratic orators at Chicago.

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THE REAL CHICAGO PLATFORM
AS EXPOUNDED BY THE DEMOCRATIC ORATORS AT CHICAGO

On Monday and Tuesday nights, Aug. 29 and 30, at the City of Chicago, a number of distinguished Democratic orators entertained the members of the Chicago Convention and others with their views of the state of the country, and expounded the Platform upon which their party then stood, and upon which they intended to stand, during the Presidential canvass. We have only room for extracts from a few of these orators, but sufficient to show the temper and purpose of all. Let every good citizen, every honest man--of whatever political parties is most likely to secure an honorable and permanent peace to our country.

"Hon." Mr. Reed, of Indiana, said :
"He advised open and above-broad resistance to the draft. If Lincoln and his satraps attempted to enforce it, blood would flow in our streets, and it would be right it should flow. Lincoln was already damned to all eternity, and he did not know if even this iniquitous measure would materially affect the estimation in which the people held him. If the draft was not enforced, there would be peace. Mr. Lincoln had slain our people by countless thousands, and blood enough had been shed to float the largest ship of the war in the world. He said we might as well make make up our minds to the fact that it was impossible to whip the South. He advised his bearers to shoot down those who would enforce the draft ; to insist upon the right of the writ of habeas corpus ; to resist to the bitter end the attempt to make the military power superior to the civil, and to openly arm themselves that they might be prepared for horrible contingencies."
Rev. Prof. Johnston, of Missouri, said :
" I want to see peace, with the rights of all citizens of this land restored. Is that right ? [ A voice--' Yes, we want a peace man for President. Down with war men.'] If it shall be necessary, in the settlement of our difficulties, to allow a few stars to form a constellation by themselves I think we can be just as safe, just as well protected, and just as free and happy under a Union of Republics as we have been under a Union of States. I want to see this whole continent bound together by a grand union of Republics."
Mr. C. Chauncey Burr said :
" You cannot have the face to ask the South to come back into the Union until you withdraw your marauding army. Is there a man in this audience that wants to have one half of the States conquered and subjected? [No.] When this is done you have ended the Government. After three years of war, who are conquered, you or the South ? I say you are conquered. You cannot conquer the South, and I pray God you never may."
James S. Rollins, of Missouri, said :
" I love our Southern friends ; they are a noble, a brave, and a chivalrous people [cheers], although they were trying to break up the Government; and however much we much we may hate them, we must remember that they are our countrymen, and cannot be subdued so long as we insist upon depriving them of their rights."
The Reverend J. A. McMaster said :
" Show me a War Democratic to-day, and I will show you a shoddy Abolitionist in disguise. A man who is in favor of this unnatural war insults the holy name of Democracy when he claims a place in its organization. He is a Judas, and should be cast out as an enemy to humanity and to God. War, and blood, and rapine, and murder, is the legitimate business of the Lincoln minion. We wash our hands clean of all participation in it. But we are told that we must forced to carry arms in this unholy fight. Soon the net is to be drawn that will gather in its half million more to feed the insatiable thirst for blood of the Negro God. Let us demand a cessation of the sacrifice until the people shall pronounce demand comes form the earnest verdict for peace, and let the tyrant understand the demand comes from earnest men and must be respected. We are often called the ' Unterrified.' I trust you are. I hope that your nerves may be of steel, for there is a day of trial coming, and you must meet it. There will be Provost-Marshals who will sneak into your family circles, and spy into your domestic relations, and perhaps cast you into as Abolition Bastille. Then I trust to find you ' unterrified' indeed.
" Capt." Knoots, of Pittsburg, said :
" Lincoln was now played out, the opposition to him was going to be bold and powerful ; there must be no underhand work, and if Democrats catch Lincoln's b--y satrap spies among them, they must cut their d--d throats, that's all. [Applause.] It is the duty of every American to vote for a peace candidate. Shall more wives be made widows, and more children fatherless, and greater hate be stirred up between children of the same glorious Constitution ? If not we must put our foot on the tyrant's neck and destroy it. The Democratic government must be raised to power, and Lincoln, with his Cabinet of rogues, thieves and spies, be driven to destruction. What shall we do with him ? [A voice--' Send him here, and I'll make a coffin for him, d--n him.'] Yes, d--n him and his miserable followers. I should like to see the noble George B. McClellan ad President [cheers], and that great Democrat, Horatio Seymour, should occupy the position of Secretary of State."
" Hon. Mr. Trainor, of Ohio, said :
" If you wish for peace, great, glorious peace, and vote for the nominee of the Democratic Convention. Now, the President has called for 100,000 more. Shall he have them ? [' No, no,' from the audience.] The Democratic party want peace ; for if we don't get it we will have to submit to a military despot. He would urge the people to be freemen, and hurl Abraham Lincoln and his minions from power. There is no difference between War Democratic and an Abolitionist. They are both links in the same sausage made out of the same dog. Should resistance be offered at the polls to prevent our suffrage, lot that resistance be met with resistance."
