The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1872-09-06
Greeley as a Humanitarian.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.

Greeley as 4 Humanitarian.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean. .
Liberal journals and speakers make
much of the fact that Mr.. Greeley was an
original Abolitionist: that he was the
champion of the negro at an early day,
and that he advocated universal free
dom and equal rights from principle.
1t is an ungrateful task to demolish
this fine fabric of high moral character,
by the assertion, backed by circum-
stantlal evidence "as strong as holy
writ" that either Mr.. Greeley was never
honest in his advocacy of the rights of
oolored men, or, even if he was, he was
willing in 1859 to abandon every line of
his anti-slayery record, and surrender
all the slaves in the country TO ire
deemable bondage. 1t is an unques-
tionable fact th3t. if the South had
succeeded in establishing its indepen-
dence, the PEI elpetuation Of slavery
would have been assured. The prime
object OF secession was to assure ii:
hence no man who honestly favored the
abolition of slavery could honestly con
sent to secession. But Horace Greeley
favored secession, and, in his cowardly
desire to avoid the logical result of the
teachings of the Northern Abolition
| party, he consented to abandon the
100000 of helpless bondmen to their
fate in a Ccnfederacy whose whole or
| ganzation, from foundation stone to
turret, comprehended human chattel-
ism first, last, and all the time.
Horace Greeley doe. uot possess a
ngle claim to the character of a hu-
manitarian. Heis essentially and solely
"a coldambitious politician. He is also
undoubtedly philosopher. He ph.lo-
sophized on the subject of secession,
and came to the conclusion that as an
abstract political question it would be
unjust to hold the South in the Union
against its will, and, in the presence of
this philosophic deduction, which he
| pretended to draw from the Dec.ara-
ton of Independence, every thought
! and impulse on the subject of human
, slavery from humanitarian point Of
view vanished from his mind and heart,
and he relegated the 4,000,000 OF bond
men to the tender mercies of their
owners with as little compunctiOn as he
recently felt in abandoning the doctrine
| Of protection TO home industry to the
exigencies of his ambition for the
Presidency.
1t is true Mr.. Greeley labored in the
cause of anti-slavery indirectly as n
Henry Clay Whig, but when it became
apparent that the abolition of the
sum of all.villainies - could only be
| accomplished by the terrible alternative
| of war, he surrendered all his conyIc-
tons of right and smothered every
| humanitarian impulse in obedience TO
the doctrine of political expediency.
Nor was he controlled by an ambition
common to great minds, TO preserve
| the int, gritty Of the territory of his coun-
try. The motives which recently ac-
tusted the German nation to fight for
the restoration Of its boundaries, cur
tailed hundreds of years ago, and the
sentiment of humiliation which per
yaded all France at the loss of a portion
of its territory, found no place in the
mind or heart of Mr.. Greeley. He was
an advocate of principles which could
hardly be expected TO prevail without
war; but when it loomed in the near
freedom of the negro, he was man OF
peace, at the expense OF surrenderIng
the humanitarian views he had cher
ishcd simply AS visionary. He could
gain no laurels in war, and being only
| an ambitious politician seeking Office,
he was willing to bow low to expedlen-
CIV, even at the sacrifice of all his orig
inal Aboitionism, at the sacrifice OF the
principles OF the party with which he
had labored, at the sacrifice of the party
itself; and, finally, at the sacrifice OF
the integrity OF the national territory.
There is not redeeming passage in the
later history of Mr.. Greeley as an anti
: eiavery man. Even in 1864, when
emancipation had become an accom-
plished fact, when numerous victories
. had crowned our arms, and the rebel
! lion was on the very verge of hopeless
, collapse, Mr.. Greeley threw the whole
, weight of his influence in favor of {
, recognition of the Independence of thu
Confederacy, by declaring that 'when
Q ever it shall be clear that the grea
z body of the Southern people have be
come conclUsively alienated from th'
Union and anxious to escape from II
we will do our best to forward thel
: views y thus coolly remanding 4,OOO,0V
= of colored men, among whom wer'
thousands of Union soldiers who ha'
fought not only for their own individua
, freedom, but for the integrity and pei
/ petuty of the Union, and been declare
| free by the solemn act of the Govern
ment, to the horrors of endless slavery
II This is Mr.. Greeley's record as
humanitarian, and it is not utterl
heartiess and devoid of principle, bu
cowardly in the extreme. And vet, i
the face of this record of mere trar
ing politician, which possesses no eli
ment OF disinterested friendship for tn
colored race, Mr.. Suinher, With a dish
genucunne's entirely worthy Of the sui
- icct of his pareayric. ridiculous, b
&.