The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-08-19
AN ABSURD SUPERSTITION.

masses of the party they pretend to repre-
ent?
AN ABSURD SUPERSTITION. S..
Judge Kelley--No sir. The suggestion
that the body Of the Convention or its cor.
stituents could have hailed the nomination
of Mr.. Greeley with enthusiasm is absurd.
Nor is his nomination by the Democratic
Convention a subject of inspiration.
Twelve years of abstinence has created an
intense appetite for office on the part of the
trading politicians Of that party. The case
was utterly hopeless with them unless they
could perpetrate coup d'ctat, and taking
possession of their primary conventions,
especially in the strongly Republican
States, where thorough Democratic Or
ganization has not been maintained, they
packed the Baltimore Convention, with the
determination to swallow the Cincinnati
proceedings without a why or wherefore,
and succeeded in doing it, to the infinite
disgust of those members of the great old
historical party who have convictions.
The result is that, beginning with Cincinnati
and civil service and other proposed re.
forms as their objects, you have the whole
scheme confded to the Blair family, Fen
ton, Slonaker, Boss Tweed, ct id omne
genus. ..t .fE
Reporer-Do you suppose such men
can use Mr.. Greeley-that he will lend
himself to their purposes q? .. 40
DIR. GREELEY's HONESTY. CONCEDED.
Judge Kelley-If you mean to ask me
whether | think Mr.. Greeley partakes of
the character of these men-that he is cor
rupt as they are, as reckless, or as willing
to gain his ends by false means and de-
ceptive practices, | answer, no. Mr..
Greeley is an honest man-none more so.
He is a man of convictions-many say of
vagaries; but even his EXTREMIST vagary is
a conviction, and woe betide the man
who dissented from it while he presided
over the Tribune. But | have never re-
garded him as good judge Of character.
Even when free from official restraint or
embarrassment, and enjoying full liberty
to exercise his own discretion and will,
we have seen him practlced upon by the
shallowest pretenses. and should he, by
any conceivable fatality, be invested with
the Presidency, he would be surrounded
by the men who outgeneraled the Reform
ers at Cincinnati and the earnest members
of the Democratic party in making up
and controlling the Baltimore Convention.
Repo1ter-And you think he would be
controlled by them and used for their own
purposes, if elected? Z ~
Judge Kelley Undoubtedly. lie would
of necessity be @
A MERE CREATURE IN THEIR HANDS.
With the Democratic party in power, the
control of the legislative branch would
return to the Democratic Congressional
caucus, which exercised it for more than a
quarter Of a century before the war, and
forced the rebellion upon the Southern peo-
pie, and the war and its consequent debt
upon the country. The power of this eau
Gus and the adroitness of those who secured
Mr.. Greeley's nomination would control
him in spite of his impulses. With Frank
Blair on one side of the Executive chair to
express the wishes Of the Democracy, and
Senator Fenton on the other, to let him
know what the friends of civil service, rev.
enue reform, and other great moral ques-
tons desire, who can doubt that the worst
men in the country would manage Mr..
Greeley? 90. .s-'
SUMMERS INFLUENCE ON THE coll
ORED VOTE.
RepOter-Will Horace Greeley's nomi-
nation and Summers detection largely effect
the colored vote, in your opinion?
Judge Kelley-I don't think it will. In
deed, know it will not. The colored peo-
pile of the South are necessarily illiterate,
but they are observant, acute and sagacous.
have had much intercourse with them at
Washington, and during my visit to the
Southern States, in the Spring of 1867,
when the then future Greeley men of Mo-
bile did me the honor to try to murder me
while addressing a meeting, it was aston
ishing to me to discover how clearly they
perceived, at that early day, the slight de-
gree of Importance that might be attached
to the influence of any man, however i'm
portant the position he filled. They said
that the Republican party had wrought
THEIR RELEASE FROM BONDAGE.
They regarded it as Heaven-appointed in
strument for their enfranchisement. They
knew the slow and hating steps by which
1t had moved forward to this great work.
More than once did they surprise me by
reference to the detection or conservatism
of Senator'S, Cabinent ministers, army
officers or others but in no instance did /
hear one doubt that, in spite of all such
peradventures, the Republican party would
work out their complete enfranchisement.
As have intimated, they trust it as the
instrument whereby the Almighty was to
restore them to manhood, with all its rights
and privileges. Mr.. Sumner will find, as
Mr.. Greeley has already began to find, that
in a ..... l.E.., aEI .ae.s.
ABANDONING THE REPUBLICAN
PARTY t'
They will understand him to have arrayed
himself against them. This is not only
true of the colored men of the South, but
those Of the North. Gen. Grant will receive
as large portion of the colored vote of
Pennsylvania as Mr.. Greeley or Mr.. Sum-
ner would have done had either of them
been its candidate. .sr . ... ..
Repo,ter-In your opinion, then, the col
ored voters will give their united support to
General Grant?
Judge Keliey--I do not mean to say that
the colored vote throughout the country
will be cast with absolute unaninity, for
we must remember that there were colored
delegates in the New York Convention that
nominated Horatio Seymour. 1t would be
too much to ask thatthe millions of colored
people in this country should, in view of
the influences of personal ambition, per-
sonal hatred and personal disappointment
upon such men as Schurz, Trumbull, Sum
ner and others, to expact that the patriot
ism and disinterestedness of the entire COL
CHI l. ok N :.