The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-07-27
Horace GREELEY AID The DEMOCRACY.
HIS Formal 4ccepta5ace Of the Bal
tiBaOre Nomination..
Another statesmanIike letter

Another StatesmanIike Letter
The following is Greeley letter accepting
the Baltimore nomination, in reply to the :
letter of the Committee appointed tonotify
him thereof:
New YORK, July 1S.
GENTLEMEN: Upon mature deliberation,
it seems fit that | should give to your letter
of the 10th lust. some further and fuller .
response than the hasty, unpremeGitated
words in which / acknowledged and ac-
cepted your nomination at our meeting on
the 18th That your Convention saw fit to
accord its highest honor to one who had
been prominently and pointedly opposed to
yuur party in the earnest and sometimes
angry controversies of the last forty years,
is essentially noteworthy; that many of YOU
originally believe that the Liberal Repub-
licans should present another candidate for
President, and would more readily have
united with us in support Of Adams, Trun-
bull Davis or Brown, is well known |
owe my adoption at Baltimore wholly to
the fact that | had already been nominated
at Cincinnati, and that a concentration of
forces on any new ticket had been proved
impracticable Gratified as | am at your
concurrence in the Cincinnati nominations,
certain as | am that you could not have
thus concuued had you not deemed me
upright and capable, | find nothing in the
circumstance calculated to inflame vanity or
nourish self-conceit; but that your conven-
tion saw tit, i'll adopting the Cincinnati
ticket, to reatfirm the Cincinnati platform,
is to me a source of the profOundest salts
faction. That body was constrained TO
take this important step by no party ne
ceSSity, real or supposed. 1t might have
accepted the candidates of the Liberal
Republicans on grounds Of its own, or it
might have presented them as the first
Wing Convention did Harrison and Tyler,
without adopting any platform whatever.
That it chose 70 plant itself deliberately, 10y
vote nearly unanimous, upon the fullest
and clearest enmCiatIOn Of principle, which
are at once iucOntestibly Republican and
emphaticany Democratic, gives trust
worthy assurance that a new and more
auSPicious era is dawninG upon our long
distracted country Some of the best years
and best efforts OF my life were devoted to
a struggle against chattel slavery, a stIUg-
gle 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 cXtinc-
ton of human bondage. Throughout most
OF those years my vision was unchecred,
and my eXertiOnS were rarely animated by
even much as hope that | should live
y
The affirmation by your Convention OF the
& clnmati platform is q most conclusive
proof that, not merely is slavery abolished.
but that its spirit is extinct; that, despite
the protest of a respectable but isolated
lew, there remains among us no party and
no formidable interest which regrets the
overthrow or desires the re-establishlnent
of human bondage. Whether in letter or
spirit, | am thereby justified in my hope
and trust that the first century of American
independence will not close before tie
grand elemental truths, on which Its right
fulness was based by Jefferson and the
Continental Congress Of 11S6, viii no longer
be regarded as glitteTing generaIties, but
will have become the universally accepted
and hUnorCd foundations of our political
fabric. | demand the prompt application
OF those principles to our existing condition.
Having done what | could for the complete
emancipation of the blacks, | now insist on
the fun entranchisement of all my white
countrymen. Let none say that the ban
has just been removed from all but few
hundred elderly gentlemen, to whom eligi-
bility to Office can be of little consequence.
My view contemplateS not the hundreds
prescribed, but the millions who are denied
the right to be ruled and represented by
men of their unfettered choice. ProScrip-
ton would be absurd, if these did not wish
10 elect the very men whom they are for
bidden to choose. L have a profound
regard for the people of that New England
wherein | was born, and in whose common
schools i was taught. | rank no other peO-
pie above them in intelligence, capacity or
moral worth, but while they do many
things well, and some admirably, there is
one thing which | am sure they cannot
wisely or safely do, and that is the select
ing for States. remote from and unlike their
own of the persons 10y whom those States
hal no tpH IN
would do this to good purpose, then repub-
hcan constitutions are unfit, and aristOcracy
the only true political system. Yet what
have we recently witnessed? Il. b. Vance
the unquestiOned choice of large majority
OF the present Legislature of North Caro-
lima, a majority backed by majority of
the people who voted at its election. refused
the seat i'll the Federal Senate to which he
was fairly chosen, and the Legislature thus
constrained to choose another III his stead
or leave the State unrepreSented for wears
he votes of New England have thus de
prlVed North Carolina of the Senator of
her choice, and compelled her to send an
other in his stead; another who, in our
late contest, was, like Vance. rebel, ana a
lighting rebel, but who had not served in
Congress before the war, as Vance had.
though the latter remained faithful to the
Union until after the close of his term. |
protest against the disfranchisement of a
State presuInptlyely, or a number of States,
on grounds 50 narrow and technical as this
The fact that the same Senate which re-
fused Vance his seat, proceeded to remove
his disabilities after that seat had been
filled by another, only serves to place in a
stronger light the iudignity to North Car
Olina, and the arbitrary and capricious
tyranny which dictated it. [ think you,
gentlemen, that my. name is to be conspic-
uously associated with yours, in a deter
mined effort to render amnesty complete
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 tears but those of gratitude
and joy. Gentlemen, your platform, which
is Also mine, assures me that Democracy is
not henceforth to stand for one thing and
Repubhcanism for another; but that those