The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-07-12
From the Baltimore Sun.
MR.. GREELEY's RECORD.

Some very vigorous efforts have been
made to convict Mr.. Greeley not only
OF Inconsistency, but to excite sectional
and party prejudice against him by re-
publishing what purport to be articles
from old files OF the New York Tribune
containing very bitter utterances upon
the political and sectional questions Of
the day, and particularly upon the sub
I.ject of slavery and the South. Perhaps
it is considered that this is but fair set
off against the inconsistency charged
upon General Grant, in his having
formerly voted for Mr.. Buchanan, and
his alleged declaration that he did not
desire to use his sword in any war for
the abolition of slavery. Apart, how
ever, from the question OF consis tency'
the attempt to make an editor OF pub
lie journal responsible for every article
and paragraph in it, when he was not
the managing editor Of the paper, but
only one out Of a dozen editors, the
most able and conspicuous no doubt.
but still one Of many, is unjust 10 the
extreme. and az absurd as it is unjust.
That Mr.. Greeley has been an aboli-
ZIONIST from the beginning, and has ex-
pressed himself in strong language
about the institution of slavery, 10 un-
deniable, though we will engage to
match his strongest expressions on that
topic with the well known sentiments
OF Washington, Jefferson, Marshall and
other leading Nirginians upon the same
subject. IL must also be evident that
man working in party traces may be
compelled to modify himself in some
measure to conform to the requirements
OF his position, and we can only Judge
him fairly when he stands out from
his surroundings, and without trammels
Of any kind speaks for himself. General
Butler, though voting sixty times for
Jefferson Davis in the Charleston
Convention, is admitted by his pre-.
sent political associates TO be free from
personal and individual responsibility
for what he did in party traces, and yet
Mr.. Greeley is to be held responsible
not only for what he may have said in
the same relations, but for all that his
numerous associates said in daily
press, and from which ne was often
absent for many months. The fair way
is to look upon Mr.. Greeley, not the
New York Tribune, as before the public
for the Presidency, and to take him
when he stands out from his paper,
segregated and in his own individuality,
as in his letter OF acceptance, expound.
ing the principles OF the Cincinnati
platform. We must also bear in mind
thai Mr.. Greeley, even when working
in party traces, has repeatedly broken
through them, and that in times OF
great sectional and party excitement,
when it required not only rare inde-
pendence, but exalted moral courage, to
cast oil sectional and party trammels,
and when he had few associates in 80
doing. On these occasions he has
proved "a regardless of his own inter-
ests or of those OF party as when, IN
his famous article Of November p,
1866, on "The True Basis of Recon
struction," he sacrificed his prospects
for a United States Senatorship in be-
half of principle and humanity. Before
this article appeared, and as early as
April, 1865, the day after General Lees
surrender at Appomattox, Mr.. Greeley
published a leading article in the Tn
b,ms, headed "Magnanimity in Trl-
umph," in which, against the fierce
passions OF the hour, he expressed
himself as follows:
ave had hoped to print herewith the
Presidents proclamation of amnesty
and oblivion to the partisans Of the
baffled rebellion, and we do not yet
despair OF receiving it before we go to
press. we near
men sav-'Yes, forgive the great mass
OF those who have been misled into re-
bellion, but punish the leaders as they
deserve. But who can accurately
draw the line between leaders and fol-
lowers in the premises2 By what test
shall they be Disseminated? Some OF
the arch-plotters of disunion have never
taken up arms in its support, nor have
they held any important post in its civil
service. Where is your touchstone OF
leadership? We know none"
On the next day he published an ar
ticle on Reconstruction" beginning
with a reply to the question of an
Englishman, "What will you dn with
your Poland after you shall have cons
1uered itf' eve will liberate the
Poles" In the article above referred
to, of November q, on "The True Basis
OF Reconstruction" which he persisted
in writing, although warned by his
friends that it would lose him his elec..
ton to the United States Senate, which
the Legislature then chosen was under
stood to favor, occurs the following:
THAT | have long held the main
foundations of genuine, enduring re-
settlement Of our disturbed and up.
turned national structure to be univer-
sal amnesty and impartial suffrage,
must be tolerably well known. 1t only
remains to be said that | commend
them not as reciprocal concessions, but
"a common benefits. trust our great
differences are to be composed and end.
ed by no grudging, higgliug compromise
no peanut dicker. 1t is essential to
the North that the South should be
thoroughly tranquilized and treasured;
it is essential to the South that her
principal body of agricultural laborers
her peasant cultivators-should live
and labor in contentment based on per-
fact trust that their rjphta of person and