General SOLOMON D. MEREDITH. A single word here is appropriate. The nomination of President Grant is unprecedented in all the history of the United States. Every congressional district in Pennsylvania was represented in the Convention, and every vote was cast for you, Mr. President. Never have I seen before in a nominating convention such unanimity as was exhibited at Philadelphia. It is very flattering to you, sir; and now let me say for Indiana that she will give you her fifteen electoral votes. I'll say nothing now as to the precise majority, but of the State you may be sure.

The PRESIDENT. At any rate, General, don't let your people vote but once each. [Laughter.]

General MEREDITH. No; we shall give you the State by a handsome majority by allowing each man to vote once only.

Similar assurances were made to the President by different members of the delegation assenting in a word or two to what General Meredith had said. Mr. STORRS. The endorsement of General Grant at Philadelphia is the endorsement of a man with good and honest purposes, and my State of Illinois proposes to give him a majority next November of from 30,000 to 50,000.

General JOHN F. BENJAMIN, of Missouri. You are as well aware, Mr. President, as I am, that disaffection has existed in the ranks of the Republican party in Missouri, but we hope to give its electoral vote for Grant and Wilson.

Governor Fairchild, of Wisconsin, followed General Benjamin, pledging the State of Wisconsin, and similar pledges were made by the representative from Michigan and by Mr. Malord, of Virginia.

Mr. A. B. NORTON, of Texas. Mr. President: Every true and loyal man in Texas will give you a cordial support, and for the reason that no loyal man can live in Texas unless he has about him the strong, protecting arm of the Government. We propose to do now what we did in 1868, and our whole duty will be done at the polls. If Horace Greeley is nominated at Baltimore, Texas will give her electoral vote to President Grant.

Mr. W. H. WISENER, of Tennessee. Mr. President: It is a great pleasure to me to promise you that we will make in your behalf a gallant fight in Tennessee. There are many Democrats in my State who, if called upon to give up their organization to Greeley and Brown, will prefer to capitulate to you, as they did in 1865.

This closed the congratulatory speech-making. The President then again informed the committee that he would read their letter, and respond in writing.

The delegation then withdrew.

Subsequently the President's letter was received, as follows:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 10, 1872. Hon. THOMAS SETTLE, President National Republican Convention; PAUL STROBACH, ELISHA A. BAXTER, H. S. SARGENT, and others, Vice-Presidents:

GENTLEMEN: Your letter of this date, advising me of the action of the Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 5th and 6th of this

month, and of my unanimous nomination for the Presidency by it, is received. I accept the nomination, and through you return my heartfelt thanks to your constituents for this mark of their confidence and support.

If elected in November and protected by a kind Providence in health and strength to perform the duties of the high trust conferred, I promise the same zeal and devotion to the good of the whole people for the future of my official life as shown in the past.

Past experience may guide me in avoiding mistakes inevitable with novices in all professions and in all occupations.

When relieved from the responsibilities of my present trust, by the election of a successor, whether it be at the end of this term or the next, I hope to leave to him, as Executive, a country at peace within its own borders, at peace with outside nations, with a credit at home and abroad, and without embarrassing questions to threaten its future prosperity.

With the expression of a desire to see a speedy healing of all bitterness of feeling between sections, parties, or races of citizens, and the time when the title of citizen carries with it all the protection and privileges to the humblest that it does to the most exalted, I subscribe myself, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

⚫U. S. GRANT.

After the delegation left the Executive Mansion they proceeded to the Capitol, and assembled in the room of the Committee on Military Affairs. Senator Wilson having entered, Mr. Settle said that they had a pleasing duty to perform in acquainting him with his nomination for the Vice-Presidency of the United States, and also in presenting him with the official letter of the Convention.

Senator WILSON made the following impromptu reply:

SENATOR WILSON'S REPLY.

I will in a day or two give you an answer in writing to this communication. I take this occasion, however, to thank you and the members of the Convention you represent for this manifestation of your confidence. As I neither asked nor wrote to any member of the Convention to give me a vote, I am the more grateful for their generous support. I am grateful, too, for the friendly tone of the Republican press of the country. For thirty years, in public and in private life, I have striven to maintain the distinguishing idea of the Republican party-the freedom and equality of all men. I have striven to be true to my country, and to the rights of our common humanity; to know no sectional interest, nor race, nor color. In the future, as in the past, I shall unfalteringly adhere to the principles which are the convictions of my judgment, heart, and conscience.

I am clearly of the opinion that the great soldier who rendered such illustrious services to the country in the great civil war will be re-elected President of the United States. His humanity to the vanquished, his firmness in vindicating the rights of the humble and defenceless, and his devotion to the leading ideas of the Republican party, cannot be questioned. I esteem it a high honor to be associated with him in the coming contest.

While I am grateful to the friends who gave me such generous support, I honor those who adhere with so much devotion to Mr. Colfax. We have been personal and political friends for nearly twenty years, and it is a source of profound satisfaction to me that our personal relations have not been disturbed by the recent contest. While I shall never cease to feel grateful to friends who honored me by their support, I shall ever entertain sincere respect for those who deemed it to be their duty to give their support to

others. I hope we shall all strive to win to our support every honest and patriotic man in the country; every man true to the rights of humanity; every man who would elevate the condition of the toiling millions and have our Republic become a great Christian nation, an example to the world.

