Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-08-16
Cen. Dix ON the Presidency.
WESTHAMPTON, July 2,

DEAR SIR:-Your letter Of the
18th inst, asking my aid to procure
a speaker for Greeley meeting at
Hancock, was sent to me while l
was in New England, and l have
been unable until now to acknowl-
edge its reception.
l do not understand on what
ground you considered yourself
authorized to address such a re-
quest to me. If you had been
familiar with the course of my pub
lie life, and equally SO with Mr..
Greeley's, You could not have sup
posed me capable Of advocating his
election to the Office Of President
of the United States without i'm
putting to me an utter abandonment
Of all political principle.
l am opposed to Mr.. Greeley:
l. Because believe him to be as
unstable as water," perpctually
tloundering Ito carry out the Scrip
tural figure) amid the surges of
opinion, and deficient in all the
requisites essential to a firm, steady,
and consistent administration Of
the Government.
2. Because he has usually been
found among the most extreme
ultraists on the great questions of
political and social duty which have
been brought under public discus
sion during the last quarter Of q
century.
3. Because he has been the
advocate land in this instance per-
sistently) ofthat most unjust and
unequal commercial system viii, h
is destroying our mercantile and
shipping interests and heaping up
enormous accumulationS of wealth
in the hands ofthe protected classes
to the oppression and impoverish-
ment Of the others.
4. Because he is associated, in
relations more or less intimate, with
some of the chief plunderers of the
city Of New York, justly warrant
ing the apprehension That, through
his completely or his facile dispo-
sition, the same system of fraud
and corruption which has disgraced
the municipal government Of this
city may be carried to more in
famous extremes in the admins
tration Of the Federal Government;
and,
5. Because in the darkest howr
OF the country's peril, when a trait
orous combination had been framed
to overthrow the Government, he
openly counseled the cowardly
policy of non-resistancc, and an ac-
quiescencc in the dissolution of the
Union, whenever the cotton States
should make up their minds to 80.
The coalition which has been
to promote his election is
one of the most extraordinary in
the history of parties, in respect
both to the discordant elements it
and the surrender Of
it involves.
The Cincinnati Convention, called
TO bring before the people inpor-
tant measures of reform, nominated
him, greatly to the surprise of the
whole country, knowing him, in
regard to one Of those measures, to |
be an implacable opponent-nom-
mated him, too, against the wishes
and judgment Of the chief promo
ters of the movement, who acccp-
ted him, either with an avowed or
IN ill-concealed disgust, which
would be far more crcditablc to
heir feelings if the act of accep-
lance were not utterly irrcconcil-
.ble with their principles.
The Democratic Convention at
Baltimore endorsed and commended
him to the support of their party,
not as the exponent Of any princi-
PIES they have professed or any
they have advocated; but
! known and better opponent of
,oth-the man, who perhaps Of all
,thers, has been the most malign-
ant assailant of the Democracy, inn
,oaching its integrity, traducing its
motives and villitying its charac-
or. sa'
The adoption of such a man as
heir candidate for the Chief Magis-
racy Of the Union is the most con-
picuous abandonment of political
principles known to party contests.
1t remains to be seen whether the
treat body ofthe Democratic voters,
md the true friends of reform, can
&c made parties to this unscrupul
JUS coalition between political
eaders. ea
That General Grant has commit