Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-09-25
PARIS, Sept. 4

eE PARIS, Sept. 4
MY DEAR SIR: It was my hope that
/ my distance from home would have
saved me from all participation in the
i political excitement prevailing tnere
but notice in one of the newspapers
thatI am heart and hand with Mr..
/ Seymour. / am not aware of ANYTHING
in the present or past which could
rlgbttully subject me to such an impu-
tatibn.
L I have been acquainted with Mr.
/ iSeymour more than a quarter of a CEN
/ tury. He Is an amiable gentleman of
unceptionable private character and re-
specta bic talents, but you know as we'll
as L, thatshe has not single qaalifica-
! ton for the successful execution of the
high official trust to which he has been
FnomInated, and he is especially deficient
IN that frmness of purpose which, in
| critical ei9ergspc cies, is the only safe
guard against public disorder and call
amity. He has been twice, at different
times, Governor of the State of New
YOrk, and he has, in neither case, had
! talent or tact to keep the Democratic
party of the State together more than
two years. IshouId regard his election
at this juncture, when steadiness of
purpose, decision and self-control are
so much needed, as one of the greatest
calamities that could befan the conn
try.
Moreover he has been put in nomina-
ton by convention-Which has openIv
declared the purpose of those it repre-
sents, to pay the greater part of the
pub bic debt contracted to preserve the
Union in deprecated paper Such
measure would, in my Judgment, be a
palpable violation of the public faith,
pledged under circumstances which
should have been binding on all honor
able men. Seymour has made public
speeches to show that it is our duty to 4
pay the debt in specie. In accepting /
his nomlnation to the Presidency, he /
adopts the declaration that it ought to
be paid in paper. I know nothing so !
humiliating in the history of American
politics as this regeneration.
1t was perhaps not unfit that Mr.. Sew
mour, after presiding in 1868 over the /
Chicago Convention, which declared |
the war failure, should preside over
the Convention of 1868. in which prom
osition to discredit the debt contracted |
to carry on the war was received with !
tremendous cheering, and that he |
should be the chosen instrument to ex- |
ecute this act of national turpitude.
1 do not believe that the wishes or |
opinions of the great body of the Dem /
ocratic party are fairly expressed in |
these proceedings. They have nothing
in common with the statesmanIfke |
views of policy, and the high sense of
national honor which guided the party
H44c1A AAdI TN ' al buren,, w lltlam IL. !
Yancey, Silas Wright, Lewis Cass, and
step hen Douglas were among its most
conspicuous members.
1 see but one course of safety for the
country under existing circumstances,
and that Is the election of Gen. Grant !
On his decision of character, good sense,
moderation and disin terested patriot
ism, L believe the South will have a
petter nope of regaiHing the position in
the Union to which it is entitled, than
under a man whose political career has
been IN nothing more cOnspicuously
marked than in utter Infirmitv of pur-
pose. Independently of ali those con-
siderations, I should be greatly sur
prised If the people of the United States
were to elect as theirC Magistrate,
a man who was making, at the Acade-
my Of Music on the Fourth of July,
1868, a speech deficient in all the char
3eteristics of an elevated love ofcountry, !
1t the very hour when Gen. Grant was [
carrying the victorious arms of the I'm {
on-into Vicksburg, when thousands of
)ur fallen country men were pouring {
)ut their blood on the plains of Gettys- | S
1urg In defense of their homes and the {
government which Mr.. Seymour was I
loing all in his power to EN- barrass and {
liscredit.
am quite willing you should show I
his letter to any friends who may take /
n Interest in my opinion in regard to c
be coming election, and I am particu- v
arly desirOus to remove the impress t
on, if 1t exists, that am in favor of L
Dr. Seymour or the reputation of any v
'ortiOn of the public debt. I am, sir, t
cry truly yours, JOHN a. Dix.