The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1872-10-09

| stroy Grant by the destruction of the
whole Republican party. In his cloud
ed mental vision he is no longer able
to perceive any material difference be-
tween the principles of the Democrat
ic party, and the party he helped to
create, and processes himself willing
to turn over the guardianship of four
millions of freedmen from the party
that liberated them to their old masters
Schurz, and Trumbull, and Fenton,
and four-fifths Of their leading Liber-
al Republican associates have person
sonal grievances to redress, and per-
sonal ambitions to crafty, in the de-
feat of Grant. To cover the odium
which attaches to deserters, they try
to persuade themselves that they have
not Joined the Democratic party, but
have converted it to Republicanism.
This gossamer veil is too fimsy to pIo-
tect them from the arrows which truth
draws from her ready 1uiver and hurls
at her presumptuous foes.
Mr.. Greeley, in his carefully-prepar-
ed letter of acceptance, flies to their
rescue with one his master pieces of
impotent sophistry. Hear him on the
question Of the conversion Of the
| Democratic party:
"But that your convention saw fit,
in adopting the Cincinnati ticket to
reaffirm the Cincinnati platform, is
to me a source of the profoundest sat
isfaction. That body was constrained
to take this important step by no par
| ty necessity, real or supposed. 1t
might have accepted the candidates
of the Liberal Republicans upon
grounds entirely its own, or it might
have presented them Gas the first Wing
National Convention did Harrison
and Tyler without adopting any plat
form whatever. That it chose to plant
itself deliberately, by vote nearly
unanimous, uron the fullest and clear
est enunciation Of principles which
are at once incontestably Republican
and emphatically Democratic gives
trustworthy assurance that a new and
more auspicious era is dawning upon
our long g-distracted country"
lie then congratulates himself on
his having lived until there is no par
ty in the cOuatry in favor of the re-es-
tablishmeut of slavery, denounces the
Senate for falling to admit Zebulon b.
Vance to seat as Senator from North
Carolina, and adds:
Gentlemen, your platform, which
is also mine, assures me that Democ-
racy is not henceforth to stand for one
thing and Republicanism for another,
but those terms are to mean in politics,
as they mean in the dictionary, SUBJ
stantially one and the same thing
namely, equal rights, regardless of
creed, or cline, or color. | hail this
as genuine new departure from out
worn feuds, and meaningless conten-
tions in the direction Of progress and
reform"
Mr.. Greeley is careful not to an
nonnce the abandonment of any of its
old tenets by the Democratic party,
the support of slavery excepted, or its
conversion to the Republican faith.
When stripped Of snrplussage he as
serts only chat it chose to plant itself
deliberately, by vote nearly unani-
nous, upon the fullest and clearest
enunciation Of principles which are at
once incontestably Republican and
eminently Democratic" Analyze
this assertion, weigh its words, and tell
us if Mr.. Greeley intends to assert
that the Democratic party had been
converted to the Republican faith.
Does it not mean, when stripped of
useless cloud of words, only that
the trainers of the Cincinnati platform
carefully excluded from it any decla-
ration Of principle on The points which
heretofore divided the two parties, and
confined themselves to an expression
of faith in doctrines which both par
ties have always heretofore proclaimed,
with the exception Of The question of
slavery, which they declared to be a
dead issue. And his after statement
that the adoption Of the Cincinnati
platform by the Baltimore Convention
"assures" him "that Democracy is not
hencefurth to stand for one thing and
Republieanism for another, but that
these terms are to mean in politics, as
they always have meant in the die
tionary, substantially one and the
same thing, namely, equal rights, re-
gardless Of creed, or cline, or color"
brings no support to those who insist
that the Democratic party has been
converted to Republicanism. Mr..
Greeley is not sufficiently needless of
the truth to say that hencelorth the
Democratic party and The Republican
party will advocate the same doctrines,
but asserts only that the "terms"
Democrat and Depublican will hence
forth mean substantially the same !
thing on one point, namely, equal |
rights, regardless Of creed, or cline,
or color" In all things else the two |
parties are to differ hereafter as wide