New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-08-15
WEsTHAMPToN, July 81,

GEES. Dixon the Presidency.
WEsTHAMpToN, July p, 1872.
DEAR SIR. Your letter of the 18th inst.
asking my aid to procure speaker for
Greeley meeting at Hancock, was sent to me
while 1 was in New England, and l have
been unable until now to acknowledge its re-
ception.
do not understand on what ground you
considered yourself authorized to address
such request to me. II you had been Ia,
miliar with the course of my public life, and
equally so with Mr.. Greeley's, you could not
have supposed me capable Of advocating his
election to the office of President of the Uni
ted States without imputing to me an utter
abandonment of all political principle.
am opposed to Mr.. Greeley:
l. Because believe him to be as " unsta-
BILE as WATER perpetually floundering Ito
carry out the Scriptural 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 dis
cussion during the last quarter of century.
3. Because he has been the advocate (and
in this instance persistently) of that most
unjust and unequal commercial system, which
is destroying our mercantile and shipping
interests and hcaping up enormous accumu-
lations of wealth in the hands of the protect
cd classes to the oppression and inpoverIsh-
ment of all others.
4. Because he is associated, in relations
more or less intimate, with some of the chief
plunderers of the city Of Now York, justly
warranting the apprehension that through
his completely or his facile disposition, the
same system of fraud and corruption which
has disgraced the municipal government of
this city may be carried to more infamous ex-
tremes in the administration Of the Federal
Government; and,
5. Because in the darkest hour of the cOun-
try'S peril, when a traitorous combination
had been formed to overthrow the Govern
ment, he openly counseled the cowardly pol
icy of non-resistance, and an acquiescence in
tho dissolution of tho Union, whenever the
cotton States should make up their minds
to go.
The coalition, which has been formed to
promote his election, is one Of the most eX-
traordinary in the history of parties, in re-
spect both to the discordant elements 1t
embraces, and the surrender of principles it
involves.
The Cincinnati Convention, called to bring
before the people important measures of re-
form, nominated him, greatly to the surprise
of the whole country, knowing him, in regard
to one of those measures, to be an lmplaca-
BILE opponent-nominated him, too, against
the wishes and judgment of the chief promo
tiers Of the movement, who accepted him,
either with an avowed or an ill-cOncealed
disgust, which would be far more creditable
to their feelings if the act of acceptance were
ILL. -
pies.
The Democratic Convention at Baltimore
Endorsed and commended him to the support
of their party--not as the exponent of any
principles they have protested or any meas
ures they have advocated, but as a known
and bitter opponent of both-the man who,
perhaps, of all others, has been the most ma
lignant assailant Of the Democracy, mpeach-
ing it's integrity, traducing its motives, and
vilfying its character.
The adoption Of such a man 'as their can
didate fer the Chief Magistracy of the Union
is the most conspicuous abandonment of po-
litical principles known to party contests.
It remains to be seen whether the great
body of the Democratic voters, and the true
friends of re orm, can be made parties to
this INSCRIPTIONS coalition between political
leaders.
That Gen. Grant has committed mistakes
his most sincere friends admit. But if his
errors had been four-told more numerous. he
| would, in my opinion, be much safer Chief
Magistrate than Mr.. Greeley. He has, in
that capacity, done much for which he de-
serves the thanks Of the country. Above
all, he has kept it at peace, Notwithstanding
the efforts Of sensation journals and popular
ity-seeking politicians to provoke hostilities
with Spain on the question of Cuba, and with
Great Britain on the Alabama claims and the
| fisheries.
If, regardless of these titles to the appro-
val Of his fellow-ctizens, and of his invalu-
able services during the late civil war, they
should set him aside for Mr.. Greeley; if the
latter, mere erratic politician, untried in any
important public trust, should be elevated to
the Chief Magistracy of the Union-a Union
which would not now exist if his counsels
had been followed-and if the man who, of
all others, had done the most to preserve it
should be discarded for a successor so i'll
qualified and so unscrupulously nominated
and sustained, the example would be most
deplorable in its influence on all high motives
to political action, and justify the most pam
| full forebodings as to the future.
am respectfully yours,
! JOHN A. DIX.
! A. Is. CoRNwELL, Esq, Hancock, n. Y.