Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1864-09-28
LETTER OF TRAIN TO MCCLELLAN.

George Francis Train has written Gen.
George Brinton NJ Clellan the following bit
terly sarcastic letter, dated
RoCKAwAY- N-THE-SEA, Sept IL, 1864.
To Maj. Gen. G. B. NJ Clellan, Orange, NJ:
DEAR SIR: 1t is a mean thing to listen at
the keyhole. 1t is meanerto open private
letter. 1t is the meanest thing of all to ac-
cept hospitality and abuse the host. But
these mean things are Christian virtues
compared to the accepting the nomination
of party in order to destroy it. A plat
form is the partys soul. A candidate is
the party S body. Seperate the body from
the soul and death ensues. 1t is as difficult
to sit between two stools as to sleep with
one eye open. You cannot worship God and
Mammon Honesty is not only the best
policy, but the only one for an honest man.
To cheat in politics is as wicked as to cheat
in money. You know the Peace men con-
trolled the Convention. They gave you a
platform that was neither fish, fesh fowl,
or mackerel. Yet you insist upon the mac
kerel. Hence the Daily Ne,cs, the Metro
politan Record, Fee,mon's Journal, and
Ohio Crisis fly off from you like hoops from
an effervescing barrel Singleton will fol-
low Wood; Valandigham will fall in, and
in two weeks Pendleton will decline to be
shipwrecked with the rest. Come out
from under the bed, " said the indignant
wife to her undecided husband Not"
said he, 80 long as l hare tie spirit Of a
man acifhiR me.
Mark my words, General-you will not
carry single State except New Jersey, and
you will sacrifice seven Democratic members
of Congress out of ten. Look at Vermont.
Maine will be the same Indiana will only
lead the other States by month.
You will find it as hard as the rebels have
to fight such Democratic names as Foote,
| Farragut, Porter and Dupont, on the sea,
or Grant, Meade Burnside, Sickels Han
cock, Thomas and Sherman, on the land
all Of whom are against you. The late let
ters of Sherman and Grant rattle through
the Democratic ranks like lightning through
| a gooseberry bush. II only costs ttoo Mous-
and dollars to get up u Nc Cteltan meeting.
Young Ketchum said so. If the explosion
of a limited quantity of gas in Union Square
killed two women and wounded several the
other night, what will be the disaster when
your whole party bursts up in November;
James Buchanan said that he was no Ion
ger j. b., but the Cincinnati platform
You reverse it, and say that you are not the
Chicago platform, but G. b. Mac. aid
Lord Byron in Don juan
THE wcll-known Hebrew word, am,
We English use to govern d.
But to your letter. Bulwer said the Pen
aods nttghtier than tie sUOrd Then he had
not made your acquaintance, General. Nom
MATED ON YOUR RECORD. Yes. The
Draft The Proclamation. The suspension
OF Habeas Corpus. The arrest of Legisla-
lures. Military at the polls, and disobedi-
ence Of orders. Is not that your record? Do
you mean, by alluding to your record, that
you will do the same again?
GENTLEMEN | have the honor to ac-
knowledge the receipt of your letter, in
forming me of my nomination of course,
who else did you suppose it was?l by the
Democratic National Convention certainly,
it was not the Republican National Com
mittee, recently assembled at Chicago,
That so; it did not assemble at Cleve-
land or New York, as their candidate at
the next election for President of the Uni
ted States. Exactly; it was not for the
last election.
ut is unnecessary for me to say to you
that this nomination comes to me unsought. "
Why say it, then?
Take the whole letter, paragraph by par
asraph, transpose it as | did this sentence,
and you will find it as weak as dish water
undecided, inconsistant, ,ungrammatical, and
egotisticaL. The six illusions to the Union
remind one of the stereotyped cry in the
Fortunes of Nigel-watches, clocks, barna-
cles The bright boy who cried barnaeles,
watches, clocks, introduced new idea into
Scotland.
''If frank, earnest, and persistent effort
to obtain those objects should fail, the re-
sponsibility for Interior consequences will
fall upon those who remain in arms against
the Union.
Why not say war right out, not dodge
round a corner this way? Don't forget that
old Cass killed himself with the Nicholson
letter.
Believing that the views here expressed
are those of the Convention and the people
you sepresent, accept the nomination"
You don't believe anything of the kind;
You know better The Northwest were all
peace. So reads the platform. Five hun
dred delegates unanimously agree upon
platform Here it is:
ResOlUed To please you, they have war
Resolued, To please Pendleton, they have
Pesolved To please all the outs, the war
90 on till the peace is signed
Remember that the Royal George IN
Bristol Channal went down with all on
board. the result Of trimming.
Walter Savage Lander wrote on the
Georges:
George the First was reeoned vile,
Viler George the Second;
And what mertal ever heard
Any good of George the Third?
When from earth the Fourth assembled,
God be praised, the Georges ended.
| condense your letter in two lines:
ssGENTLEMEN: [ accept the nomination,
but acknowledge myself totally unit tor the
position,
mean nothing unkindin in this, General