Mr. O. K. Perrine, said :
" Let us say to these States, come back with all your rights, and and not say to them, as Abraham the first and Abraham the last [cheers] has said, that you can come back if you give up your slaves. [Cheers.] We have been told that the South had no resources, that their soldiers are naked and unfed. If they fight so well without anything to eat or wear, what in God's name will become of us if they ever get anything to wear and eat. [Cheers.]
" He said that Lincoln already felt insecure, and that Mrs. Lincoln made him sleep on the back side of the bed against the wall, for fear he would be gobbled up, [cheers]--but Mrs. Davis let Jeff sleep on the fore side, and run around loose. [ Laughter and renewed cheers.] We ask that the people shall bow down to the will of the people, and they have willed that George B. McClellan shall be nominated and elected. [Immense cheers.] Then we believe one by one, the stars will come back upon our banner, and believe that that concern at Washington will be buried." [Cheers.]
Isaiah Rynders said :
"He had denounced the unholy crusade against our Southern brethren, even before the first regiment was moved Southward. He saw the inevitable result of war--the waste, and blood and tears it would entail, and to this day he could say, and he said it with pride, that he had never said one word against the brave, the noble, the generous, the chivalrous people of the South, and he trusted in God he never would. Nearly half a million of those noble men had fallen in bloody graves, but they remained unconquered. [Cheers.] They can never be subdued, as they are a part of our own flesh and blood. [Loud applause.] Millions more of men may be torn from their homes to fall in the fight, but the task will fail, as it ought to do. The war is carried on for the n****r, and in God's name let the Abolitionists fight it out. We shall nominate our candidate on Monday, and place him squarely upon a platform of peace, and sweep the nation like a whirlwind. Those who count upon a division of the Democratic party will be disappointed. We are one and all for peace, and with this magic word upon our banner we shall sweep over the course, and roll into oblivion the black, negro-loving, negro-hugging worshipers of old Abe Lincoln."
Hon. Benjamin Allen, of New York, said :
" The people will soon rise, and if they cannot put Lincoln out of power by the ballot they will by the bullet." [Loud cheers.]
D. H. Mahoney, of Dubuque, Iowa, said :
" We must elect our candidate, and then, [?] out of our hands to the South, invite them to come and sit again in our Union circle. [A voice--' Suppose they won't come ?] If they will not come to us then I am in favor of going to them. [Loud cheers.] Our Constitution can be made acceptable to them, and then I have the assurance that they will return and forget the past. You live in a day when men and not pigmies are needed. These are the times that try men's souls, and I might add, that they will try their nerves. I trust that the Democracy, which has never yet failed the country, will not falter now ; but, remembering the cause for which their fathers fought and died, be ready to emulate their example."
Mr. Paine, of Missouri, said :
" He came to represent the views of Missouri, which were peace and the Union it was. They wanted no Lincoln conditions and modifications of the Constitution, but would say to our Southern brethren, ' We want you to return and exercise the same rights which you have been despoiled of, and which the Constitution empowers you to possess.' They would welcome them back, as the father of old did the prodigal son--without reverse.
" Such men were false to Democracy, to their country, and to their common humanity, and were simply traitors. Did the people want a draft ? [' Not by a d--d sight.'] Then they must be upset the present government at Washington. This dynasty had already placed in the field 2,200,000 men to be offered upon the altar of the negro, and now it demanded 500,000 more. If these are given there will be no finality, but only a prelude to fresh calls, all to elevate that flat-nosed, woolly-headed, long-heeled, cursed of God and damned of man descendants of Africa."
Mr. George Sanderson, of Philadelphia, said :
" It is for you, fellow-citizens, it is for the white men of the North, to say, at the election in November next, to Alabama Lincoln and his combined minions and satraps, 'Thus far hast thou gone, but no farther shalt thou go.' [Great applause.] We expect to give you, to-morrow, a candidate for the Presidency [a voice, 'For God's sake give us a man who has had nothing to do with the war'] who will use his best efforts to bring around a peace."
Hon. W. W. O'Brien, of Illinois, said :
" Let us resolve here to-night that he shall have no more white blood to prosecute this damnable war.
" But we have men who call themselves War Democrats ; men who, for the sake of power of pelf, went into business of murder, and, soaking their hands in fraternal blood, they hold them up to you, all dripping in gore, and say, ' Behold my loyalty.' They are not Democrats--they are Abolitionists ; and this fall we will bury them in the same grave with the Abolitionists, and damn them to eternal infamy." [Cheers.]
Hiram Ketchum, Jr., of New York, said :
" We want to elect a man who will say to the South, ' Come back ; we will restore to you every constitutional privilege, every guaranty that you ever possessed ; your rights shall be no longer invaded ; we will wipe out the emancipation proclamation ; we will sweep away this confiscation act ; all that we ask of you is to come back and live with us on the old terms. We are both tired and weary, and want to live together again." [Applause.]

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