American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-08-03

seems tit that should give to your letter of
the 10th inst some further and fuller re-
Spouse than the few unprecedented words
in which | knowledged and accepted your
nomination at our meeting on the 18th.
That your Convention saw fit to confer its
highest honor on one who had been pointed
ly opposed to your party in the earnest, and
sometimes angry, controversies of the last
forty years is essentially noteworthy. That
many of you originally preferred that the
Liberal Republicans should present another
candidate for President, and would more
readily have united with us in the support of
Adams or Trumbull, Davis or Brown, is well
known. l owe my adoption at Baltimore
wholly to the fact that l had already been
nominated at Cincinnati, and TIL a cCncen-
tration of forces on any new ticket
had been proved impractcable. Gratifed
as | am at your concurrence in the Gin
cinnati nomination, certain as | am that
you would not have thus concurred had you
not deemed me upright and capable, find
nothing in the circumstance calculated to in
flame vanity or nourish self-conceit. But
that your Convention saw fit in adopting the
Cincinnati ticket to reafiirm the Cincinnati
platform, is a source of profound satisfac-
ton. That body was constrained to take
that important step by no party necessity,
real or supposed. 1t might have accepted
the candidates of the Liberal Republicans
upon grounds entirely its own, or it might
have presented them the first Wing Ma
ton al Convention did Harrison and Tyler,
without adopting any platform whatever.
y,
a vote nearly unanimous, upon the fullest
and clearest enunciation of principles,
which are at once incontestibly Republican
and emphatically Democratic, gives trust
worthy assurance that new and more aus
picious era is dawning upon our long dis
tracted country. Some of the best years
and best efforts of my life were devoted to
struggle against chattel slavery, struggle
none the less earnest or arduous because
respect for constitutional obligations con-
strained me to act, for the most part on the
defensive, in resistance to the diffusion,
rather than in direct efforts for the extinc-
ton, of human bondage. Through most of
these years my mission was unchcered, my
eXertions were rarely encouraged by even
much as a hope that should live to see my
country peopled by free men alone. The
affirmance by your Convention of the Gin
cinnati platform is a most conclusive proof
that, not merely is slavery abolished, but
that its spirit is extinct; that de-
spite the protest of a respectable, but iso
lated few, there remains among us no party
to regret the achievements of the past few
years. l am thereby justified in my
hope and trust that the first century of
American independence will not close before
the grand truths on which its rightfulncss
was based by Jefferson and the Continental
Congress of 1776, will no longer he regarded
glitterirg generality, but will have be
come the universally accepted and honored
foundation of our political fabric. l demand
the prompt application of these principles To
our existing condition. Having done what
could for the complete emancipation of the
blacks, l now insist on the complete enfran-
chisement of all my white countrymen. Let
none say that the ban has just been removed
from all but few hundred elderly gentle
men, to whom eligibility to office can be of
little consequence. My view contemplates
not the hundred prescribed, but the millions
who are denied the right to be ruled and
represented by the men of their unfettered
choice. Prescription were absurd if these
do not wish to elect the very men whom they
are forbidden to choose.
l have a profound regard for the people OF
that New England State wherein was born,
in whose common schools L was taught. L
rank no ether people above them in intcili-
gence, capacity and moral worth; but, while
they do many things well, and some admra-
bly,, there is one thing which | am sure they
cannot do wisely or safely, and that is the
selection for seats, remote from and unlike
their own, of the persons by whom those
States shall be represented in Congress. If
they could do this to good purpose, then re-
publican institutions were unwise, and arts
tocracy the only safe political system. Yet
what have we recently witnessed? Il. b.
Vance, the unquestioned choice of a large
majority of the present Legislature of North
Carolina, "A majority backed by majority OF
the people who voted at its election, was re-
fused the seat in the Federal Senate to which
he was fairly chosen, and the Legislature thus
or leave the State unrepresrnted for years.
The votes of New England thus de-
privcd North Carolina of the Senator of her
choice, and compelled her to send another
in his stead-another, who, in our late con-
test, was. like Vance, Il rebel, and a lighting
rebel, but who had not served in Congress
before the war, as Vance had; though the
latter remained faithful to the Union till af-
ter the close of his term. | protest against
the disfranchsemcnt of a State, presump
lively of a number of States, on grounds so
narrow and technical this. The fact that
the same Senate which refused Vance his
seat proceeded to remove his disabilities
after that seat had been filled by another,
only serves to place in the strongest light
the indignty to North Carolina, and the
arbitrary, capricious tyranny which dictat
ed it.
] thank you, gentlemen, that my name is
to be cons icuously associated with yours in
Il determined effort to render amnesty COM
plete and universal in spirit as well as in
letter. Even defeat in such cause would
leave no sting, while triumph would rank
with those victories which no blood reddens,
and which evoke no tear. but those of graf
itude and joy.
Gentlemen, yonr platform, which is also
mine, assures me that Democracy is not
henceforth to stand for one thing and Re
publicanism for another, but that those
terms are to mean in politics, as they have
always meant in the dictionary, substantial
ly one and the same thing-equal rights, re
%ardless of creed, or cline, or color | hail
this as a genuine new departure from the
outwOrn feuds and meaningless contentious
IN the direction of progress and REFORM
whether | shall he found worthy to bear the
standard of the great Liberal movement
which the American people have inaugurated
is to be determined, not by words, but by
deeds. With me, if | steadily advance, over
me, if / faltcr, this grand army moves to
achieve for our country her glorious and
bcncfccnt destiny.
| remain, gentlemen, yours,
HORACE GREELEY.
To Hon. james Il. Doolittle, Chairman Of Con
vcntion, and f. W Sykes, John G. Mccabe, and