The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1872-08-08

get, who has ever read it, the proud
letter of defiance which he addressed
to the League on the 23d of May, 1867!
In that letter he quoted extracts from
the Tribune to show how decided his
opinion was that those who had been
engaged in the insurrection should be
eniranchised, and their estates ex-
empted from cOntlscatiOn. He justified
having become security for Mr.. Davis,
ana IN his letter, among other things,
SAID "Hour attempt to base great,
enduring party on the hate and wrath
necessarily engendered by u bloody
civil war; is us though you should
plant II colony on an iceberg, which
had somehow drifted into tropical
ocean. tell you here that out of a life
earnestly devoted to the &C od of human
kind, your children will select my
going to Richmond and signing that
bail bond as the wiSest act, and will
feel that it did more for freedom and
humanity than all of you are compe-
tent to do, though you had lived to the
age Of Methuselah.n
You will have thus seen what |
think of the present political condition
vi 'iit touullN' bultS7 uul greatly
mistaken, it must give to every un-
prejudiced, intelligent and patriotic
man much anxiety and alarm. How
Is this anxiety and alarm to be re-
moved? by removing the cause of it.
by refusing a reelection to Gen.
Grant, to whom in great measure, if
not exclusively, it is owing, and by
placing in the Presidential Office Mr..
Greeley, whose entire life has exhibited
his generous qualities, his great ability,
his pure patriotism, and his unsus-
pected integrity. To be rich he will
accept no presents, but would scorn-
fully reject them if offered. He has
not scores of relatives to provide for
out Of the public funds, by placing
them in offices for which they are
grossly incompetent, and, if he had, he
would not SO place them. He will not
exert his patronage TO influence State
elections, or to secure II reelection for
himself. He will not permit the pub
lie funds, by means of tax upon his
officials, to be used for party purposes.
He will not suffer his Secretaries or
their subordinates to abandon their
posts Of duty and their attention to the
public business, to traverse State after
State on electiOnecring visits, 80 as to
bring the influence of Office in conflict
with freedom ofelectiOns. He will sec
that our foreign relations are so man
aged as to give honor and not disgrace
to the nation. He will not tolerate
the use of the military for the control
Of the elective franchise. He will not
trample upon the rights of the States
or the people by declaring States to he
in rebellion when they are not. And
my hope is to live to see the day when
these vital changes will be made;
when all solicitude about the fate OF
our country will be quieted; when
peace and prosperity will be secured to
the entire nation; when the guaran-
teed rights of the citizen will be pro-
tccted, the legitimate powers of the
States maintained, and the authority
Of the General Government cXerted
only under the restrictions of the Con-
'titutiOn. Ina word, when the Con-
hcqueathed to Us by our
fathers shall in all things be observed,
and when we will have II President in
and patriotic enough to keep
his official oath to 'preserve, protect
md defend it,"
When all these things shall occur,
md not until then, will our prosperity
md power he renewed, and our coun-
ry become, as it was in former days,
he wonder and admiration of the
world.
| remain, with great regard,
Your friend and ObcdiCnt servant,
REvERDY JOHNSON.
To the Hon. JAMES BROOKS, New
York.