The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-08-01
SUMMERS LETTER.

The long-expected letter of Senator Sum
ner, defining his position in the canvass and
continuing his assaults upon General Grant,
will be found in another part Of THE
JOURNAL. 1t was written in response to
request from twenty-five coloIed voters
Of the District Of Columbia. and although
much longer than the inquiry would seem
to justify, is neRe too long for the COM
plete rehash it gives Of his abusive speech
of General Grant in the Senate. He as
sumes that General Grant and Mr.. Greeley
stand Substantially on the same platform,
and disclaiming any personal resentment to-
wards either IAN avowal to be taken with
some grains of salt" J, he proceeds to
give his reasons for supporting the latter,
as well as the reasons why the colored
voters of the country should support him
in preference to General Grant. lie enun-
GATES his platform for the campaign as be-
ing ''the unity of the Republic, equal rights
to all, with reconciliation" In doing this he
comedies to every one else the right to enun-
ciate any similar platform, and to stand on
it as squarely as he pleases during the
campaign.
Tie labors through nearly two solid coll
umn of our paper to show what General
Grant acas before the war; and what Mr..
Greeley hos been both before the war and
Since, in the hope apparently to convince
colored Republicans that Mr.. Greeley has
been better friend to them than Gen. Grant
ever could have been. But the question
with all sensible men is, not what Mr..
Greeley has been in the past, but what he
now is, and what he proposes to be in the
future. 1t would be easy to show that
Benedict Arnold was better soldier and
patriot than many others in the American
army up to o certain time in the his
tory Of the Revolution; but the true histo-
rical inquiry is, not what Mr.. Arnold had
been before, but what he aods at the time OF
his negotiations with, and his surrender to,
the forces Of General Howe. 1t was his
transcendent treason to the American
cause, and his dastardly surrender to the
general foe, which blotted out all generous
remembrance of the past, and placed him in
the forefront of the enemies of his coun-
try.
And SO it is with Mr.. Greeley. He must
be measured by what he is to day, not by
what he has been in the past. Without
virtually going over to the Democratic par
ty in advance of his nomination by the
Baltimore Convention, and negotiating with
its Tammany leaders for the defeat OF the
great Republican party, he could never
have received the first assurance of an cleo
toral vote in the general college. There
was not strength enough in the cincinnati
movement" to have secured him the first
vote, and this he perfectly well knew. 1t
was only by his bargain and sale with the
Tammany leaders that be had the least pos
sible chance of success. lie stands forth
then, to all intents and purposes, the NOM
iaee Of the Democratic party, and The es-
pouser Of their principles so far as they
are necessary 10 his success. Benedict Ar
mold did not go more completely over to
the Royal cause in the time OF the Revolu-
ton than Horace Greeley has gone over to
the Democracy to-day. lie accepted the
price of his treachery in the rewards of a
nomination, which is no less Democratic
nomination than that which placed Horatio
Seymour before the country for Democratic
suffrage in 1868.
Mr.. Summer labors with great assiduity,
but most Indifferent success, to show that
General Grant was hostile to the colored
race in the efforts he made to secure stable
government in Hayti, and in extending aid
to President Bacz against the attempts to
reyolutionize his government by another
power. This has been the grand stalking
horse and bugbear of Senator Sumner,