The Portland daily press., 1872-09-16
Ex-senator Hale ON the Presidency.
AN ESTIMATE OF MR.. GREELEY.

~~AAN
Hon. John P. Hale of New Hampshire has
has recently written letter to friend who
asked an explanation for the strange course
of Mr.. Greeley. In his reply the veteran New
Hampshire free-soer shows his old time Wig
or. He says:
You ask my explanation of the course taken
by Mr.. Greeley, Mr.. Sumner and Others
Mr.. Greelsy's case is plain enough. On
pages 35S and $50 of the first volume of his
History of the American conflict, you will
find his own account of himself as he was at
the breaking out of the rebellion. He there
says that Oh the second dav after Mr.. Lin
coins election, Nov. 8, 1861, ''the following
leading article appeared in the New York Tri-
bune." You will find he says in that article.
''If the Cotton States shall decide that they
can do better out of the Union than in it. we
insist OH letting them go in peace" 10 avoid
all possibility Of being misunderstood, he re-
peats the same doctrine in different words:
whenever considerable section of our
Union shall deliberately resolve to 60 out, we
shall resist all coerciye measures designed to
keep itin." Lest one article might not make
his position sufficiently conspicuous, he wrote
and published many articles containing the
same doctrine. Lest all his newspaper arti-
Giles on the subject should, in the course of
his History Of the American Conflict, for the
apparent purpose of preserving, in the dura.
BILE form OF a historical record, his undisputed
claim to the title of an original secessionist.
Ii majority OF Southern voters, that is, of
free white men, would deliberately resolve
to go out" he pledged himself to resist all CO.
ercive measures designed to keep them in
That was the simplest plan ever suggested for
the dissolution OF the Union and the perpet-
n nf 1Ia
ito go OUT could he have given the South
than that pledge ''to resist all coerc;ve meas
ures designed to keep it in''? Slave
holders anxious to go out" but
dreading the ''coercivc measures
read Mr.. Greeley's pledge republished
in every Southern paper. Its effect i. well
known. Among the influences that changed
the doubling and hesitatng white meu of the
South into firm and ardent secessionsts none
was more effective than Mr.. Greeley's pledge
to resist ali coercive measures Whether
the pledge was the means of turning the
scale, and giving the active secessonists their
majority, we may not certainly know until
the day of reckoning. But this we do know.
that for all the ruin, desolation and misery of
the secession war, no man, North or South.
is more responsible than Mr.. Greeley.
1t is worthy of note that Mr.. Greeley ad-
mitted the jtegdtity of secession. He adj
lhiibeSu vi OUVGTuIHcIU 10 save
the Union by ''coefcivc measures," but in
sisted that the Government should not exer-
else that right. If he had thought the Union
mad no right to defend ITSELF he would have
taken position where brave man, enter
tanning that opinion, might 6orrowftllly stand.
But admitting the right to defend the nations
life, he insisted it should not be defended.
but he basey surrendered without a blow.
The treason of his position was only surnass-
ed By its cowardte.
Mr.. Black president Buchsnan's attorney
general), saw this dastardly pldnk in MIR.
Greeley's platform, and under his advice
given Nov. 20, 1860, Mr.. Buchanan, in his
last annual message to Congress, took the
ground that the Government had no right
ito coerce" seeding State. Observe the
date: and the language, and you will sec,
that, under Blacks advice, Buchanan adopt
ca Greeiey's secession doctrine, all but the
coWardly lart of it. The yenomous abuse
WIN winch Mr.. Greeley followed President |
Buchanan to his grave. and Mr.. Black up to
t tne year Oh grace 1872, may be explained by |
Ine iacE that their rejection of the pusiIiani- I
nous plank OF his secession platform exnoeed
him to universal contempt. '''r0N
! Nnen nc FOUND his secession princinles IN
popular, and the subscription list of the ~
iuhe lalllnS OH, that paper suddenly advocat-
ed an extefminatlnS and mercilcss prosecu-
ton OF the war, Notwithstanding vast M
jority of the Southern whites, greatly encnnr
aged by his solemn pledge, had deliberately
resolved to 60 ont"
Suppose he hired somebody else to write
the Tribune articles adyocnting the prosecu-
ton of the war; is he irresponsible for hiring
somebody else to write what he was ashamed
to write himself? L will do him no injustice
have no doubt he did employ somebody else
to write articles in his paper advocating the