The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1872-06-08
Gratz Browns Letter Of Acceptance.


The telegraph reports Gratz Browns
letter of acceptance in full, which is
subjoined:
ST.. LOUIS, June IL accept the
nomination as Vice President, and in
dorse most cordially the resolutions
setting forth the principles upon which
an appeal is made to the whole people
Of the United States. A century is
closing upon our experience of a repub
lican government, and while that lapse
of time has witnessed the great expan-
sion of our free institutions, yet it has
not been without illustrious events,
and also grave dangers to the stability
Of such y system. OF those successfully
encountered it is needless to speak of;
those which remain to menace us, most
threatening, are provided against. I
firmly believe in the wise and pacific
measures proposed by your platform. 1t
has come to be a practice of those eie-
waited to positions of national authority
to regard the public service but as a
means to retain power. This result,
and in substituting mere party organ
ization for the government itself, which
constitutes control, alnenable to no laws
or moralities, impairs all independent
thought, enables few to rule the many
and makes personal allegiance the road
to favor. It requires trifing forecast to
perceive that this will wreck all our
liberties unless there be interposcd
timely reform Of administration, from
its highest to it's lowest station, which
shall not only prevent abuses, but like
wise take away the incentive to their
practice. We are tired of the conten-
tons that are carried ON in avarice of
the spells. The country demands re-
pose. The Union is fortified by more
power than ever before; it remains as
an imperative duty to cement our ma
tionality by perfect reconciliation. At
the North, Il widespread sympathy is
aroused in behalf of those States of the
South which, long after the termination
of resistance to the rightful Federal
authority, are still plundered under
guise of loyalty, and tyrannized over
i'll the name Of freedom. Along with
this feeling, is at present too a recogni
ton that in complete amnesty alone
can be found hope Of any return to
the constitutional government as of old,
or any development Of more enduring
unity and broader national life in
future. Amnesty, however, to be eff
cacious, must be real, not nominal
along with it equal rights, as well as
equal protection to all. For removal
of the disabilities as to some, with en-
forcements as to others, leaves room for
suspicion that that portion is measured
by political gain, and especially will
such protested clcmency be futile in
presence of a renewed attempt at pro-
longing n suspension of the habeas cor
pus, and persistent resort to martial
rather than civil law in unfolding these
agencies used to ALLEVIATE the races,
when concord is most essential, and in
preparing for another elaborate cam
paign on basis of dead issues and ar
bitrary intervention all will rightly
credit such conduct as but mockery of
amnesty, and demand an administra-
ton which can give better warrant of
honesty in the real work of reconstruc-
ton and reform. In array OF sectional
interests, a republic so wide as ours is
never entirely safe from atrocious con-
tlicts. These become still more danger
Gus when complicated with questions
of taxation, where unequal burdens are
to be imposed on one import at the ex-
pensc of another import. 1t was a bold
as well as admirable policy in the in
tcrest as well as future tranquility, to
Withdraw the decision of industrial and
revenue matters from the virtual arbi-
tration of an electoral college chosen
with the single animating purpose of
parties ascendancy, and refer them for
a moro direct popular expression to
each congressional district. Instead of
being muzzIed by some evasive decla-
ration, the country is thereby invited
to its frankest utterance, and sections
which would revolt at being denied a
voice out of Difference of other success,
would be content to acquiesce in gene
raj judgment, honestly elected. If local
government be, and it is undoubtedly
is, the most vital principle of our insti-
tutions, much advance will be made
towards establishing it by enabling
people to pass upon questions SO nearly
affecting their weil-being dispassion-
atcly through their local representa-
tons. The prccipitance which would
force controlling declaration on tax or
tariff through Presidential candidacy is
only Il disguised form Of Capitalization,
involving hazardous reaches of execu-
tive influences. a conclusion will be
much more impartially determined.