Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1872-08-16
Letter from Eugene Digges, Esq, to Hon.
Be q. Harris.


ID letter to Col. Watkins touching the politi-
,al situation. You unmasked and exposed to
public view, for public indignation, in a most
appropriate style, the Ubiquitous fraud attempt
I'd to be imposed upon the Democratic party by
the agency of the Opera House Convention IN
Baltimore. One of the most general, and, at
the same time, natural characteristics OF man
Is his disposition to defeat and resent impos-
ture. 1t seems not to have entered into the
minds of the Opera House people that, yielding
to such natural influences, men might venture
to prefer an open enemy to treacherous friend.
If the Philadelphia Convention appears to have
been body organized by the Federal office
holders merely for the purpose of covering up
their obedience to orders by making some show
of respect for party usage, in going through
the bare formality of a nomination, that at Bal
timore surely indicates, in an equally plain and
manner, a no less desperate Grim
inality, on the part of those OUT of office, in
prostituting their delegated authority to the
promotion of their own pretentious aspirations,
and subordinating the proper considerations OF
party and principle to the subserviency of their
own personal ambitions.
Why should the three millions of Democratic
voters be transferred, by this fraudulent bill of
sale, to the immediate maintenance of the ire
sponsible Cincinnati Organization, and that,
too, when this three millions of voters was,
believe, the Democratic strength developed at
a time when three States of the Union were ex-
cluded from voting because they were ascer-
tanned to be not s'incontestably Republican"
but "emphatically Democratic Truly the
very process and circumstances, by which this
bill of sale of freemen was executed, were hui
initiating in the extreme. Notwithstanding
the rude repulse at Cincinnati, Notwithstanding
| Mr.. Greeley's reiterated declarations that he
was as ever faithful to his Republican allie
glance, notwithstanding his oft announced in
tention to Withdraw from the field, in compli-
ance, of course, with his Republican allegiance,
sooner than assist by his continuance the cleo
ton of Baltimore Democratic nominee land
| that shows his hunger for Presidential diet to
be greater than his aversion to Grant, not
outstanding all this and much more the Opera
House people insist that the mountain shall &c
| to Mahomet, and then, with what is little less
than cool efrontery, on their part, they set W
as an excuse the convenient plea of policy.
In what has Grant sinned beyond Greeley
that the Democracy should prefer one to the
other? AS the stupendous iniquities of ont
man do not acceptably prove the immaculate
glories of another, we should hesitate to con-
cede that the sinful transgressions of Grant es
tablish the virtuous qualities of Greeley. Tht
stealthy cowardice of sneak thief doubly sick
ems in its miserable meanness when contrasteG
with the bold eclat of the blunt highwayman
Has not Greeley, from his earliest manhood
been most relentless heart1ess, persistent
prosecutor of the South? Has he ever re
voked one word of his infamous, double-lead
asst ha apsesaSt
us ne should Does he not now assert that hi:
platform Is 'incontestably Republican" Il
he courts the support of Southern men now,
were not his Tribune columns once freighted
down with wrathful SANDER and dirty denun-
cations of Southern women? If he shouts
State Rights now, he shrieked stOn to Rich.
mond" once. If he promulgates the doctrine
of general amnesty now, he advocated the doc
trine of general determination once and here
let me say that amnesty seems to me curious
word for him, for he conditions even amnesty
on impartial manhood suffrage and virtually
tells the disfranchised, who manfully fought
for what Greeley now processes, States Rights,
that on certain conditions they may enjoy that
as privilege, which hold to have been with:
in. the sphere of Democratic duty and ability to
demand and enforce as right.
Grants administration, know, is signaliz-
ed by nothing. but fault, failure and crime
Such are the consequential results of GreeIey's
lifetime laboured instructions, for Grant has
proved himself the too faithful executor of
Greeley's will. Greeley's views on the tariff
question are not agreeable to their interests,
and therefore cannot be acceptable to the mass
of the people, the hardworking laboring men.
who appeal in vain for free-trade-and they
compose class, too, large in numbers and re-
spectacle In material, whose rights, in many
particulars, are not sufficiently respected and
guarded in either National or State legislation.
By the way, it will be interesting this fall to
see how the Greeley speakers hereabouts will
reconcile their efforts in behalf of a low-tariff
Congressman, a high-tariff President and
platform that is either, neither or both-"As
you like it.n
Which. shall we sooner accept as the true
criterion of a mans sentiments, the free, out
spoken expressions of the unfettered, indepen-
dentjournalist, as Mr.. Greeley scas, or the fawn-
ing fiattery of the sycophantic candidate as Mr..
Greeley is 2 For sweet charity sake, however,
let US say neither position shall disparage the
other, and consider together, at one and the
same time, Mr.. Greeley's present position as
candidate and his antecedent attitude as. Jour-
naliSt. Does he not, while bestowing the be-
trayal kiss, virtually say to the people of the
South, for instance, "Desert your lifelong
principles, repudiate your precious political
heritage, curse the memories of your darling
dead, make me your President; will then re-
move from your midst these carpet cormorants
whom | have labored so long, SO earnestly and
so successfully, too, to fasten upon your" It'll
is no less sad than strange to say there are men
of the South who actually strike Glands across
the dark and bloody chasm'' with him who or
gained its creation. 1t is never well to trade
in expediency at the sacrifice of political prin-
ciple as well as personal sympathy. Such, at
least, is price which !, for one, am not will
ing to pay.
] hail, with Joy, the prospect of the Louis
Vile Convention. | trust you will be there
To- contribute to the good work of party
publication, the advantages of your public ex-
oerience and disinterested patriotism A pru-
lent nomination by that Convention would be |
with delight by Democrats, as an
suspicious harbinger of triumph, as a wither-
ng rebuke to recreants, who seek to accomplish
he disintegration of the party, as a warning
o those who, in representative capacities, too
lightly value the will of con6ding constituent
lies, and are, as means, also, for the thorough,
ubstantial organization and perpetuation, in
purified form, of the true Democratic elements,
Of course, entirely agree with you that too
much praise cannot be awarded those gentlemen
Who waited and watched at the Maryland Insti-
ute while party treason was eliminating at the
opera House, for they were as sentinels on the