Let it be understood that our ranks are wide open to receive all devoted to the country, and who would advance the happiness and general well-being of all sections of the land and all conditions of the people. We Republicans should offer the hand of reconciliation to all fair-minded and honorable men, and use all legitimate means to achieve success for the honor and salvation of the country, as well as for that of the party which saved the Union and established freedom in every part of the land.

SENATOR WILSON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.

WASHINGTON, June 14. Hon. THOMAS SETTLE, President of the National Republican Convention; PAUL STROBACH, ELISHA BAXTER, H. S. SARGENT, and others, Vice-Presi dents:

GENTLEMEN: Your note of the 10th instant, conveying to me the action of the Convention in placing my name in nomination for the office of VicePresident of the United States, is before me. I need not give you an assurance of my grateful appreciation of the high honor conferred on me by this action of the fifth National Convention of the Republican party.

Sixteen years ago, in the same city, was held the first meeting of men who, amid the darkness and doubts of that hour of slave-holding ascendency and aggression, had assembled in national convention to confer with each other on the exigencies to which that fearful domination had brought their country. After a full conference, the highest point of resolve they could reach, the most they dared to recommend, was the avowed purpose to prohibit the existence of slavery in the Territories.

Last week the same party met by its representatives from thirty-seven States and ten Territories, at the same great centre of wealth, intelligence, and power, to review the past, take note of the present, and indicate its line of action for the future. As typical facts of the headlands of the nation's recent history, there sat on its platform, taking a prominent and honorable part in its proceedings, admitted on terms of perfect equality to the leading hotels of the city, not only colored representatives of the race which was ten years before in abject slavery, but one of the oldest and most prominent of the once despised abolitionists, to whom was accorded, as to no other, the warmest demonstration of popular regard and esteem, an ovation not to him alone, but to the cause he had for so many years represented, and to the men and women, living and dead, who had toiled through long years of obliquity and self-sacrifice for the glorious fruition of that hour. It hardly needed a brilliant summary of its platform to set forth its illustrious achievements. The very presence of those men was alone significant of victories already achieved, the progress already made, and the great distance which the nation had travelled between the years 1856 and 1872.

But grand as had been its record, the Republican party rests not on its past alone; it looks to the future and grapples with its problems of duty and danger. It proposes, as objects of its immediate accomplishment, complete liberty and exact equality for all, the enforcement of the recent amendments to the National Constitution, reform in the civil service, the national domain to be set apart for homes for the people, the adjustment of duties on imports as to secure remunerative wages to labor, the extension of bounties to all soldiers and sailors who, in the line of duty, become disabled, continued and careful encouragement and protection to voluntary immigration, and guarding with zealous care the rights of the adopted citizens, the abolition

of the franking privilege, and the speedy reduction of the national debt and the rates of interest, and the resumption of specie payment, the encouragement of American commerce and of ship-building, the suppression of violence, and protection of the ballot-box. It also placed on record the opinion and purposes of the party in favor of amnesty, against all forms of repudiation, and endorsed the humane and peaceful policy of the Administration in regard to the Indians.

But while clearly defining and distinctly announcing the policy of the Republican party on these questions of practical legislation and administration, the Convention did not ignore the great social problems which are pressing their claims for solution, and which demand the most careful and wise consideration. Foremost stands the labor question, concerning the relations of capital and labor. The Republican party accepts the duty of so shaping legislation as to secure a full protection and amplest field for capital, and for labor, the creation of capital, the largest opportunities and a just share of the mutual profits of these two great servants of civilization. To woman, too, and her new demands, it extends the hand of grateful recognition, and proffers its most respectful inquiry. It recognizes her noble devotion to the country and freedom, welcomes her admission to wider fields of usefulness, and commends her demands for additional rights to the calm and careful consideration of the nation. To guard well what has already been secured, to work out faithfully and wisely what is now in hand, and to consider questions which are looming up to view but a little way before us, the Republican party is to-day what it was in the gloomy years of slavery, rebellion, and reconstruction—a national necessity.

It appeals, therefore, for support to the patriotic and liberty-loving, to the just and humane, to all who would dignify labor, to all who would educate, elevate, and lighten the burdens of the sons and daughters of toil. With its great record, the work still to be done under the great soldier whose historic renown and whose successful administration for the last three years begot such popular confidence, the Republican party may confidently, in the language of the Convention you represent, start on a new march to victory.

Having accepted for thirty-six years of life the distinguishing doctrines of the Republican party of to-day; having, during years of that period, for their advancement subordinated all other issues, acting in and co-operating with political organizations with whose leading doctrines I sometimes had neither sympathy nor belief; having labored incessantly for many years to found and build up the Republican party, and having during its existence taken an humble part in the grand work, I gratefully accept the nomination thus tendered, and shall endeavor, if it shall be ratified by the people, faithfully to perform the duties it imposes. Respectfully yours,

HENRY WILSON.

National Union Republican Conventions.

CALLS AND PLATFORMS.

PLATFORM ADOPTED AT PHILADELPHIA, 1856.

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:

I. 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 of 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 prohibiting 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 duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories 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 defence, 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