New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-07-04

claily when he is sustained and chiefly sup-
ported by the very men and party who,
OF all Others, have been, and still arc. its
most lmpiacable enemies? No; for he evil
IDENTIFY lacks firmness, sincerity, and consist.
ency. As evidences Of Mr.. Greeley's incon-
slstency, consider for moment his recent
utterances--first, on the question of Protec-
ton VS.. Free Trade-evcn q protcctionist
OF the straightest sect, which doctrine he has
taught vehemently for the last quarter of a
century or more; yet now he says that in
case he is elected, and Congress should pass
Tree trade measures, that he would "surren-
der his personal preferences" and sign them
What is this but lifelong protectionist's
bid Tor the votes of free traders? If he be-
lieves, as he has so ably taught, that protec-
ton is for the best interests of the whole
country, beneficial alike to capital and labor,
bringing in its train increase in wealth and
population, developing to the greatest extent
both the mineral, and manufacturing, and
| agricultural resources of the country; and if,
on the contrary, he candidly believes that
free trade would PROSTATE and eventually
ruin all these interests, then why, / ask, does
he not say he will act up to those convictions
of right, and not stultify both his principles
and manhood by promising to give his official
sanction to that which he deems great and
grievous injury to the material interests of
the nation. OF what what use would that
Presidential prcrOgative, the veto power, be
in such hands as those? Such an one would
sign any bill passed by Congress, no matter,
in his opinion, how injurious or iniquitous!
"1Ie would surrender his personal prefer
ences" on this subject while President! He
virtually agrees to neglect to do what the Con-
stitution makes his bonden duty--namely,
the recommending to the {" consideration of
Congress of such measures as he shall think
necessary and expedient." Mr.. Greeley
either believes protection both expcdient and
necessary, or he does not; if he does, and
should fail to so recommend it to Congress.
he would be guilty of criminal breach of
duty; he now proposes to become thus guilty
if elected!
A second specimen of his adjustable con-
victions is shown in his Poughkeepsie speech,
in which he took occasion to say to the col
ored people while discussing the school qucs-
ton, IF 4 were black man, i should not
ask a separate school, yet l should say if the
whites chose to have separate school, l
should not object to it; should only say:
Gentlemen, be it as you please l have no
choice in the mattcr"' Thus he advises us
to permit and submit to caste distinctions,
and accept the ''stand thou there" Of the
arrogant colorphobist, with an obsequious
smile, and "be it as you please, we have no
choice in the matter!" These words were
said after he was nominated at Cincinnati.
How changed tie tone from those manly
words of indignation and protest that fell
from his lips on the occasion of Frederick
Douglass's being refused accommodation,
and his name erased from the register of the
Planters Hotel at st. Louis but then he
was not catering for the Democratic vote
now he says, 81 would advise black men
never to make distinction, and never to re-
fuse one."
We will now pass to the so-callcd ku-Klux
legislation. Who advocated any more per-
sistently than Horace Greeley the necessity
of Congressional interference and military
force to subdue that mur.lerous organization
known as the Ku-Klux? Who advised more
strongly the very course that was taken to
put down those outrages than Horace Gree
ley himself in the Tribune? His own cor
respondents, who were sent to the very points
in the South most infected by those social
vemin, gave us our most authentic news on
the subject, and they admitted that not
half of the horrid tale had been told.
VIM. II. Gray, Of Arkansas, a colored dele
gate at the Philadelphia Convention, said
that sit cost the lives Of three hundred coll
ored men to carry that State for Gen. Grant
in 1865" Those men were murdered for
their opinions sake, for their devotion to the
Republic and its principles! Now, upon the
eve Of another Presidential campaign, when
all the evils of hate and partisan rancor will
sway bad mems hearts, and the poor negroes
of the South will need more, or as much as
even the protection of those very Ku-Klux
laws, when the ku-Klux snake is only
scotcbed, not killed, Mr.. Greeley and his
Democratic allies condemn the very measures
he then advocated, and demands their abol-
ishment! while the same arguments hold
good for their continuance. These are only
a few of Mr.. Greeley's peculiar inconsistent
cies, and they exhibit in a sufficiently strong
light his crotchety contrarieties.
After Mr.. Greeley comes Gratz Brown,
who might possibly under certain contin-
gencies, become the Chief Magistrate of the
Republic. If Mr.. Greeley should prove too
intractable for his Democratic task-masters,
might he not follow i'm the footsteps of the
martyred Lincoln, or succumb to the insidu-
Gus influences that cut short the careers of
Harrison and Tyler, or escaping all of these
perils, should the weight of years and the
cares and perplexities of Office shorten his
days, what then? Gratz Brown, of Missouri,
President! a man whose peculiarly liberal
tactics carried into the United States Senate
the man who in 1868 was in favor of doing
away with the recentlhumane amendments to
the Constitution whose hatred offree repub-
lican institutions was so sincere, and whose
devotion to the pro-slavery Democracy so
great. as to enttle and cain for him the