The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1867-06-07
GREELY ON THE ..LEAGUE."

IL seems CIldG Horace Oreely has III
Cured the wrath of the New York
'Loyal League" of which he is mem
Der, for his action in becoming one of
the bondmen of Jefferson Davis. In
the New York Tribune of Thursday
last, Mr.. Greely published reply, over
his own signature, to the committee of
the League" who had cited him to ap-
pear before them and answer for his
conduct. He first vindicates his con-
sistency by republishing editorials writ
ten Immediately after the close of the
Rebellion, advocating "magnanimity
in triumph" and also, letter publish
ed last fall, in which he advocated "uni-
versal amnesty" He then assumes
the offensive in the following trenchant
style: .s4 ...s r..... e..a.... ...
Gentlemen. shall not attend your
meeting this evening. l have an en-
gagement out oftown, and shall keep it.
L do not recognize you as capable of
judging, or even fully apprehending
me. You evidently regard me as a
weak sentimentalist, misled by a
maudlin philosophy. | arraign you
as narrow-minded blockheads, who
would like to be useful to a great and
good cause, but don't know how. Your
attempt to base great, enduring par
ty on the hate and wrath necessarily
engendered by bloody civil war, is as
though you shouldplan colony on an
iceberg which had somehow drifted
into a tropical ocean. / tell you here,
that out of a life earnestly devoted to
the good of human kind, your child
ren will select my going to Richmond
| and signing that bail-bond as the
wisest act, and will feel that it did
more for freedom and humanity than
all of you were competent to do
though you had lived to the age oi
Methuselah. -..,..l t.....:...r
I oHl nothinS of you, then, but that
you proceed to your end by direct
frank, manly way. Don't sidle off in
to a mild resolution of censure, but
move the expulsion you proposed, and
which deserve, if l deserve any re-
proach whatever. All that | care fol
is, that you make this square, stand.
up fight, and record your judgment by
yeas and nays. | care not how few
vote with me, nor how many vote a,
gainst me; for / know the latter will
repent it in dust and ashes before three
years have passed. Understand, once
for all, that dare you, and defy you,
and that propose to fight it out on
the line that 1 have held since Lees
surrender. So long as any man was
seeking to overthrow our government
he was my enemy; from the hour in
which he laid down his arms, he was my
formerly erring countryman. So long
as any is at heart opposed to the nation
al unity, the Federal authority, or to
that assertion of the equal rights of al
men, which has become practically
identified with loyalty and nationality,
shall do my best to deprive him of
power; but, whenever he ceases to be
this, / demand his restoration to all
the privileges of American citizenship.
l give you fair notice that [ shall urge
the e-enfranchisement of those now
prescribed for rebellion so soon as
| feel confident that this course is
consistent with the freedom of the
blacks and the unity of the Republic,
and that I shall demand a recall of all
now in exile only for participation in
the Rebellion, whenever the country
shall have been so thoroughly pacified
that its safety will not thereby be en-
dangered. And so, gentlemen, hoping
that you will henceforth comprehend
me somewhat better than you have
done, remain, t'
Yours, HORACE GREELY.
New York, May %, 1867.