The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-06-20

AZ-2- IT,
The Greeleyzsevzard Letter.
The subjoined is Mr.. Greeleyss letter to MI
Z ESeBard:
: New YoBK, Saturday Eve, Nov. IL, "a.
Gov. SEwARD-The election is over ant
its results sufficiently ascertained. It seems il
me a fitting time to announce to you the disso
tuition of the political firm of Seward, Weec
aad Greeley, by the withdrawal of the jnniol
partner-said withdrawal to take effect on the
merning afterzthe first Tuesday in FebraarS
next, ahda as it may seemsa great presumption
lin me to assume that any sach firm exists es
pecially since the public was advised more
than a year ago by an editorial rescript in the
Evening journal formally reading me oat soi
the Wing psrtyS thatI was esteemed no Longer
either useful or Ornamental IN the concern,
you viii, ] am sure, indulge me in some re-
miniscences which seem to beft the occasion.
/ was a poor young printer, an editor of a
in a small way; but not seeking to be known
out of myown ward committee when after the
tgreat political reyulsion of 1889, I was one
day called to. the City Hotel, where two straH.
gers introduced themselves as Tharlow Weed
and Lewis Benedict of Albany They told
me that a cheap campaign paper of q peculiar
stamp at Albany had been resolved ony and
that had been selected to edit it. The an
nouncement might well be deemed fattering
of the great, and who was not knownaas alpar-
tisan writer and Z eagerly embraced their pro-
posals. They asked me to fix my salary for a
year, and I named $1,000, which they agreed
to, and I did the work required to the best of
my ability. !. ~
1T was work that made no figure and created
no sensation, but l loved it well. When it
was done, you were Governor, dispensing Of
fees worth from $4,000 to $4,000 per year
to your friends and cempatriots, and I return
ed to my garrett and my crust and to desperate
battle with pecuniary obligation heaped upon
me by bad partners in business, and the dis
astrous event of 1887. I believe it did not
then occur TO me that .some one of these album
Edant places might have been offered to me,
without injustice. : / now think it should have
occurred to you. IF it did occur to me, / was
not the man to ask you for it. I think that
should not have been necessary, I only re-
member that no friend at all enquired as to
my pecuniary circumstances; that your friend
NOT mine-Robt. c.. Wetmore, was. one of
the chief dispensers of your patronage here,
and that such devoted compatriots as A. e.
Wells and John Hooks were lifted by you out
Of pauperism into independence, as I am glad
I was not Yet an enquiry from you as to my
needs and means, at that time would have been
timely, and held ever in grateful remembrance
by mev1H
In the Harrison campaign of 1910 I was
again designated to edit a campaign paper. I
published it as well, and ought to have made
something by it, in spite of its extremely low
price. My extreme poverty was the main rea-
SON why l did not. 1t compelled me to hire
press work, mailing, &C., done by the job, and
high charges for extra work nearly ate me me
~ - A . fha al0oo . ruoa ef,11 -,kHo-k r,oa1,8-
and in dept, but the paper had rather improv-
ed my position. Now came the great scrabble
of the swell mob of coon minstrels and cider
suckers at Washington, I not being counted
in. Several regiments went on from this city,
but NO one of the whole crowd-though / say
it who should not-had done so much towards
General Harrison's nomination and election as
"yours respectfully" I askel aothing-ex-
pected nothing; but you Governor Seward.
ought to have asked that I might be P. M, of
New York. Your asking would have been in |
vain, but it would have been an act of grace
neither wasted nor undeserved--4soo SOON after
started the Tribune, because I was urged to do
it by certain of your friends, and because such
a paper was needed here, I was promised GER
tain pecuniary aid in SO doing; it might have
been given me without cost or risk to any one.
AL I ever had was a loan by piecemeal of
$1,000 from James Cogshall-God bless his
honored memory 1 did not ask for this /
think this is the one sole case in which / ever
received d pecuniary favor from a political as
~sociatc. I am very thankful that he did not
die until he was fully repaid. And let me
here honor one grateful recollection.
When the Wing party under your rule had
Offices to give, my name was never thought of,
blu twhen in AZ and 43 we were hopelessly out
eff power, I was honored with the party nomi-
nation for State Printer. When we came
again to have a State Printer to elect, as well
as nominate, the place went to Weed, as it
ought. Yet it was worth something to know
that there was once a time when it was not
deemed too great a sacrifice to recognize me
as belonging to your household. IF a new of
fee had not been since crea.ed on purpose to
give its valuable patronage to 81. j. Raymond,
and enable st. John to show forth its Times
as. the organ of the Wing State administration,
/ should have been still more grateful. In
1913 your star again rose, and my warmest
hopes were realized in your election to the Sen
ate. I was then no longer needy, and had no
more claim than desire to be recognized by
Taylor. / think I had some claim to
forbearanoe from you. What / received there
upon was a most humiliating lecture in the
shape Of a decision in the libel case of Red6eld
and Pringle, and an obligation to publish it in
myown and ot~herjournals ofyour supposedfrm.
I thought and still think this lecture needless
ly cruel and Notifying. The plaintiffs, after
using my columns to the extent Of their needs
or desires, stopped writing and called on me
for the name of their a~ssailant. / proffered
tito them. A thoroughly responsible name.
They refused to accept it unless it should
prove TO be. one of the four or i've first men in
Batavia, when. they had known from the first
who it was, and that it was neither of them.
They weuld not accept that which they had
demanded. They sued me instead for money
and money you were at liberty to give them
to your hearts content.
The Homestead-The Republicans.