Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-05-22
MIR. GREELEY,s REPLY.

| NEW YORK, May 20, 1872.
Gentlemen 81 have chosen not to acknowedg
your letter Of the ID inst. until could learn hoy
/ the work Of your convention was received in al
parts of our great country, and judge whether tina
| work was approved and ratified by the mass OF GU
fellow citizens. Their responses have, from day t.
| day, reached me through kilograms, letters, anC
| the comments of journalists, Independent OF
official patronage and Indifferent to the smiles OF
frowns of power The number and character oil
their unrestrained unpurchased, unsolicited utter
ances satisfy me that the movement which found
expression at Cincinnati has received the stamp OF
public approval, and been hailed by majority OF
our countrymen as the harbinger of better day for
the republic
do not misinterpret this approval as especially
complimentary to myselfnor even to the chiyalrous
ana justly esteemed gentleman with whose name
thank your convention for associating mine / re-
ce1ve and welcome 1t as a spontaneous and deserved
tribute to that admirable platform of principles
wherein your convention so tersely so iucidly 80
forcibly set forth the convictions which impelled
and the purposes which guided its course; plat
form which, casting behind it the wreck and rub
embodes, in fit and few words, the needs and aspi.
rations of to-day Though thousands stand ready to
condemn your every act, hardly syllable of criti-
cism or cayfl has been aimed at your platform OF
which the substance may be fairly epitomized as
follows
First, all the political rights and franchises,
which have been acquired through our late bloody
convusion must and shall be guaranteed main
tanned, enjoyed, respected evermOre
Second, all the political rights and franchises
which have been lost through that conyuAOn
should and must be promptly restored and re-estab-
lished, so that there shall be henceforth no pro-
scribed class and no DISTINGUISHED caste within the
limits of our Union, whose long estranged people
shall reunle and fraternize upon the broad basis OF
universal amnesty with impartial suffrage.
Third, that, subject to our solemn constitutional
obligation to maintain the equal rights of all citi-
zens, our policy should aim at local self govern
ment and not at Capitalization; that the civil au-
thorlty should be supreme over the military; that
the writ OF habeas corpus should be iealOusy up
held as the safeguard Of personal freedom; that the
individual citizen should enjoy the largest liberty
consistent with public order, and that there shall
be no federal subversion of the internal poy of the
several states and municipalities but that each
shall be left free to enforce the rights and promote
the well being OF its inhabitants by such means as
the Judgment of its own people shall prescribe.
Fourth, there shall be u real and not merely a
simulated reform in the civil service of the republic
to which end it is indispensable that the chief dis
penser ofits vast official patronage shall be shielded
from the main temptation to use his power seltishly,
by rule inexorably forbidding and precluding his
reelection.
tariff or otherwise, shall be recognized and treated
as the peoples immediate business, to be shaped
and directed by them through their representatives
IN congress, whose action therein the president
must neither overrue by his veto, attempt to die
tate, nor presume to punish by bestowing office
only on those who agree with him or withdrawing
1t from those who do not.
sixth, that the public lands must be sacredly re-
served Tor occupation and acquisition by cultyators
ana not recklessy squandered on the projectors Of
railroads, Tor which our people have no present
need, and the premature construction of which is
annually plunging us into deeper and deeper ABYSS
es of foreign indebtedness.
Seventh, that the achievement of these grand pur.
poses OF universal benefcience is expected and
sought at the hands of all who approve them ire
spectiVe Of past affiliations.
Eighth, that the public faith must at all hazards
be maintained and the national credit preserved
Ninth, that the patriotic devotedness and inesti-
maDe services of our fellow citizens who as sol
diers or sailors upheld the flag and maintained the
unity OF the republic shall ever be gratefully re-
m en- and hononby requited.
These propositions,-so ably and forcibly present.
ed,-ln the platform OF your convention, have q /
ready fixed the attention and commanded the as
sent OF large majority of our cOuntrymen, who
loyfully adopt them, as do, as the basis Of true
beneficent national reconstruction of a new do.
parture from jeal0usies, strites and hates which
have nol0nger adequate motive or even plausible
pretext, INTO an atmosphere of peace, fraternity
ana mutual good will. In vain do the drill ser.
geans of decaying organizations flourish menacinp.
y their truncheOns and angrly insist that the los
shall be closed and Strengthened; in vain do the
whippers-n OF parties once vital because rooted in
the vital needs of the hour, protest against straying
and boiling, denounce men nowise their interiors
AS traitors and renegades, and threaten them
with infamy and ruin. ! am confident that
the American people have already made
their brave hearts and strong arms shall bear
u on TO triumph. In this fact, and with the dis
tnct understanding that. If elected shall be pres
tdent, not of party but of the whole people / nc.
cept your nomination In the confident trust that
the masses of our cOuntrymen, north and south
are eager 10 clasp hands across the bloody cbasm
which has too long divided them, forgetting that
they have been enemies in the joyful conscionsness
that they are and must henceforth remain brethren
Yours respectfully,
HORACE GREELEY
TO Hon. Carl Schurz, president, Hon George w
Julian, vice president, and Messrs VIM q. MeL Lean
John g. Davidson, }. II. Rhodes, secretaries of III
national convention OF the liberal republicans of
the United States.