The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-08-16
HON. JEREMIAH S. BLACK.
Interesting Letter on the Political Situation-Th
Democracy and Horace GYeeley---Argument
in Favor OF the Baltimore Ticket.

i Welsh, formerly of Pennsylvania, but now
one of the editors and proprietors of the
Baltimore Gazette, addressed a letter to
! Judge Black, stating that his name had
been used to promote the interests of the
! Grant faction, and suggested an expression
of his views and opinions on the Presiden-
tial contest. To this letter Judge Black
| replies as follows:
To William Fl. Welsh, Esq, Editor Of tie
| baltimore Gazette:
MY DEAR SIR / promised the gentle
man who delivered your letter that lwould
answer it fully and soon as 1 could con-
slstently with other engagements. L am
! fulfilling that promise. lfltake more time
/ and space than might be expected, you will
please to remember that and great many
| other democrats are i'll position which re-
quires something more than this construc-
| ton without furnishing rather full ex-
PLANTATION.
admit that the next President must be
Grant or Greeley. The circumstances of
the political situation limit our choice to
| these two men, as strictly as if nobody else
were legally eligible We must weigh
| them against one another, and, like plac-
tical men, decide the case before us in favor
of the best. Even if we find no good in
either of them, we must take that one who
! shall appear to be least bad.
! 1t is undeniablc that the leading meas
ures of this Administration are not only
unconstitutional but are anti-cOnStitution-
al, showing not merely a contemptuOus in
difference to constitutional obligations, but
| settled hostility to those rights of the
! States, and those liberties of the people
| which the organic law was made to secure.
| The President S appointment of officers and
| his general exercise of public authority,
under the influence of men who Iaid him
large sums of money, are scandalous out
RACES, and the effort to defend them has
combined with other like causes to ex-
! tinguish among his subordnates all respect
for those rules of morality which used to
be held sacred. When we consider what
these men have done in the North, and add
to it the large-handed robberies perpetrated
i'll the South by the retainers of the Presi-
dent, with his direct aid and assistance, We
are compelled to acknowledge that no other
government now III the world is admins
tered so entirely for personal and partisan
purposes, or in such complete disregard for
the right and interest of the general pub
lie. This decentralization is not confined to
the Executive branch, the tide of corrup-
tion rolls III upon the Legislature, and in
some places it has risen high enough to
touch the feet of the Judiciary. Even the
rank and file of the Presidents party have
become debauched, let us hope not alto
gether, but certainly in a fearful degree.
Acts which in former times hardened
criminal would hesitate to whisper in the
ear of his accomphce, can now be openly
advocated by a political leader, not only
with safety, but with tolerable chance of
being sustained by a sort of public opinion.
That love of liberty and justice which used
to pervade the whole community now re
neges all temper" and yields without re-
slStance to the unprinciplcd dcmagogues
who would enthrone fraud.
Ana x the n9%r iePrpsy adorned place thieves
With Senators on the BENCH
If General Grant had been equal in mind
and heart to the exigencies of the times he
could easily have made himself great
public benefactor. He might have purified
official and political morals by simply set
ting the example in his own person of a
clean-handed devotion to duty. His own
obedience to the laws would have restored
them to universal supremacy. All the OBJ
Jects of the Constitution as recited in the |
preamble would have been accomplished |
but for the obstruction with which lie him |
self impeded them. Unfortunately the |
interests of certain rings were in conflict |
with the interests of the country, and they |
Dy large presents, scduccd him into their !
service. The public contracted to give him !
the salary which his predecessors had been |
content with the rings offered him more /; |
he accepted their bounty, fell over to them, |
and took the Government into his hands |
as "a Black Republican job
Now, as to Greeley. 1t cannot be pre- !
tended that his political life is very SYM |
metrlcal. He was in the ranks of the Rad |
lcal Abolitionsts for good many years.
That is bad; for such associations would |
have natural tendency to debaSe him. |
But we must not forget that, though he was |
Utth them he was not always of them. He |
refused to be partaker in their worst in |
lquities he had none of their diabolical |
hatred for the Constitution; he did not |
lend his lips to their ribald blasphemies, |
and his feet were never swift in running to |
shed innocent blood. Before the great |
conflict began, his opposition to the designs |
of the AbolitiOnists against the Federal |
and State Governments, impelled him to |
the opposite heresy of the secessionists.
Like the RomaD father, who killed his
daughter to save her from a worse fate, he
chose to destroy the Government, rather
than see it dishonored and violated by law
less force. When the war was fragrant, he
provoked the EXTREMIST rage of his asso-
ciates by exerting himself for peace which
would have left all the people i'll possession
of their constitutional liberties. After the
close of the contest, he was the advocate
of regular and legal, as well as honest gov
ernment for all parts of the country. Ihave
good authority for saying that he never
gave his approval to any form of kidnapping
or murder, by military commission. In
short, although he did join the Abolition
lists in their devils Dance" he never
learned to keep step with his partners, and
we all know that when he could not stopit,
he left it, and denounced it with becoming
indignation.
On another point he ought to have cred
1t: The friends of religious freedom owe
hlm an old debt of gratitude for the zeal
and ability with which he resisted the church
burners when banded together in the secret
lodges OF the know-NOthing order. 1t is
but reasonable to believe that his opposition
saved the country from the great danger it
was once in of being subjugated by that in
famous organization.
He has often been accused of completely
in cheats of one kind or another, but i'm
every case he has triumphantly refuted the