The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1867-05-31
Horace Greeley and the Union
League Club.

Ing one OIL his hOndSmcn, he had been
requested TO attend special meeting
of the Club for the consideration of
the subject which brought out on
Thursday last in the New York Tri
bune a long letter from Greeley, the
substance of which we give below
IL begins as follows.
IVY THESE PRESENTS GREET1NG
10 Ncsws Geo w Bluni, John 4. Ken
nedu John y. Stone, Stephen Hydh,
and thirty others, members Of he In
ION LcGguc Glib:
Genutmea: | was favored on the
10th inst. by an official note from our
over courteous president, John Jay,
notifying me that requisition had
been presented to him for "a special
meeting of the club, at an early day,
for the purpose of taking into consid-
Grafton the conduct of Horace Greeley
n member of the club, who has become
bondsman for Jefferson Davis, late
chief officer of the rebel government.
MIR. Jay continues:
"As | have reasons to believe that
the signers, or some of them, disap-
prove of the conduct which they
propose the club shall consider, it is
clearly due, both to the club and to
yourself, that you should have the OPP
portunity of being heard on the sub
lect; ! beg, therefore, to ask on what
evening it will be convenient for you
that | call the meeting" &c, &c
In my prompt reply, | requested
the president to give you reasonable
time for reflection, but assured him
that / wanted none; since | should
not attend the meeting, nor ask any
friend to do so, and should make no
defense, nor offer aught in the way of
f-vindlcation. | am sure my friends
in the club will not construe this as
implying disrespect; but it is not my
habit to take part in any discussion
which may arise among other gentle
men as to the fitness to enjoy their
society. This is their affair altogeth-
er, and to them leave it.
The single point whereon / have
any occasion or wish to address you
is your vital implication that there is
something novel, unexpected, astound-
ing, in conduct in the matter suggest
ed by you as the basis of your ac
ton. / choose not to rest under this
assumption, but to prove that you,
being persons of ordinary intelligence,
must know better. On this point,
cite you to a scrutiny of the record.
Mr.. Greeley here gives extracts
from his leader entitled 'Magnanimi-
ty in Triumph, printed in the Tribune
on the day after Lees surrender, and
also from two subsequent articles of a
similar tenor Mr.. Greeley thus con
tinues:
The evening of that day April 14th
witnessed that most appalling calami-
ty, the murder of President Lincoln
which seemed in an instant to curdl,
all the milk Of human kindness il
twenty millions of American breasts
At once, ii,sidious efforts were mad
to turn the fury thus engenderc,
against me, because of my pertinaciou
advocacy of mercy to the vanquished
CHANGING to enter the clubhouse til
next Saturday evening. received
full broadside of your scowls, ere W
listened to a clerical harangue, il
tended to prove that Mr.. Lincoln ha
been providentially removed becaus
OF his notorious learings towar
clemency, in order to make way for
successor who would give the rebels
full measure of stern justice | WI
soon made to comprehend that | ha
no sympathzers or none who dare
seem such-in your crowded Assem-
blage And some maladroit admir-,
having few days afterward made Il
club present of my portrait, It's bai
reception was resisted in n speec
from the chair by your then presidei
"a speech whose vigorous inveeti,
was justified solely by my pleadin,
for lenity to the rebels.
At once, a concerted howl of tlenul
cation and rage was sent up FROM e
cry side against me by the little ere
tnres whom God, for some inscrutal
purposes, permits to edit maiori
of our minor journals, echoed by
yell OF stop my paperl" from thou
ands of imperlectly instructed reade
OF the Tribune One impudent pup
wrote me to answer categorical
whether 1 was or was not in favor
hanging jeff Davis, adding that
must stop his paper if were no
Scores volunteered assurances that
was deiying public opinion the mC
OF my readers were against me -as
l could be induced to write what til
needed to be told. | never before
alized so wildly the baseness of /
editorial vocation according to the VI
gar conception of it. The din rails
about my ears now is nothing to wi
l then endured and despised
Inundated by the reflection that il
or was) in the power of such inse
to annoy me. even by pretending
discover with surprise something Il
/ have for years been emphatica
proclaiming
Mr. Greeley goes on to say that
on his nomination for the position
United States Senator, he took oc
sion again to make his views pub