Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-04-10
JEFFERSON DAVIS AND HORACE
GREELEY.

A letter from "H. G..-Tis Forecast
About the Result i'm the CRANBERRY
Patch HE Declines 10 Speak there
About His Rail- for MFR. Davis.
Mr.. Greeley after invitation last week,
declined to go into Connecticut, and en-
gage in the canvass on behalf of the
Radical ticket, and gives his reasons in a
letter, from which the following is an ex-
tract:
In the eyes of mankind and in verify,
the Republican party was and is the re-
sponsible prosecutor of Jefferson Davis. I
am not aware that Andrew johnson or his
Cabinet had intermeddled in any way with
the course of justice in the premises. If
the Chief Justice, whose district includes
Virginia, or the District Judge for that
State, had seen fit to try this prisoner, he
would of course have been tried long ago.
Why they did not, / can only infer; but
the testimony drawn from Judge Under
wood, that he could not be convicted, con-
vinces me that neither of them deemed it
wise or salutary to invoke failure which
would be widely hailed as proving the re-
bellion legally right, the nation essentially
wrong, in our late arduous and bloody
struggle. thought he had right. if not
tried, to be bailed; and / had already
said that, while should prefer not to be
required to do 80, / would sign his bond
if that should be found necessary. Being
assured that it tras necessary--that the
thousands of responsible men who would
gladly have signed in my stead would not
answer the same purpose made good
my prefer. l had never seen Jefferson
Davis SO as to know him. | had never
held any sort of intercourse with him.
There are probably few men more antipa-
thetic in all their views, opinions, conyi6-
tons, purposes, than he and |. After |
had signed the bond, he asked an intro
duction to me, and we ciyilly greeted each
other. We have net met nor exchanged
word since that day, and never may.
| acted on very full consideration and
have seen no reason either to change my
views or regret my action. l was quite
aware that my act would be censured and
my motives impugned. The clamor ac-
tually raised somewhat transcribed my
expectations, alike in its extent and its
ferceness; but l attributed this in part to
rivalry in business, and patiently waited
for the gale to exhaust itself.
If my recollection is not at fault, most of
the Republican journals of Connecticut,
including those of the stateliest preten-
sions, were prominent in thus assaiIing and
denouncing me. think full proportion
of the orders to have the Tribune stopped,
because Of my action aforesaid, came from
your State. And, even 30 late as last JAN
uary, received thence an insulting mes
sage, purporting that, since / had sold out
to jeff Davis, my paper was no longer
wanted. But | am not complaining of
this, nor of anything. Acting always, in
matters of opinion, as | see 6t, accord the
same liberty to others. Yet it has seemed
to me unadvisable, in view of the facts
above glanced at, that | should, at this late
hour of the canvass, allow your struggle
to be complicated with any question per-
sonal to myself. So long as / stay at home,
content to do my best as journalist to in
sure your success, cannot well be charged
with doing you any harm but, were to
appear among you as speaker, it might
be that some of the calm, sagacious patri.
OTIS who last May threatened to vote thence.
forth the Copperhead ticket to attest their
adherence of my "bailing JEFF Davis"
might choose to put their threats into ex-
ecution. When one sets out to act like a
fool, it is difficult to forecast the limits of
his folly.