New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-07-04
A Converted GreeIcyftc,

ITHACA, N. Y. June IS, 1872.
To the Editor Of TIE Nc,c Nationa, Era.
SIR: The attitudes of the candidates for
the Presidency now in the field, Grant. and
Greeley, their supporters, and the party prin-
ciplcs OF their respective adherents, de-
mand, and should receive, the earnest at
tention of all classes of citizens, and more
especially colored citizens inasmuch rs every
move on the political chess.board effects them
in civil and political interests more closely
than those Of any other class of citizens.
Such being the case, it behooves us 10
weigh carefully all the pros and cons of this,
to us, momentous question. In common with
many other earnest Republicans, I have seen
what deemed mistakes in the policy of the
Administration, both in the appointment and
the retention of men 10 Office who were unfit
both in character and ability, for the duties
of their positions, and instead of honor,
brought discredit upon the party we love. At
first we hoped that the Cincinnati movement
might prompt or suggest some method of re-
form that would remedy the evils we so
earnestly desired to see corrected, and those
measures we anticipated we would spring out
of, and be carried out entirely by, and within
the Republican party, never dreaming for a
moment that it would result in a wholesale
desertion to the ranks of the Democratic
party. The Cincinnati movement of which
so much was predicted, has proved the broad
est kind of swindle, and has assumed the
motley garb of political mountebank or
nondescript, and is, if anything, Democratic,
or hopes to become so, either by marriage or
adoption. As a Republican reform move
ment, it is already dead, for every vestige of
real Republicanism is being fast rooted out of
it by its new owners, they having thrust
aside the first prime-movcrs of the project,
who were the very elect of Liberal and Reve-
nue. Reform Republicans. We now hear on
all sides examinations and determinations, and
see the inceptive tokens of bolt from the
ranks, and reputation of the fedgeling
Matched from a free trade egg. Both free
traders and protectionists claim to have been
juggled, and outside of all stands the Demo-
cratic party, ready, and quite willing, to
swallow them all at one gulp! Mr.. Gree
ley, though unpalatable, they seem to think
will prove digestible, and will, in the end,
furnish nutritious food for the hungry maws
of those whose hostility to progressive hui
mainly has kept them so many weary years
waiting on the back seats.
The Democracy in their proposed adoption
of Mr.. Greeley, do not propose to abate one
jot or title of their Democratic faith or prin-
ciples, and they will adopt him only as
convenient piece of political strategy, and as
the only feasible mode Of readily regaining
their long lost power; thus the election of
Mr.. Greeley would be nothing less than
Democratic victory, and they would virtually
have the Government again in their own
hands. Why is it that the Democratic press
and the members Of the Tammany Ring are
his strongest allies and loudest eulogists
Does it not look as if there was something
very rotten hidden away in their political
compact? If not, why this sudden love be-
tween the high contracting parties; this sud-
den change from mutual hate to mutual
admiration? The Memphis appeal says it
supports Greeley and Brown because their
election would ultimately restore Democrats
to power, involving as it will, the inevitable
accompaniment of the election Of Demo-
cratic majority in the lower House Of Con-
gross, " Congress being the real seat Of Gov
crnment." The N. Y. Daily Ners makes
the same admission, and advocates the adop-
ton of Greeley as the only true policy for
the Democracy to win on in this campaign,
arguing that, while they may take the Gin
cinnati nominees they need not necessarily
adopt the platform. The Ncrs further asserts
that sit is by just such alliances as this with
Liberal Republicans, that the Democratic
party has rcgained its ascendency, and re-
established its principles in those States
where that party is now more firmly seated,
and where its principles are most beneticently
put in practice" The Ners cites as eX-
amples where Democratic success has fol-
lowed the adoption Of this policy Virginia,
where the renegade. Republican Walker was
elected Governor by Democratic and Repub-
lican votes on what was called a conservative
ticket and the Neus now pronounces Walker
"as thorough a Democrat both IN principles
and practice as any man." and surely his
course as Governor gives abundant reason
for the assertion. Tennessee was wrested
from us by the same Grceleyish tactics, and
in Missouri says the Ne,rs, /" the Democrats
who were in hopeless minority struck
hands with the Liberal Republicans, and
under the leadership of Schurz and Brown
elected the latter Governor by 10000 ma.
jority, and placed Missouri among the States
which are more firmly Democratic The
Ne,rs might also have added-and made F.
p. Blair United States Senator! Yet in the
face of all facts and probabilities there are
those who profess to be Republicans in both
principles and practice, who say they are moi
afraid to trust the Democracy, and affect t'
believe that the feW Republicans in the ranks
of Mr.. Greeley's supporters will shape and
control the policy and political actions OF the
many Democrats Does the lesser general,
control the greater, or is the reverse usual,
the case, when the greater is about hundred
times stronger than the lesser?
Horace Greeley, my former political men
tor. In sorrow / confess it, seems not only
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