The Republican journal., 1872-10-10
The Republican Party Of the Past and
Present.

he Republican Party Of the Past and
Present.
The bitterness with which Mr.. Greeley
has been assailed for his remarks at
Plttsburg, that the recent convention of
soldiers at that place was designed to
| keep alive the hatreds of civil war.
shows that the arrow hit its mark. No
| candid man can examine the staple argu-
ments OF the Grant managers without be-
| coming convinced that they are made up
OF the substance of Mr.. Greelev's charge,
and nothing more. Gen. Burnside. in
his address to the soldiers Convention.
attacked Mr. Greeley, saying that his re-
marks are unjust, and show their author
unfit to be trusted with a high position in
the government. We are glad to notice
| that General Slocum. of New York, a
soldier whose ability and record are vast
| ly above those of Gen. Burnside, makes
reply to the hero Of the fredericksburg
| defeat. Gen. Slocum does not mince his
words at all but goes right to the core OF
the subject. rs the following extract from
his letter will show
| You and l. General. know full well that while
| we were in the field fighting for the Union Mr.
| Greeley was welding in behalf of the same
cause weapon far more powerful than those
used by either of Us. We know, too, that long
after we had sheathed our swords he kept up
| the fight. and continued it until every object
was accomplished fog which even the most ar
| dent Abolitionist had ever prayed. He did not
| cease the fight until the Union was restored,
| Slavery abolished. the blacks enfranchised, and
| all their civil and political rights soemnly
| guaranteed to them by amendments to the Con
| stltution. And yet. General. You have the hardi-
| hood of charging this man with disloyalty, and
are uttering this foolish charge in your assumed
capacity rs the representative of all the Union
soldiers of the land. You say he has been guilty
| OF Il lack of courtesy towards us. In my Judge
ment, any man who, eight years after the close
| of a bloody civil war, will ask soldiers to as
selnble in convention with view of controlling
their action in political matters, is demagogue
| unworthy of courtesy at the hands of Mr.. Gree
ley or any other person.
The closing paragraph Of the above is a
sharp hit at Grant who wrote Il letter ap-
proving the Convention. 1t is also recol-
lected that before he was talked of for the
Presidency he had written in disapproval
of that style OF convention, and in very
much the spirit in which Slocum now
writes.
The assumption of the supporters Of
Gen. Grant that they, and they only, rep
resent the organization that saved the
country in its peril, and is competent to
protect it in future, falls to pieces by a lit
tie examination. In the first place the
army was made up, in rank and file, of
democrats, and the navy in even larger
proportion, and of this body Gen. Socum
is the spokesman in his indignant express
sions. And with them are to-day asso-
ciated the men who were the brains and
soul of the republican party in its better
days. Snch men as Greeley, Sumner
Cassius NJ. Clay, Carl Schurz, Seward
Chase Trumbull, Julian, Banks, Curtin,
are living and eloquent protests against
the impudent claim that Gen. Grant and
his present Surrounders are the men of
integrity who alone are to be entrusted
with the care of the nations welfare, be-
cause of their records. If there were able
and pure men in the old republican party,
they were those we have named. And
those men are each and all in the same
organization with the Democracy, declar-
ing that the party supporting Gen. Grant
| - hnctilo to bn al Of l,n
OF course when these men retired from
the leadership Of the republican party,
their places had to be filled. Who fill
them? Why such men as Simon Cam
eron, Zach. Chandler, Ben. Butler, Nor
ton, Loring, Logan, Conklin, Gen. Grant,
men VI Use sympathies were certainly
not with me oppressed slave in the day of
his thraldom. One of best offices of the
southwest is to-day held by Longstreet,
who was Lees right arm in the battle
fields of Virginia. Akerman. Gen eral
Grants late Attorney General, was a
thorough rebel during the war. Settle,
who presided at the Grant Convention in
Philadelphia, was a stakeholder and Sc
cessionist Creswell was Maryland Sc
cessionist.
The fact is that the present republican
party is not what it was, either IN its pur-
poses, or its components.
Its living leading men have left it, be-
cause its mission is accomplished and its
time past. Principles of the party have
gone out of sight, and the organization
has become the adjunct Of place and
plunder-hunting knot of adventures.