Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1872-05-30
Hon. Horace Greeley's Letter of Ac-
ceptance.
THE TENDER OF THE NOMINATION.

! nomination:
CINCINNATI, May 3, 1872.-DEAR SIR
The National Convention of Liberal Re-
pubicans of the United States have in
structed the undersigned, President,
Vice President, and Secretaries of the
Convention, to inform you that you
have been nominated as a candidate for
the Presidency of the United States.
We also submit to you the address and
resolutions unanimously adopted by
the convention. Be pleased to signify
to US your acceptance of the platform
and nomination, and believe us, very
truly your. G. ScHURz,
President.
GEO. w. JULIAN,
Vice President
WV. E. MCLEAN,
JNo. G.. DAVIDSON,
j. 81. RHODES,
Secretaries.
To Hon. HORACE GREELEY, New York city.
New York, May 20, 1872.-GENTLE-
MEN / have chosen not to acknowl-
edge your letter of the Sd inst. until
could learn how the work of your con-
Vention was received in all parts of our
great country, and judge whether that
work was approved and ratified by the
mass of our fellow citizens. Their
response has from day to day reached
me through kilograms, letters, and COM
ments of journalists independent of Off
cial patronage, and Indifferent to the
smiles or frowns of power. The number
and character of these unconstrained,
unpurchased, unsolicited utterances,
satisfy me that the movement which
found expression at Cincinnati has re-
ceived the stamp of public approval,
and been hailed by a majority of our
countrymen as the harbinger of bet
ter day for the Republic. do not mis-
interpret this approval as especially
complimentary to myself, nor even to
the chivalrous and highly gen.
tlemen with whose name l thank your
convention for associating mine. l re-
ceive and welcome it as a spontaneous
and deserved tribute to that admirable
platform of principles wherein your
convention 30 tersely, SO lucidly, SO for
clbly set forth the convictions which
impelled, and the convictions which
guided, its course-a platform which,
casting behind it the wreck and rub
bish of worn-out contentious and by
gone feuds, embodies in fit and few
words the needs and aspirations of to-
day. Though thousands stand ready
to condemn your every act, hardly a
syllable of criticism or cavil has been
aimed at your platform, of which the
substances may be fairly epitomized as
follows:
L. ALI political rights and franchises
which have been acquired through our
late convulsion must and shall be guar
anteed, maintained, enjoyed, and re-
spected evermore.
4. All the political rights and fran
chises which have been lost through
that cenvulsion should, and must, be
promptly restored and re-established
so that there shall be henceforth no
pros scribed class and no disfranchised
caste within the limits of our Union,
whose long g-estranged people shall re-
unite and fraternize upon the broad
basis of universal amnesty with impair
tial suffrage.
3. That, to our solemn constitutional
obligation to maintain the equal rights
of all citizens, our policy should aim at
local self-government and not at CEN
tralization that civil authority should
be supreme over military; that the writ
of habeas corpus should be jeslously
upheld as the safeguard of personal
freedom that the individual citizen
should enjoy the largest liberty consis-
tent with public order, and that there
shall be no svbversion of the internal
policy of the several States and munich
palities, but that each shall be free to
to enforce the rights and promote the
the wellbeing of its inhabitants by such
means as the judgment of its own peo-
pie shall prescribe.
4. There shall be a real and not
merely simulated reform in the civil
service of the Republic, to which end
it is indispensable that the chief dis
penser of its vast official patronage
shall be shielded from the main tempta-
ton to use his power selfshly, by rule
inexorably forbidding and precluding
his reelection.
5. That the raising of revenue,
whether by tariff ar otherwise, shall be
recognized and treated as the peoples
Immediate business, te be shaped and
directed by them through their repre-
sentatives in Congress, whose action the
President must neither overrule by his
veto, attempt to dictate, nor presume
to punish by bestowing Office only on
those who agree with him, or with
drawing it from those who do not.
6, That the public land shall be
sacredly reserved for occupation and
acquisition by cultivators, and not reck-
lessly squandered on the projectors of
railroads Tor which our people nave no
present need, and the premature con-
struction of which is annually pfunging
us into deeper and deeper abysses of
foreign Indebtedness.
7. That the achievements of these
grand purposes of universal beneficence
is expected, and sought at the hands of
all who approve them, irrespective of
past affiliations.
8. That the public faith must, at all
hazards, be maintained, and the national
credit preserved.
9. That the patriotic devotedness and
inestimable services of our fellow citi :
zens who, as soldiers or sailors, upheld
the flag and maintained the unity of
the Republic, shall ever be gratefully
remembered and honorably requited.
These propositions SO ably and forci-
bly, presented in the platform of your
Convention, have already fixed the at
tention and commended the assent of a
large majority of our countrymen, who
joyfully adopt them, as 1 do, as the
basis of true benefcent national re-
construction, new departure from
jealousies, strifes, and hates which have
no longer adequate motive, or even
plausible pretext into an atmosDhere