The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

456
THE EARLE FAMILY
munication, in order first to ascertain the course which should be
taken by the political Convention of friends of the Albany nomina-
tions which was to be held in New York on the nth inst.
The proceedings of that Convention are now known. It was
composed of a representation from a wider section of our country
than was represented at Albany. It unanimously resolved in sub-
tance that it would sustain the equal, civil and political rights of all
men, without distinction of wealth, birth, learning or complexion,
and would oppose the granting by law of partial or exclusive privi-
leges. Thus it has proclaimed a creed alike conformable to the
religious precepts of the New Testament and to the political doctrines
of the Declaration of American Independence.
With a party taking such principles as its guide, I am ready to act,
without waiting to ascertain its present strength, or to calculate the
rapidity of its success. I feel satisfied that it ought to triumph, and
confident that it will do so, soon or late, unless it shall swerve from
those principles, of which, I confess, I am not without fears. If its
success were remote in prospect, the greater would be the necessity
and the duty of accelerating it by speedy and vigorous action. I
therefore respectfully accept the nomination.
The principal political evils which afflict our nation are, in my
opinion— 1. Slavery. 2. Inequality of political and civil rights,
including the practice of granting corporate and business facilities to
portions of the community, and denying them, on the same terms, to
other portions. 3. Excessive salaries to a portion of our public
servants, which are founded on a like principle with slavery, and
which greatly tend to the corruption of administrations and of parties.
Our friends have resolved to oppose the further existence of the
two first-named evils. I hope they may yet include hostility to the
last within the sphere of their action. Embracing three such objects,
we shall be morally certain of success, and through that success of
great blessings to our country.
All past experience justifies the anticipation that persuasion, argument
and appeals to interest will be continually employed to make
us swerve from those ends. It will require good sense, firmness and
integrity to resist their blandishments. Let us, then, stand constantly
on our guard. When, if ever, our organization shall be seduced
from the principle of equal rights and equal justice, then will its
downfall have commenced, and then will it have become the duty of