The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1867-06-01

Horace Greelys Letter to the Union League,
in response to the notice they served on him of
q proposed meeting to take some action in refer
ence to his signing jeff Davis bail bond, is pub.
hshed in the New York Tribune of the Oath ult.
The following extracts embrace the sharpest
portions Of it:
Mr.. Greedy refers to the murder of President
Lincoln as "most appalling calamity, that seem.
ed in an instant to curdle all the milk of human
kindness in twenty millions of American breasts"
cat once, he says, "insidiOus efforts were set on
foot to turn the fury thus engendered against me
because of my pertinacious advocacy of mercy
to the vanquished. CHANGING to enter the club
house, the next Saturday evening, l received
full broadside of your scowls, ere ace listened to a
clertcM hdrdngue intended to pr0re MH Mr.. Lin
coin lad been proridSntaly remOced because Of his
notorious kdnings tOrdrd ciemel,cy, in order to
make way for successor who would give the
rebels full measure of stern Justice. was soon
made to comprehend that had no sympathizers,
or rome who dared seem such, in your crowded
assemblage, and some maladriOt admirer having
few days afterwards made the club present Of
my portrait, its bare reception was resisted in
speech from the chair by your then president-a
speech whose vigorous invective was justified
solely by my pleadings for clemency to the rebels.
At once a concerted howl of denunciation and
rage was sent up from every side against me by
the little creatures whom God, for some inscrut.
able purpose, permits to edit majority of our
minor journals echoed by yell of stop nv pa.
per- from thousands OF imper;cctly instructed
readers of the Tribune. One impudent puppy
wrote me to answer categorically whether l was
or was not in favor of hanging jeff Davis, adding
that must stop his paper if were not Scores
volunteered assurance that l was defying public
hat n,na tnfr
me,as if could be induced to rrite ,chat Mey nist-
ed TO read rather Man mhat Uey netoed to be told I
never before realized SO wildly the baseness of
the editorial vocation according 10 the vulgar con-
ception of it. The din raised about INV ears now
is nothing to what l then endured and despised
am Inundated by the reflection that il is or wa,
in the power of such insects to annoy me. even
by pretending to discover with surprise some
thing that have for years been publicly and
emphatically proclaiming"
The following is the conclusion Of the letter:
'Gentiemen, shall not attend your meeting
this evening. have an engagement out of town
and shall keep il. l do not recognize Won a,
capable OF Judging or even fully coInprehendny
me. You evidently regard me as weak senti.
miscad by maudlin philosophy /
arIaign you as narrow-minded block.heads who
would like to be useful to great and good cause
but don't know how. Your attempt to base a
great enduring party on the hate and wrath ne
cessarily engendered by bloody civil war is as
though You should plant colony on an iceberg
which had somehow driftcd into a tropical ocean
L tell you here that, out of life constantly de.
voted TO the good of human kind. your children
will select my going to Richmond and signing
that bail bond as the wisest act and will feel that
1t did more for freedom and humanity than all
OF you were competent to do though YOU had liy.
al az 7 a.ly r
you, then, but that you proceed to your end by a
direct, frank, manly way. Don't slide off into
mild resolution Of censure, but move the explu.
sion which you purposed, and which deserve, if
l deserve any reproach whatever. All care for
is, that you may make this a square, stand.up-
fight, and record your judgments by yeas and
nays. care not how few vote with me or how
many vote against me, for l know that the latter
will repent III dust and ashes before three wears
have passed Understand. once for all. that
dare you and defy you, and that l propose to
fight it out on the line that / have held from the
day of Lees surrender. So long as any man was
seeking to overthrow our government, he was INV
snemy; from the hour in which he laid down his
arms, he was my formerly-erring country1nan.-
80 long as any is at heart opposed to the national
unity, the federal authority, or to the assertion
Of the equal rights Of all men, which has become
practically identified with loyalty and national.
ity, shall do my best to deprive him of power;
but, whenever he ceases to be thus, demand his
to all the privileges OF American citi-
lenship give you fair notice that shall urge
the Northumberland of those now prescribed
for rebellion, as shall feel confident that
their course is consistent with the freedom of the
blacks and the unity of the republic and that |
shall demand a recall of all now in exile ONLY for
in the rebellion, whenever the
country shall have been so thorouvhlv n,c;6.5
that its safety will not thereby be endangered.
"And so, gentlemen, hoping that You will
lenceforth comprehend me somewhat better than
you have done, remain, Yours,
"HORACE GREELEY"
For the Free Ira 'er.
Wendell phf1lfDs