The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-08-03
Horace GFeeJey'S Letter OF 1867
Good Re0ttpg ifI 1872.
Greeley's Plea for Amnesty-They Stop His Paper
Refuse to Elect Him senatOr-he Defies Them,
and Promises to Fright to the End.

and Promises to Fright to the End.
From New York Tribune, May %, 1851
BY these presents greeting.-To MessrS.
GEORGE w. Blunt, John a. Kennedy, John
.. Stone, stephen Hyatt, and thirty others,
members of the Union League Club
Gentlemen: was favored on the 10th inst.
by an official note from ever courteous
President, John jay, notifying me that a re-
QUESTION had been presented to him for n
special meeting of the club at an early day.
for the purpose OF taking into consideration
the conduct OF Horace Greeley, a member of
the club, who has become bondsman for JEFF
terson Davis, late chief officer of the rebel
government Mr.. JAY continues AS |
have reason to believe that the signers or
some OF them, disapprove of the conduct
winch they propose the club shall consider
1t Is clearly due, both to the club and to your
self, that you should have the opportunity
OF being heard on the subject; beg, there
tore, to ask on what evening II will be con
Nenlent Tor you that L call the meeting, - etc.
In my prompt reply l requested the Pres
ldent To give you reasonable time Tor refiec-
ton, but assured him that / wanted none,
since l should not attend the meeting nor
ask any friend to do so, aud should make no
defense nor offer aught in the way OF self
V1nd1cauOn. l am sure my friends in the
club Will not COnStrue this as implying diSre-
spect; but it is not my habit to take part in
any discussions which may arise among other
gentlemen as to my fitness to enjoy their so
ciety. That is their affair altogether, and to
them i leave il.
The second point whereon l have any oc-
caslon or wish TO address you is your virtual
implication that there is something novel;
unexpected, astounding, in my conduct in
the matter suggested by you as the basis OF
your action. L choose not to rest under this
assumption, but TO prove that, being persons
OF ordinary intelligence, you must know bet
ter. On this point, l cite you To a scrutiny
of the record -
The surrender of General Lee was made
known in this city at IL p. m. of Sunday
INFI " u.
Tribune the next morning, April 10th. On
that very day L wrote, and next morning
had printed in these columns, n leader enti-
tied "Magnanimity in Triumph, - wherein l
said: We hear men say: y eS, forgive the
great mass of those who have been misled
INTO rebellion, but punish the le;iders as they
deserVe. But who can accurately draw the
line between the leaders and the followers in
the premises? BY what test shall they be
Disseminated? We know Of none. Nor can
agree with those who would punish the
original plOtters of secession, yet spare their
ultimate and scarcely willing converts. On
the contrary, while would revive or in
lame resentment against none of them, we
feel far less antipathy to the original uphold
erS OF the resolutions OF 9S'-to the CliScipleS
of Calhoun and McDutfee-tO the nullitiers
of 1882, and the State Rights men of 1850
than to the John Bells, Humphrey MarShallS
and Alex. II. II. Stuarts, who were schooled
in the national faith, and who, in becoming
disunionists and rebels, trampled on the pro-
feSsiOns of a lifetime, and spurned the logic
whgrewith they had often unanSwerablV
demonstrated that secession was treason. <
We consider jefferson Davis
this day less culpable traitor than John
Bell. But we cannot believe ii wise or well
to take the life OF any man who shall have
submitted to the national authority The
execution of even one such would be felt as
a personal stigma by every one who had ever
aided the rebel cause. Each would say to
himself, 4 am as culpable as he; we differ
I Infr
little consequence. A single confederate led
ont to execution would be evermore en-
shrined in a million hearts as a conspicuous
hero and martyr: We cannot realize that 1t
would be wholesome or Safe-we are sure it
would not be magnanimous-togi give the over
powered dislOyalty of the South such a
shrine. Would the throne of the house of
Hanover stand more firmly II Charles Ed-
ward had been caught and executed after
Culloden? Is Austrian domination in Hun
gary more stable to-day for the hanging of
Macy SandOr and his twelve cOmpatri0tS of
the surrender of Villages? We plead against
passions certain to be at this moment fierce
and intoleraut; but on our side are the ages
and the voice of history. We plead for the
restoration of the Union, against a policy
which would afford a momentary gratifica-
ton at the expense of years of perilous hate
and bittefress Those who invoke
even their leaders, we suspect will not, be
generally found among the few who have
been long exposed to unjust odium as haters
of the South, because they abhorred slavery
And to the long-oppressed and DEGRADED
blacks-so lately the slaves destined still to
be the nelghbOTS ai1u. 1--WE truSt) at no dis
tant day the fellow-citizens of the Southern
whites-we are sure that their voice, could
1T be automatically uttered, would ring ont
decidedly, sonorOusly, on the side of elem
ency, of humanity.
On the next day had some more in this
spirit, and the 18th an elaborate leader
entitled Observation-Disclosures, - in the course
of which L said: THE New York Times. do
ing injustice to its own Sagacity, in a char
acterisuc attempt to sail between wind and
water, says: Let us hang jeff Davis and
spare the rest. We do not concur in the ad-
wise. Davis did not devise or instigate the
rebellion; on the contrary, he was one of the
latest and most reluctant of the notables of
the cotton States to renOunce definitely the
Union. His prominence is purely official
and representative; the only reason for hang
ing him IL that you therein condemn and
stignatiZe more persons than in hanging any
one else. There is not an eX-rebel in the
world-no matter how penitent-who will
not have unpleasant sensations about the
neck on the day when the confederate presi-
dent is to be hung? And to what good end?
We insist that this matter must not be re-
garded in any narrow aSpect we are most
anxious to secure the assent of the South to
emancipation-not that assent which the con-
demned gives TO being hung when he shakes
hands with the jailor and thanks hitn for
which can only be won by magnanimity.-
| Perhaps the rebels, a body, would have
given, even one year ago, as large and as
hearty vote for hanging the writer Of this
article as any other man living; Hence it
more especially seems to him important to
prove that the civilization based on free la
! Dor is of a higher and humaner type than
| that based on slavery. We cannot realize
I that the qualification to inure to our friends
| from the hanging of any one man, or fifty
men, should be allowed to outweigh this con-
! sideration." On the following day wrote
| again: eve entreat the President promptly
| td do and dare in the cause of magnaplty.
! The Southern mind is now open to Kindness
| and may be magnetically affected by gener-
! osity. Let assurance at once be given tiltt
there is to be general amnesty and no gen
| eral confiscation. This Is none the less ile
! dictate of wisdom, because 1t is also the di'T
| tate of mercy What we ask is, that the
| President say in effect, Slavery having thro
| rebellion. committed suicide, let the North