The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1872-10-03

ton. / suppose L was invited by
him, but would not assert it if he
dissented.
II did advise him to call three
representative Northern men and
three equally eminent Southern
men to counsel him as the best mode
Of pacifying and harmonizing the
country. l asked him to invite
these to remain in the White House
as his guests until they should have
agreed upon plan of recOncilia-
tiOn-he meeting and consulting
with them whenever his daily duties
should permit.
Il did suggest to him as eonJerees
or the part of the North Gov. John
A. Andrew of Massachusetts,, Ger
rit Smith Of New York, and Judge
Rufus 2. Spaulding of Cleveland,
Ohio.
81 did propose that he should
designate and invite General Robert
f. Lee as one of the cOnferees on the
South.
"If I named another Southern
man 10 him, 1 cannot now recall the
circumstance.
$50 much I feel at liberty to
state, because it refers solely to my
action in the premises. As to Mr..
JohnsOn's part of the cOlloquy, /
cannot speak without his permits
sion. But you are at liberty to
send this letter to him, and ne may
state what he said on the occasion
or not, as he shall see fit. l can re-
member nothing of consequence
said by me on this occasion, except
that I pledged myself to support to
the utmost any plan of reconeilia-
ton which the conferees should
agree upon and he should adopt
and recommend. Yours,
HORACE GREELEY.
'Gen. j. D. IMBoDEN, Richmond,
Va"
Gen Imboden further says:
Acting upon the permission he
{ Mr.. Greeley, in the above letter, }
gave me, l wrote to ex-President
johnson on the 22d of June, in
closing copy Of Mr.. Greeley's let
ter, and asking that ne would fur
nish me with his recollection of the
circumstances, and especially with
his part of the discussion, and per
nit me to publish his with Mr.
Greeley's letter, as establishing the
earnest desire of the latter for rec
OnciliatiOn at that early day; and
above all his wisdom and magma
nimity in suggesting that the South
should be represented in the cOnsid-
Grafton and discussion of any plan
that might be presented. This let
ter l addressed to Mr.. johnson at
Greeneville, Tenn, his post-oGice.
He HAS NOT REFLIED TO IT."
That Mr.. johnson received this
letter no one will doubt, and the en-
quiry Is natural, ''Why did he re-
fuse to answer it and make public
his part of the discussion p Is it
because he is a candidate before the
people of Tennessee and does not
desire them to know that he did not
then favor any policy of recOncilia
ton? His conduct then, and his
silence HOl0. warrants us in saying
that such is the fact. If the sug-
gestion then made by Mr. Greeley
had been adopted by the President
no reasonable man can doubt that
peace and quiet and good feeling
would long ago have been restored
to the country, as We can but be-
lieve that any plan agreed upon by
such conferecs, and supported by
the al-powcrful influence of Mr..
Greeley, would undoubtedly have
abcen dOpted by Congress and ap-
proved by the whole people. But
the President saw proper not to
permit the people of the South to
be represented in the discussion ''as
to the best mode of paCifying and
harmonizing the country''-rejected
the magnanimous offer of the most
influential man of the party then in
power, and obstinately adhered to
his own policy of demonstrating the
Government by reducing the South
ern States to mere provinces, to he
ruled by his military satraps. The
people of Tennessee, whose suf-
frages he now asks as on endorse
mCnt of his course, have a right to
know what part he bore in that
discussion with Mr.. Greeley, and
the reasons why he rejected u plan
SO honorable and so practicable for
the settlement Of all questions grow
ing out of the war, and, instead
thereof, placed the Reconstruction"
As he termed it, of the Southern
States in the hands of few carpet
baggcrs, and denied to the people
thereof any right to assist in
framing their own laws. We have
only to look to his proclamations in
reference to the Southern States, is.
sued in the spring and summer of
1865, to see how widely his plan
differed from Mr.. Greeley's The
one sougat to Panisk, the other TO
reconcile, the Southern people. Will
Mr. Johnson "rise 20 explain"