The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-07-18
HE ALWAYS OPPOSED PROGRESS AND ExpAN.

| an expansive SuteSmansmp or liberal poll
cy. He has set himself in his day. against
every measure that looked to the extension
of the Union. When the diplomatic con-
test arose between our own and the British
Government, over the title to Oregon, he
was on the side of England; and lent all
his influence to the curtailment of our ter.
ritories on the Pacific. We failed to Sc
cure our title up to the line of $40 because
the party Of which his paper was the organ
had not the pluck to demand our rights.
We were driven down to the line of 400
and lost the most valuable islands on that
splendid seaboard.
When Texas came to be annexed, Mr..
Greeley opposed the measure with unre-
lenting fury, on the ground that, though it
would expand the Union, yet it mould ag-
graadizc the South; exhibiting meaner
spirit than that of the dog in the manger.
lie opposed our own Government in the
war with Mexico, which that weak and sill
| " country began under the instigations Of
Horace Greeley's party; and, like Thomas
Corwin, he called upon the Mexicans to
welcome our armies "with bloody hands
20 hospitable graves"
When peace was conquered of Mexico,
Horace Greeley opposed the exaction of
indemnity for the past and security for the
| future, in the form of the priceless terrific
| ry on the Pacific, which we did secure, and
| which has made our country the wealthiest
and strongest in the world, and our people
the most prosperous. Who can estimate
| the value to this Union of California; land
| with that beautiful name, every letter in
| which is damning record of the mean
ness and narrowness of Horace Greeley's
craftsmanship.
Judging from his course on these ques-
tions, if this miserable old scold had been
living at the time, he would have denounc-
ed Thomas Jefferson as a pirate, for add
| ing to the Union the vast country spread
ing out indefinitely west of the Mississippi,
then called louisiana and he would have
berated Mr.. Adams as buccaneer for pur-
chasing Florida of Spain. And this cold
hearted, white livered old vegetarian, who
has on all occasions opposed the extension
of our now imperial Union, is to be COM
mended as statesman singly on the ground
of amnesty, a question which he has left
open for his private Presidential capital,
instead of long ago causing it to be enact.
ed as law of the land.
Breadth of mind, warmth of heart, lib.
erality are ideas that take the ague at the
mention of Greeley's name 1t so hap
pened that in the lifetime of Edgar A. Poe,
Mr.. Greeley lent that child of fancy and
sport of restitution, sum of money. Not
long ago lady wrote to Horace Greeley
at venture, asking, if he should chance
to have enc, an autograph of the poet.
This heartless old man put paragraph in
the Tribune, to say, in answer, that he had
an autograph of Poe that had cost him
fifty dollars, which he would sell at a less
price. Our chivalrous candidate for the
Presidency could thus insult the memory
of one of our most brilliant poets and of
fend lady, either for mere coarseness Of
nature, or else to stimulate bids for the
poor dead poets due bill w
HE is TO BE OUR DELIvERER FROM oPPREs.
SION! - ~
Such is the man whom the sore head Re-
publicans of the North have given the
grumbling Conservatives of the South as
their deliperer from the oppression which
they claim to be suffering from the Nation
al Government under the administration of
General Grant and control of the "Rddi-
cal party" "Deliverance," Oppression,
sufferings of a downtrod people;" these
are the cries of the hour; and Horace
Greeley comes as saviour, redeemer, me-
diator, for woe-ridden and friendless peo-
Pile. l sometimes ask these chronic grumb.
lers to specify wherein they are oppressed,
and in what respect this great and benig-
nant Government of ours is trampling upon
them. | have asserted that the treatment
we have received from its hands has been
the most lenient and generous ever accord
ed by victors to vanquished in the tide of
time. L have maintained that we are now
the freest people on this round globe; the
best proof of the fact being furnished by
the grumbling party themselves in their
own unstinted and UNPUBLISHED vituperation
of Government which, although losing
half a million of lives in subduing them,
and giving them all liberty-even the H.
cense of abuse and sedition, has hung not
a single one of them as traitor, nor ex.
acted single dollar of property as the
forfeit of treason. A government which
now proclaims universal amnesty, and &C.
cords to million of men lately marshalled
in armies for its destruction, the right to
vote for its own officers, and to participate
as officers in administering its own func-
tons How unmanly, how ungenerous,
how unworthy of the boosted chivalry of
our people, in this cry of the croakers and
scolds who set themselves up as mouth
pieces of the South
WHAT OPPRESSION DO WE SUFFER?
Pin them down to specifications demand
of them instances Of oppression, and what
do they say? They cannot lay their finger
upon an instance of such thing at home.
They are compelled to refer to North and
South Carolina, and instance the convic-
tons which have been had in the courts
held under the Ku- Klux Act of Congress.
The men convicted and who elicit so mach
of their sympathy, are those who put them
selves in disguise; who performed their
work in the darkness of night; who took
women out of their beds, stripped them
naked, and whipped them to exhaustion,
if not to death; who burnt houses over
the heads of sleeping families, and stood |
ready with guns and swords to put men to
death as they rushed from the flames, and
to inHict upon woman death or a worse fate |
than death. The putting an end to such |
infamies was necessary to the reputation OF |
the South and of the nation; and this is |
the oppression over which so many croca-
die tears are shed The Ku-Klux Act of |
Congress has been blessing to the South;
it has relieved us from the cowardly bru.
talities of the Klans, and it has established |
peace and security where brutality and out
lawry had reigned supreme
a