Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-05-27
MR.. GREELEYsS ACCEPTANCE.
NEw YoRK. Nav 20. 1872.

knowledge your letter of the Sd, until l
could learn how the work of your con
vention was received in all parts of our
great country. and judge whether that
work was approved and ratified by the
mass of our fellow citizens. Their re-
Spouse from day to day has reached me
through kilograms and letters, and the
comments of journalists. Independent of
official patronage and Indifferent to the
the smiles or frowns of power. The
number and character of these uncon-
strained, unpurchased and unsolicited
utterances, satisfy me that the move
ment which found expression at Cincin-
natl, has received the stamp of public
approval, and is hailed by majority of
our countrymen as harbinger of a bet
ter day for our republic. | do not mis-
interpret the approval as especially COM
plimentary to myself, nor even to the
chivalrous and justly esteemed gentle
men with whose name thank the con-
vention for associating mine. I receive
and welcome it as a spontaneous and
deserved tribute to that admirable plat
form of principles, wherein your conven-
ton SO tenderly, so lucidly, so forcibly
set forth the conviction which impelled,
and the purposes which.guide its course :
a platform which, casting behind it the
wreck and rubbish of worn-out. continu-
Gus and bygone feuds, embodies in fit
and few words the needs and aspirations
of to-day. Though thousands stand
ready to condemn your every act. hardly
a syllable of criticism or cavil has been
aimed at your platform, of which the
substance may be epitomised as fol-
lows:
First-All the political rights and
franchises which have been acquired
through our late bloody convulsion,
must and shall be granted, maintained,
enjoyed and respected ever more.
Second-All the political rights and
franchises which have been lost through
the CONFUSION should and must be
promptly restored and re-established, SC
that there shall be henceforth no pre-
scribed claims and no disfranchised
caste within the limits or our union
whose long estranged people shall reu-
mite and fraternise upon the broad basis
of universal amnesty, with impartial suf
frage.
Third-That subject to our solemn
constitutional obligation to maintain
the equal rights of all our citizens, oul
policy should aim at local, self govern
ment and not at Capitalization. Thai
the civil authority should be supreme
over the military. That the habeas cor
pus should be jealousy upheld as thu
safeguard of personal freedom. Tha
the individual citizen should enjoy TIT
largest liberty consistent with the pub
lie order, and that there should be nj
federal subversion of the internal poll
cy of the several states and municipal
ties, but that each shall be left free t,
enforce the rights and promote the wei
being of its inhabitants, by such mean
as the judgment of its own people shall
prescribe.
Fourth-There shall be real ant
not merely a simulated reform in the civi
service of the republic, to which end i
is indispensable that the chief dispen
ser of the vast official patronage shall b
shielded from the main temptation t
use his power selfshly, by rule mex
oribly forbidding and precluding his re
election.
Fifth-That the raising of revenue
whether by tariff or otherwise shall b
treated as the peoples immediate bus
mess, to be shaped and directed by then
through their representatives in Con
gress, whose action thereon the Presi
dent must neither override by his vetoes
attempt to dictate nor presume to pun
ish by bestowing Offices only on thos
who agree with him, or withdrawn
them from those who do not.
Sixth-That the public lands mus
be sacredly reserved for occupation an
acquisition by cultivators and not reck
lessly squandered on the projectors c
railroads for which our people have n
present need, and the premature cor
struction of which is annually plungin
US deeper and deeper in abysses of fol
eign Indebtedness.
Seventh-That the achievement {
these grand purposes of universal benef
cence is expected, and sought at til
hands of all who uphold them, irrespe,
tive of past affiliations.
Eighth-That the public faith mu
at all hazards be maintained, and I'll
national credit preserved.
Ninth-That the patriotic devoted
ness and inestimable services of our fe
, low citizens, who as soldiers and sailor
upheld the flag and maintained the un
ty of the pnblic, shall ever be graf
fully remembered and honorably requi
ed
These propositions, so ably and fore
bly, presented in the platform of 20,
convention, have already fixed the attel
ton and commanded the assent of
large majority of our countrymen. wi
joyfully adopt them, as l do, as the b
sis of true, benefcient, national recol
struction and new departure from ii
jealousies, strifes and hates which ha,
no longer adequate motives or plausib
pretext, into the atmosphere of peac
fraternity, and mutual good will.
: vain do the drill sergeants of decoyir
organizations flourish menacingly the
truncheons, and angrily insist that Il
, files shall be closed and straightene
In vain do the whippers-in of parti
t once vital, because rooted in the Wit
needs Of the pure protest against stra
ing and boiling, denounce men no-wi
e their interiors as traitors and renegad
S and threaten them with infamy al
ruin. | am confident that the Amer
can people have already made your ca
their own, fully resolved that the
brave hearts and strong arms shall be
n n