The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-05-10
what President Greeley. Would Have
# i desirable in some respects to select I

II ia desirable in some respects 10 select
mon for \ Presidential candidate whose per
sonaI and political history is as well known as
that of Mr. Greeley. There are few men in
the country who are not able on reflection to
recall his opinions on most of the great ques-
tons that have occupied the public mind dur
ing the last twelve years. They can Judge
from this record whether they ought 10 piace
this eccentric gentleman in a positioh "hefe
his idiosyncrasies can be grained al Tue OK
pense of the country of which he asplres TO
he the ruler. We believe that we do Mr.
Greeley no injustice when we say that IN the
following startling emergencies he would have
taken the course indicated below.
In 1861, Mr. Greeley, if President, would
have allowed the Southern States to secede
Sin peace rather than adopt coerclve meas
ures. His potion was rather worse than that
of Mr.. Buchanan. The latter did not believe
that the general government, had the poaoer
to subdue the rebellion. The former believed
3 that the power existed, but would have de-
clined to use it!
After the war OF 1851 was fairly begun, Mr..
Greeley would have opposed our undisciplin-
ed forces to those which had for long time
been drilling for service in the Confederate
cause. He would at once, as COMMANDMENT
Chief of the Army of the United States,
have ordered an advance along the whole
line. When his opportunities at length con-
tributed to the disastrous advance under Nc
Dowell in July, the folly of yielding the lead
ership to such man was fully disclosed.
In 1854, Mr.. Greeley, if President, would
have made peace on almost any terms. We
are forced to conclude that he would have
seen the Union divided and slavery restored
for the sake of obtaining suspension of
those hostilities which he was so anxious to
begin.
At the close of the war Mr.. Greeley would
at once have restored all the Rebels, great
and small, to all their political rights, thus
making reconstruction on the basis of equal
rights, justice and equality, impossible.
1t appears then, that Mr. Greeley, as Pres
ident, would have left us no country to save,
or would have made the struggle for its pres
ervation futile by playing soldier in an anna
teur way, by concluding disgraceful peace
or by throwing away the fruits of the war in
the exercise of an untimely magnanimity.
Is this the sort of man to be entrusted with
the tremendous responsibilities of the future?
Is this the man to manage with success our
delicate relations with England and with 9TH
er foreign powers? Is he man who, in the
exercise of the just constitutional powers of
the executive, would repress the old Rebel
spirit. and defend the rights of the newly en-
franchised, until the new amendments to the
constitution had gained real, vital, indissol-
uble union with our institutions? A weak
or capricious President at just this time
would certainly endanger the safety of the
Republic. To say that Mr.. Greeley is such a
man is saying no more than is justified by his
past life. He is great editor, good the
oretical farmer, a philanthropist whose zeal
has been notably cooled by age since the days
of Margaret Fuller, the Brook Farm and
Fourier, mad political economist. 1t would
be expecting too great versatility in a single
man to look for profound craftsmanship in
man who unites all the different types of gem
ius above enumerated.