Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-07-25
THURSDAY. JULY aS. 1879.
MIR. GrceIey,s LeIIer OF Acceptance.


more nomination seems TO us a very notable
production. 1t rambles and maunders, not be-
cause he was unable TO express his meaning clear
", in the plainest terms, but because he thought
it impoliiic to do so. He might have said dis
tiuctly: Gentlemen, thirty years long haveI been
your political enemy; during that time have
used matches style of coarse and vigorous
vituperation to blast and consume your
party; but now, through hope of becoming
your candidate for the presidency, | have
undergone great change, deserted the republic
can party, and adopted new feeling towards
you which leads me 10 accept your nomination
with great joy; | have changed my views of the
kuklux fraternity; l agree with You that it was
tyranny TO disfranchise leading rebels; and my
aim is to become good and acceptable democrat,
for feel deeply that to get nomination for the
presidency is a very great thing; Horatio Sey-
mour and Others have been aware of my views
on this point, and of my willingness to be your
candidate, ever since last autumn.
This would have been frank statement of
the case; but, "after mature deliberation,'' he
wrote in different way. There are two points
in the letter which invite special attention. One
is the assumption that the whole copperhead
and rebel democracy were transformed and
TRANSPORTED by the Baltimore endorsement of
that string of unmeaniDg negations and gener-
alities, called the Cincinnati platform" He
would have it understood that the effect Of that
endorsement was miraculous. There was a
very marvellous experience of "baptsmal regen-
Grafton" which operated from Maine to Texas.
In the twinkling of an eye, they were all so
changed as TO become unable to recognize
themselves without considerable investigation!
Why, it was only last September that
Mr.. Greeley, writing for the Tribune, was
"moved to mirth," and thought the world
would laugh with him, to see the national
democratic executive committee endeavor to
dIsown a rabid democratic manifesto concern
ing the "lost cause" "Nobody supposed" said
Mr.. Greeley, chat the committee had author
lied the pamphlet, but it is democratic in tone
and temper for all that" and he was sure that
this fact could not be changed by repeated
winks and mods of disapproval from the demo.
cratic managers" The vaunt of these mana
gers that their party was the party to "bring
about return to honesty and constitutional
laws" he treated with great contempt, exclaim-
ing: This last phrase is exquisite foolinsl"
So We say of the false pretenses of that part of
his letter where he represents that miracle was
wrought at Baltimore; it is exquisite fooling;"
and it means precisely what was meant by that
false pretence of the democratic committee,
which moved him to mirth.
Another noticeable point in the letter is pre-
sented by his confident assumption that it is
tyranny" to disfranchse a rebel. True, he
talks in this strain and gets off that dema-
gogue's fling at New England, in order to win
and please his new associates. Why it can win
and please them, if they have been so mracu-
lousy converted, he does not explain; but, man.
ifestly, he has no faith in said conversion, but,
on the contrary, believes there is still demand
for the old fashioned copperhead talk. But if
there be tyranny" in DISTINGUISHING rebel
leader like Jefferson Davis or Robert Toombs
there must, of course, be tyranny in
furnishing him at all; for, disiran chisement
is the lghtest punishment that can be inflicted
on such criminal. According to this talk of
Mr.. Greeley, conspiracy, treason, and rebellion,
should never be punished. Does he think it
will be tyranny" to disfranchise Judge Barnard,
who is likely TO be found guilty of very grave
offences? Should the court of impeachment
find him guilty, the acknowledgements is certain
Aud yet, vile as his conduct has been, what
crime has he committed which is more enor-
nous than the crime of those men who organ
izeo bloody war to destroy the republic? We
hope he nil be found guilty and disfrauchsed;
but we cannot see that he deserves disfranchise-
ment more than such malignant and unscrupu-
lous traitors as jefferson Davis and his asso-
ciates.
To talk as Mr.. Greeley does against disfran-
chising rebel leaders whose treason has cost the
country so many lives and so much disaster is to
endow the gravest crime with all the claims of
innocence. Nowhere in the history of the world
can he find another case in which foul traitors
have been treated with so much forbearance
There is no other country below the sun where
the government would have spared the lives of
such criminals as Jefferson Davis and his lead
ing associates. In this country, which they
sought 10 destroy, they are allowed to live I'M
molested They vote at elections like other
men. Nobody interferes with their life, liber-
ty, or pursuit OF happiness. All they have suf-
fered from the government is such disfranchise-
ment as disqualifies them from holding any i'm
portant political office. Nevertheless, Horace
Greeley, counting their favor, and trying to fit
himself for democratic votes, stands up and
says this is tyranny" And he explains that it
is tyranny inflicted on millions" because the
millions" are restrained from sending back to
q cd
Toombs, and the rest, and from giving all
the DISTINGUISHED rebel leaders political power
at Washington and elsewhere. Here is
what he says: MY view contemplatcs,
not the hundreds who are prescribed, but the
millions who are denied the right to be ruled
and represented by men of their unfettered
choice" There are thousands in New York
city who would re.elect Judge Barnard and keep
him in Office. To what atrocious tyranny"
these people will be subjected, if he shall be
found guilty and disfranchised We may next
hear of Greeley mourning for the " lost cause"
and its lost rebel confederacy in which the wor-
shippers of Jefferson Davis and his followers
were ruled and represented by men of their
unfettered choice" This novel theory of op-
preston is not likely to be generally accepted.
1t adds another to Mr.. Greeley's many yagaries;
but it will add nothing to the methods deemed
reasonable and useful in measures employed for
upholding and defending the public welfare
At the Baltimore convention Governor HofF
man OF New York sought to make sensation,
and succeeded in some measure, by presenting
paper, which, with considerable pomp of ac-
ton and etfusion of rhetoric, he declared con-
tanned the signatures of fifteen. thousand Ger
man voters of New York city in favor of the
nomination of Greeley and Brownl This an
nouncement created some surprise in the city,
where nobody had heard that such an address
had been circulated for signatures; and inquiry
failed to elicit any information on the subject
from Germans or others. The fifteen thousand
kept silence, republicans challenged the produc-
ton Of the original address with its signatures,
and the Stats Zeitnng, a German paper of large
circulation and great influence, boldly declares
It forgery No reply is made to these chal-
ienges and accusations, probably because
no reply is possible. Governor Hoffman
preserves cautious silence. Ii is now
believed and asserted by the German papers
mat no such address as the one presented at
Baltimore was ever circulated among the Ger.
mans, but that the signatures were those which
the Germans several years ago appended toa nro.