The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-06-04
POLITICAL.
Governor b. Gratz Browns Letter
OF Acceptance.

ton, Governor Brown makes the fol-
lowing response: .s
ExEcUTIvE MANSION,
JEFFERSON CITY, May 81, 1872.
GENTLEMEN Your letter advising
me of the action OF the Liberal Repub-
lican Convention at Cincinnati, has
been received, and / return, through
you, my acknowledgement of the honor
which has been conferred upon me. l
accept the nomination as candidate for
Vice President and indorse most cor
daily the resolutions setting forth the
principles on which this appeal is made
to the whole people Of the United
States. A century is about closing upon
our experience OF Republican govern
ment, and while the lapse of time
has witnessed a great expansion OF our
free institutions, yet it has not been
without illustrations also of grave dan>
gers to the stability Of such a system.
OF those successfully encountered it is
needless to speak; Of those which re-
main to menace the United States the
most threatening are provided against,
as ! firmly believe, in the wise and
pacific measures proposed by your plat
form. 1t has come to be the practice
ofthose elevated to positions OF authorlty
to regard the public service not as a
public trust, but only as the means to
retain power. This results in substI-
tuting mere party organization tor the
government itself, constituting a control
amenable to no laws, impairs all indie
pendent thought, enables the few to
rule the many, and makes personal
allegiance the road to favor. 1t re-
quires little forecast to perceive
that this will wreck our lib
critics, unless there be interposed
timely reform of the administration
from its highest to Its lowest station,
which shall not only forbid abuses, but
likewise take away the incentive to
their practice. Wearied with conten-
tons that are carried on in avarlce OF
spoils, the country demands repose, re-
! sents the effort of officials to dragon
! it again into partisan hostilities and will
zealously sustain any movement prom
Using deliverence from the perils which
have been connected with war. 1t Is
safe to say that only these are now to be
feared, which come of an abuse of vic.
tory into permanent estrangement.
| The Union is fortified by more power
than ever before, and it remains as an
imperative duty to cement our nation
atty by a perfect reconciliation. At
the North widespread sympathy is
aroused in behalf of those States OF
the South, which long after the termin-
alton Of resistance to the rightful fed.
eral authority are still plundered under
the guise of LOYALTY and tyrannized over
in the name OF freedom. Along with
this feeling is present too the recognl-
ton that in complete amnesty alone can
be formed the hope Of any reform to con-
stitutional government, as Of all or any
| development of more enduring unity
| and broader national life in the future.
| Amnesty, however, to be efficaclous
must be real not nominal, genuine
not evasive. 1t must carry along with
it equal rights as well as equal protec
ton TO all For the removal OF disa-
blities to some with its enforcement as
10 others leaves room for suspicious
that pardon is measured by political
gain. Especially will such proffered
clemency be futile in the presence of
the renewed attempt at prolonging a
suspension of the habeas corpus. The
persistent resort to martial rather than
civil law in upholding these agencies
used to elevate q race, when concord is
most essential, and in preparing another
elaborate campaign on the basis Of dead
issues and arbitrary Intervention. All
will rightly credit such conduct as but
a mockery of amnesty and demand an
administration which can give a better
warrant of honesty on the great work
of reform. The array Of sectional In,
terests 10 republic so wide spread as
ours is now entirely safe from serious
conflict.
These became still more dangerous
when complicated with the question Of
taxation, where unequal burdens are
believed to be imposed on one part at
the expense of another part. 1t was a
bold as well as an admirable policy IN
the interest OF present as well as future
tranquility to withdraw the decision
| of industrial and revenue matters from
the virtual arbitration of an electoral
college chosen with a single animating
purpose of party ascendsncy, and refer
them for a more direct popular ex-
preston to each Congressional district.
Instead of being muzzled by some evasive
declaration, the country is thereby in
vited to its frankest utterance, and a
section which would revolt at being
denied a voice, out of Difference to other
success, would be content to acqulesce
in general judgment honestly ELECTED.
If local government be as, it undoubt'
eddy is, the national principle of our
institutions, much advance will be made
towards re.establishing it by enabling
the people to pass upon questions 80
nearly affecting their well being, dis,
passionately through their local repre-
sentation. The precipitancy which
would force a controlling declaration
on the tax or tariff through Presiden'
,ial candidacy is only a disguised form
of Capitalization involving hazardous
reaches of Executive influence. The
conclusion will be much more impair
TALLY determined and with less dis
turbance to trade and finance by ap.
pealing to the most truthful and
diversified local expression. Indus
trial issues can be thus likewise
emancipated from the power OF
great monopolies, each canvass
made to determine its own instruction
and each representative held to fidelity