New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-05-30
Col. M0sby.
what the Ex-Guerrilla Chief Tn inks OF Mr.
Greeley's Nomination.

! ~hat the Ex-Guerrflla Chief Thinks OF MT
Greeley's Nomination.
The wranglings respecting the position Of
Col. John 5. Mosby on the Presidential cues.
ton to which Virginia and other Democratic
papers have engaged since his interview with
Gen. Grant, will perhaps be Quoted by the
following explicit statement from him to a
personal friend in Richmond:
WARRENToN, May ID, 1872.
! ny DEAR SIR: l have received your favor
nquirng my position in the Presidential con-
test. OfcOurse, if Democrat is nominated.
l shall support his election with all my heart /;
but II it is reduced to question of choice be-
tween ten. Grant and Greeley, shall sup
port the former. My own views of policy
were, after the failure of the Cincinnati Com
yentlon, to nominate man acceptable to
Democrats, that the South should hold from
the contest and not commit itself to either
until the Philadelphia Convention had nomi-
mated its candidate and declared a platform
| OF principles. For if the whole South were
committed in advance against the election of
Gen. Grant, what motives could he or his
party have to try to conciliate us? Now.
why should the South array itself on the side
OF Greeley, her unrcpentant, lifelong enemy,
against Grant? 1 am no apologist for the
oppression we have endured from the Federal
government but will the partsans of Gree
ley point to one act that was odious to us
that he has not justified and approved? Nav.
more. The tyrannical acts of Congressional
legislation were an expression of Northern
sentiment OF hostility to the South for which
Horace Greeley, more than any other man,
is responsible. Gen. Grant has been the in
strument of executing many laws obnoxious
to us, which were enacted under the pressure
OF public opinion, created by Greeley.
which no man could resist. The pen was
mightier than the sword. Now, what is
offered to the Southern people by the nomi-
nee OF the Cincinnati Convention as consider
alton for their votes? Amnesty-which
simply means the relief of a few thousand
men from the disability imposed by the ftyur-
teenth amendment. But the President has
no control over this 1T requires two-thirds
vote OF Congress to effectit. If the Southern
vote is to be bartered for such paltry con-
sideration as this, why not bargain directly
with those who have the ability to paw
what they promise ? Does any man
doubt that the party in power would gladly
grant universal amnesty to secure the cleo
toral vote of Virginia alone? If so, how is
there less of dishonor IN coalition with
Greeley on such condition as this than with
the party who can give you now all you ask +?
The only difference that | can see is that in
the one case you bargain with a set of po-
ltical bankrupts and Adventures whose
pledges will be redeemed about as soon as
the Confederate debt--and therefore they
will be prOfuse in promises in the other YOU
may at least expect to receive the small pit
tance required. Tell me one single reason
why Southern man should prefer Greeley
to Grant. They say that Greeleyis honest
then so much the worse if he is honestly OPP
posed to all L hold dear. They say he has
abused carpet-baggers which, by the bye,
are only the natural product of institutions
which he planted among us but as he is in
debted to this class (who assumed at Cincin-
natl to represent the South) for his nominal
ton, surely honest Horace won't, if elected,
go back on his friends They say, too, that
he is the friend Of amnesty, and yet he advo-
Gated the impeachment Of johnson for par
doning rebels. On his recent electioneering
tour Through the South, when he looked on
the land where he had made solitude and
called it peace" his heart was for moment
touched with sentiment Of pity for the
Southern people, as well as a desire for
Southern votes, and he was tempted to say
a few words for which he was swift to make
atonement, when on his return to New York
he retailed to gaping crowd of his admirers
the fabulous stories of Ku-KluX horrors, and
applauded the vigor of the Administration in
suspending the habeas corpus in South Caro-
lima and enforcing the Ku-Klux laws.
The men who, as old Isaiah tells us, cooked
their breakfast with one end of stick of
wood and made an image of the other, which
they worshiped, were not more unreasoning
idOlators than those who are now prostrating
themselves before Horace Greeley In both
cases the virtues of the idol exist only in
the imagination the worshipers. L don't
choose to bow at such shrine, and am not
led captive by such entertainments; and if
we are compelled to go through the ceremony
of choosing master, to me there is less hui
initiation in. accepting the soldier to whom
Lee surrendered his sword than the fanatic
whose teachings have been "the Had of all
our woes" u
l am, very truly, yours,
JOHN S. M0sBY.
Capt. 4. 6. Babcock.