Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1867-05-30
Horace Greeley md the Union
League Club.

Jefferson Davis, by becoming one OF his
bondsmen, he had been requested to
attend special meeting Of the Club for
the consideration o. the subject which
brought out on Thursday last in the
New York Tribune long letter from
Gree Y, the substance of which we give
below 1t beglns as follows:
BY THESE PRESENTS GREETING
To Messrs. Geo. ", Blunt, John Il. Kennedy,
John o. Stone, Stephen Hyatt, and thirty
Others, members Of hs Union League Ch'b:
Gentlemen l was favored on the 10th
inst. by an official note from our ever
courteous president, John Jay, notifying
me that requlsition,had been presented
to him for "a special meeting of the
club, at an early day. for the purpose OF
taking into consideration the conduct of
Horace Greeley member of the club
who has become bondsman for Jeffer-
son Davis, late chief officer of the rebel
government" MIR. Jay continues;
GAS have reasons to believe that the
signers, or some of them, disapprove of
the conduct which they propose the club
shall consider, 1t is clearly due, both to
the club and TO yourself, that you should
have the opportunity OF being heard on
the subject; | 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 want.
ed 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 Standardization. l
am sure my friends in the club will not
construe this as implying disrespect;
but 1t is not my habit to take part in
any discussions which may arise among
other gentlemen as to the fitness to en-
joy their society. This is their affair al
together, and to them | leave it.
The single point wherein | have any
occasion or wish to address you is your
vital Implication that there is something
novel, unexpected, astounding, in con-
duct in the matter suggested by you as
the basis of your action. | choose not
to rest under this assumption, but to
prove that you, being persons Of Cordi-
nary intelligence, must know better.
On this point, | cite you to scrutiny
Of the record.
Mr. Greeley here gives extracts from
his leader ;entitled Magnanimity 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 continues
The evening of that day April 14thl
witnessed that most appalling calamity,
the murder of President Lincoln, which
seemed in an instant to curdle all the
milk OF human kindness in twenty mil
lions of American breasts. At once, in
siduous efforts were made to turn the
fury thus engendered against me, be-
cause of my pertinacious advocacy of
mercy to the vanquished. CHANGING to
enter the clubhouse the next Saturday
evening, | received full broadside of
your scowls ere we listened to clerical
harangue, intended to prove that Mr.
Lincoln had been providentally remov-
ed because of his notorious ieanings to-
ward clemency, In order to make way
for successor who would give the reb-
els full measure Of stern justice.
was soon made to comprehend that |
had no sympathizers-or none who
dared seem such-in your crowded as
semblage. And some maladroit admirer
having few days afterward made the
club present of my portrait, its bare
reception was resisted in q speech from
the chair by your then president-a
speech whose vigorous invective was
justified solely by my pleadings for len
ity to the rebels.
At once,a concerted howl of deuunCia-
ton and rage was sent up from every
side against me by the little creatures
whom God for some inscrutable pur-
poses, permits to edit a majority of our
minor journals, echoed by yell Of "Stop
my paper !" from thousands of imper-
fectly instructed readers of the Tribune.
One impudent puppy wrote me to an
swer categorically whether was or was
not in favor of hanging JEFF. Davis, ad-
ding that | must stop his paper if |
were not Scores volunteered assur-
ances that l was defying public opinion
that most Of my readers were against
meas if | could be induced to write
what they wished said rather than what
they needed to be told. l never before
realized so wildly the baseness of the
gar conception of it. The din raised
about my ears now is nothing to what l
then endured and despised. l am hui
inflated by the reflection that it is Tor
was) in the power OF such insects to an
noy me, even by pretending to discover
with surprise something that have for
years been publicly, emphatically pro-
claiming.
Mr.. Greeley goes on to say that upon
his nomination for the position of Unit
ed States Senator, he took occasion
again to make his views public, not
withstanding the advice of his friends
Mr.. Greeley concludes his letter as fol-
lows:
Gentlemen, shall not attend your
meeting this evening. have an engage
ment out of town, and shall keep 1t. |
do not recognize you as capable of judy
ing,or even fully mprehending me. You