The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1872-06-01
MOSBY ON GREELEY.
Why Should 4 Southern Man Prefer Gree
Icy to Grant.
WAHRENToN, VA, May Is, 1872.

Icy to Grant.
WAnRENToN, VA, May 10, 1872.
Ny Deo,' ST. have received your
favor inquiring my position in the
Presidential contest. OF course, if a
Democrat is nominated shall support
his election with all my heart, but if
reduced to Il question of choice between
Gen. Grant and Greeley / shall support
the former. My own views of the pol
icy, after the failure of the Cincinnati
Convention to nominate q man accep-
table to Democrats, that the South
should hold itself a1Oof from the contest
and not commit itself to either until
the Philadelphia Convention has NOM
mated its candidates and declared Il
platform of principles for, il the whole
South were committed in advance
against the election Of Gen. Grant,
what motive could he or his party have
to conciliate us? Now, why should
tho South array itself on the side of
Greeley, her unrepcntant, lifelong en-
envy, against Gen. Grant? l am no
apologiSt for the oppression we have
endured from the Federal Government;
but will the partisans of Greeley point
to one act that was OdiuS to us that he
has not justified and approved?
,
grcssional Legislation We're an express
sion Ola Northern sentiment Of hos
tility to tho South, for which HOr-
ace Greeley, more than any other man,
is responsible. General Grant has
been the instrument OfcNecuting many
laws, obnoxious to us, which were en-
| acted under the pressure of public Opin-
ion, created by Greeley, which no man
could resist. The open was mightier
than the sword.'' Now, what is offered
to the Southern people by the nominee
of the Cincinnati Convention rs Il con-
sidcration of their votes? Amnesty,
which simply means the relief of q few
thousand men from the disabilities i'm
posed by the fourteenth amendment.
But the President has no control over
this. 1t requires two-thirls vote of
Congress to effect it. If the Southern
vote is to be bartered for such paltry
consideration as this, why not bargain
directly with those who have the abiIi-
ty to pay what they promise:
| Does any man doubt that the party
in power would gladly grant universal
amnesty to secure the electoral vote Of
Virginia alone? If SO, how is there
less Of dishonor in Il coalition with
Greeley on such conditions as these
than with the party who can give you
now all you ask: The only difference
I can see is, that in one case you can
bargain with a set of political bank
rupts and Adventures, whose pledge
| will be redeemed about as soon as the
Confederate debt, and therefore they
| will be profuse in promises. On the
other hand, you may ut least expect to
receive the small pittance required.
Tell me one single reason why Il South
crn man should prefer G reeley to Grant:
They say that Greeley is honest; then
so much the worse, if he is honestly
opposed to all | hold dear. They say
he has abused carpet-baggers, which,
by the by, are only the natural pro-
ducts of institutions that he planted
among us but as he is indebted to this
class, who assumed ut Cincinnati to
represent the South, for his nomination,
surely honest Horace, if elected, will
not go back on his friends. They say,
| too, that he is 4 friend OF amnesty, and
yet he advocated the impeachment of
Johnson for par'loning rebels. On his
recent cIcctioncrring tour through the
States, when he looked on the land
which he chad made Il solitude and
called it peace" his heart was for a
| moment touched with a sentiment of
pity for the Southern people, as we'll as
i desire for Southern votes, and he was
tempted to say a few kind words for
which he was swift to make atOnement
| when on his return to New York he
related to a gaping crowd fabulous sto-
rieS of kukluN horrors, and :,pplauded
the rigor of the administration i'm sus-
pending the habeas corpus in South
Carolina and enforcing the Kuklux
laws. The men who as old Isaiah tells
It's, cooked their breakfast with one
end of Il stick of wood, and made an
image of the other which they Worship
CT, were not more unrc:lSOninG idOfa-
tcrS than those who are now prOstrat-
ing themselves before Horace Greeley.
In both cases the virtues of the idol
exist only i'll. the Imagination of the
worshipcrs. l don't choose to bow at
such shrine and am not let captive
by such entertainments. If we are COM
PEELED to go through the ceremony of
choosing Il master, to me there is less
humiliation in accepting the soldier to
whom Lee surrendered his sword, than
the fanatic. whose trcachcries have
boon s'thr Had Of our wocS.''
| am very irul v NDIlrS