The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-02-16
Douglass for Grant.

The Nei0 National Era, edited by Fred
erick Douglass, has an honest, manly
article in favor OF the reelection of
President Grant in 1872. The reasons
given are admirable, and they are pre-
sented very forcibly. We give the arti-
Gle entire
1t is now timely and proper to make
known to our respected readers and
friends our fixed and unconditional
purpose to support u. s. Grant for re-
nomination and reelection by the Re-
publican party to the Presidency in
1872. We do this because upon the
whole we consider his nomination the
most conducive to the unity and ascen-
dancy of the great Republican party,
and TO the progress ana completion of
the great work devolved upon the ma
ton by the late war. We do so because
u. S. Grant is an honest man and fully
in sympathy with that great work. We
do so because he is an even.minded
man, answering in purpose, wise and
temperate in measures. We do so be-
cause he is tried man, and has proved
himself worthy of all confidence in
guiding the ship of state in whatever
storms may arise, as we'll as those which
have already arisen. We do so because
he is friend of civil service reform,
and that he will use his wisest and best
influence to purge the Government of
corruption, and that he will render all
its departments as pure and efficient as
any man can in his position possibly
render them. We do so because he is
friend to the Indian, and is the first
President of the United States who has
recommended a policy which, in our
judgment, can save that much-abused
race from cruel wars and ultimate ex-
tinction. We do so because he is firm
and unfinching in his measures to en-
force the Constitution and the laws for
the protection of all the rights of our
newly emf anchised people, and thus to
secure to that people, with all others,
an equal chance in the race for life.
We do SO because, whatever mistakes
he may have made during his term of
Office are as the spots upon the sun,
compared with the eminent success
which has distinguished his administra-
ton. We do so because, among all the
able and patriotic statesmen thus far
named as possible candidates for the
Presidency in 1871, there is not one the
certainty of whose election is so well
assured as that of U. S. Grant.
We have been in no haste to make
this announcement, and we shall be in
no haste to retract it, We have made
it, too, with full knowledge of the
fact that some men, for whom we feel
profound respect, will regret and con-
denim our course; but we are in place
where deliberate conviction of what is
wisest and best makes it our duty to
take sides, as we now have done, and
we fully believe that the colored citi-
zens of every part of our country will
approve our choice.
Long ago we adopted the maxim,
"never to occupy ground which our
enemies desired us to occupy" if we
could help it. While Gen. Grants
nomination is opposed by some of the
truest and Lest friends our race ever
had, inside and outside of the councils
of the nation, this does not conceal
from us the fact that he of all men in
the land is most dreaded by all the
dark, designing and reactionary ele-
ments which have arisen in the wake of
defeated rebellion and slavery. With
him as our candidate, the last hope of
these reactionary forces will disappear,
and the country will enter upon its new
career of justice and liberty, and will be
peaceful, prosperous and happy. With
out, therefore, multiplying words, we
earnestly recommend TO all Republicans
the denomination and reelection of
U. S. Grant, President of the United
States in 1870