The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-11-30
The Future Of the EibcraR Republican
R'arty-s.ctfer from tsae Chairman 0s


the National Committee.
The following letter in regard to the future
OF the Liberal Republican party. addressed
to jacob r. Reese, editor of the Trenton (N.
j. State Sentinel, has just been published ::
"NEw York. November %, 1872.
"My Dear Sir,-I have yours Of the Sth
instant, asking from me the intentions OF
the National Committee with reference
to the future of the Liberal Republican
party. 1t seems TO me that time only can
fully answer your question. Circumstances
must determine our future. In my own
judgment we huye made Il gallant fight,
which may yet prove to be the Sklrnsh pre-.
ccding il great victory. We were defeated
because no great ISSUES divided the political
parties, and mere personal arguments were
not sufficient to bring out the popular vote
or to cause change of administration. We
made Il platform at Cincinnati looking to
certain reforms. AT Baltimore the Demo-
cracy took the Liberal platform and the
nominee. At Philadelphia the Republicans
adopted substantially the same platform and
narrowed the fight to one OF men, not
principles. There being then nothing
more important than individual political in
terests at stake the moneyed interests OF
the country were thrown with the party
in power and against any change, and thus
at the beginning the heaviest artillery was
was placed against us. United to this the
Democracy were apathetic; first, because no
vital principle awakened an interest in the
contest, and, second, because Years of hos
tility to Mr.. Greeley begat indifference in an
| encounter merely personal between him and
General Grant. We did not fail because our
I 70 Inu haI
that no man in the United States can boast OF
SO many personal friends as Horace Greeley,
and 10 one lives who is more beloved or es-
teemcd than he is for character princcly in
its unselliSh record and its loyalty to every
moral law which governs human conduct.
1t is true that in the heat of an angry con-
test he was illuminated and miSreprescntcd,
but all such attacks were made only by the
miserable gadllics that skim over the sound
and healthy flesh Of the body to iiud some
fostering pimple to assail and feed upon.
We failed because we were engaged in 4
combat not yitaliZeu by any issue sufficient
to make 4 distinct line between friend and
foe.
1t is yet too soon TO determine rs to the
future If General Grant faithfully carries
out the pledges OF his party, which are sub
stantiaIly the same as those made by the
Liberals at Cincinnati, he may be the real,
though not to lis the accepted, agent of reform.
If General Grant carries out the measures of
| our party, consistency, if nothing else, may
| compel our approval. We cannot honestly
| asSail him if he does for the nation that which
we claim to be right. 1t remains to be seen
| what General Grant will do in this direction.
| He has begun well in the civilservice line in
Philadelphia. Will he continue on this road
| of reform? If so, we must applaud him. 1t
| he does not, we must resist like honest men
who claim to battle for the public good.
| "When Congress meets | presume the
leaders OF our party-Messrs Sumner, Trum-
bull, Schurz, Upton, and the many others
i'll the two houses-will point the way
before us. 1t would be premature and I'M
prudent to indicate any course till these able
| and honest men have had time and opportu-
| nifty to speak. The Liberal Republicans can
| do no better than TO be passive Tor the pres
emf and TO watch events. If we have forced
the enemy, in selfdefence, to adopt our own
code of political morals, then we have al
ready won the victory, even though other
hands than those which we would have
chosen execute the reform. But if the party
in power prove by Their reTeancy that the
VOWS made i'll the storm are to be broken in
the sunshine, then it vii! te in order to send
every Liberal Republican again to his proper
place to prove by future efforts that the Lib
cral victory has in truth been only postponed.
81 remain yours, very truly,
a" ETHAN ALLEN,
"Chalrman National Committee"