The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1872-06-07
GREELEYs ACCEPTANCE.
REPLY TO THE OFFICIAL NOTICE OF HIS
NOMINATION.
Nfw York. May 20. 1872.

49,
other parts of our great country, and
judge whether that work wat approved
and ratified by the mass of our fellow
citizens. Their response has from
day to day reached me through tele-
grams, letters and comments of jour.
nalists independent OF official patron
age, and indifferent to the smiles r
frowns Of power. The number and
character OF these uncoDstralned, un-
purchased, unsolicited utterances sat
isfy me that the movement which has
found expression at Cincinnati has re-
ccived the stamp Of public approval,
and has been hailed by the majority
OF our c%ountrymen as the harbinger
Of n better day for the Republic. l
do not misinterprct this approval as
especially complimentary to myself,
nor even to the chivalrous and justly
esteemed gentleman with whose name
| thank your Convention for associat-
ing mine.
| receive and welcome it as the
spontaneous and deserved tribute To
that admirable platform of principles
wherein your Convention SO terscly,
so lucidly, so forcibly set forth the
convictions which impelled and the
purposes which guided its course; a
platform, which, casting behind it the
wreck and rubbish OF worn.ou con
tentiohs aud bygono feuds, embodies
in fit and few words the needs and as
pirations Of to-day. Though thou
sands stand ready To condemn your
every act, it is hardly assailablc by
criticism or eavil, although such has
been aimed at your platform, of
which the substance may be fairly
epitomized as follows:
ist-All political rights and franchi.
ses which have been acquired through
our late bloody CONFUSION must and
shall be guaranteed, maintained, en-
joyed and respected
2nd-All political rights and fran.
chises which have been lost through
that CONFUSION, should and must he
promptly restored and C established,
so that there shall be henceforth no
prescribed class and no disfranchised
beings within the limits of our Union,
whose long estranged people shall re.
unite and iraternize upon the broad
basis of universal amnesty with i'm
partial suffrage.
3rd-That, subject TO our solemn
constitutional obligation 10 maintain
equ.,l rights to all out citizens, our
p 9licy should aim Mt local self gov
ernn. cnt and not q Capitalization; that
the civii authority should be supreme
over the military; that the writ of
haJeas corp.o should be jcalously up
held as the sn egusrd of personal free
dom; that individual citizens should
enjoy the largest Liberty consistent
with public order. and that there shall
be no Federal subversion of the inter
nal policy OF the several States u
municipalities. but that each si'ou.'d be
left free TO enforce the rights ant pre-
mote the well-bcing of its inhabitants
by such means rs the judgment Of its
own people shall prescribe.
4th-Therc shall be real aud no
merely simulated reform IN the civil
service OF the Republic. to which end
it is Indispensable that the chief dis
penser of its vast official patronage
shall be shielded from the main temp.
tatiom to use his power seliishly by a
rule incxorably forbidding and pre-
Guiding his reelection.
5th-rhat the raising of the reye-
nue.. whether by tariff or otherwise,
shall be recognized and treated as the
peoples immediate business, to be
shaped and directed by them through
their Representatives in Congress,
whose action thereon the President
must neither override by his veto, at
tempt 10 dictate, nor presume To pun
ish BY besiowing office only on those
who agree with him. or Withdrawing
it from those who do not.
6th-That the public lands must be
sacredly reserved for the occupation
and acquisition of cultivators, and not
recklessly squandcred on the project
ors OF railroads for which our people
have no present need, aud the imma-
ture construction Of which is annually
Ilunging Us deeper and deeper into
the abysses Of foreign Indebtedness.
7th-That The achievement of these
grand purposes of universal benefi-
cencs is expected and sought at the
hands of all who approve them, ire
spcctiYe Of past afiliations.s
Sth. That the public faith must at
all hazards be maintained and Ia
tional credit preserved.
9th-That the patriotic devoted
ness and inestimable services of our
fellow-citizens, who as soldiers or sail
ors upheld the flag and maintained
the unity of the Republic, shall eve
be gratefully remembered and honor
ably requited.
These propositions, SO ably and
forcibly presented in the platform of
your Convention, have already re-
ceived attention and commanded the
assent of a large majority of our
countrymen, who ioyfully adopt them,
as | do, as the basis to true beneficent
national constructions; of a new de-
parture from .jealousies, strife and
hatred, which had no longer adequate
motive or even plausible pretext, into
an atmosphere Of peace, fraternity
and mutual good will. In vain do
the drill-sergeants of decaying organi-
cations flourish menacingly their
truncheons and angrily insist that the
files shall be closed and Strengthened
In vain do whippers.in of parties onc
vital because rooted in the vital needs
of the hour denounce men in nowise
their interiors as traitors and rene