The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1868-09-25

NEW YORK, September 22.-GeneTal DIX,
American Minister to France, has sent the
following letter to friend in this city. It
was not written for publication, but the
gentlemen to whom it was addressed has
consented to give it to the public:
PARIS, September 4, 1868.
MY DEAE SIR:-H was my hops hat nv
distapce from home would. have saved ne
from all participation in the political excite
ment prevailing there, but I notice -ia-eueOf
the newspapers that / am heart and hand
With Mr.. Seymour. j am notaware of any
thing in the present or the past which could
rightfully subject ma to such an imputatfon.
IShave been acquainted with Mr.. Seymour
more tbsn quarter Of century. He is an
amiable gentleman Of uDexceptioual private
character and respectable talents, but you
know as well as that he has not a single
qualification for the successful execution of
the high oficisl trust to which he has been
nominated, and he IS especially deficient in
that frmness of purpose which in critical
emergencies is the only safeguard against
public disorder and calamity. He has been
twiee, at diffefent times, governor Of New
York and be has IN neither casehaa DE tai
enk OF the tact to keep the Demoeratie party
of the State together more than two years.
l should regard his election at this iuncture,
when steadiness Of purpose, decision and
self-control are so much needed, as one Of
the greatest calamities that could befall the
country. (
Moreover, he has been put in nomination.
by convention which has openly declared
the purpose of those it represents TO pay the.
greater part of the public debt contracted to
preserve the Union in deprecated paper.
Such measure, in my Judgment Eeuld be
q palpable violation Of the public Faith,
pledged under circumstances which should
have been binding on all honorable men.
Seymour has made public speeches to show
that it is our duty to pay the debt in specie.
In accepting his nomination to theDrssitien-
cy he adopts the declaration that it ought to
Be paid in paper. I know nothing SO hu-
initiating in the history of American poll
tics as this tergiVersation. 1t was perhaps
not unfit that Mr.. Seymour, after presiding
in 1864 over the Ohicogo convention, which
declared the war a failure, should preside
over the convention of 1868 in which pro,
position to discredit the debt contracted to
carry on the war was received with tre-
mendous cheering, and that he should be the
chosen instrument to execute this act of na-
tiOnal turpitude. !
.O1do not believe that the wishes isnd lopins
ions of the great body of the Democratic
party are fairly expressed in the proceedings.
They have nothing in common with the
statesmanlike views Of policy and the high
sense of national honor which guided the
party when Martin Van Buren, William L.
Marcy, Silas Wright, Lewis Oass and Steph-
en- A, Douglas were among its most conspic-
uous members,s s &az A~Fif|
l see but one source of safety for the
country under existing circumstances, and
that is the election of General Grant. On
his decision of character, good sense, moder-
alton and disinterested patriotism, believe
the south will have far better hope of re-
gaiaing the p0sitionih the Union to which
it IS entitled than under man whose polit-
icai career has been in nothing more con-
spicuously marked than in an utter infirmi-
ty of purpose. Independently of all these
considerations, l should be greatly surprised
if the people of the United States were to-
elect as their chief magistrate a man who
was making, at the Academy of Music, on
the 4th of July, 1863, speech deficient in
all the characteristics of an elevated lOve1
o.. country, at the very hour when General
Grant was carrying the victorious arms of
the Union into Vicksburg, and when thous-
ands of our fallen countrymen were pouring
out their blood on the plains of Gettysburg
in defence of their homes and the goverb-
ment which Mr.. Seymour was doing all In
his power to embarass and discrGdit.
] am quite willing you should show this
letter % any friends Who may take an inter-
est Ia my opinion in regard to the coming
election, and | am particularly desirous of
removing the impression, if it exists, that i
am in faYeS of Mr.. Seymour, Or the repudi-
alton Of any portion OF the public debt. J
am, Sir, very truly yours, y
JOHN A. DIX.t