Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1872-07-24
H.G,s Letter OF Acceptance. No. =.

III G's Letter OF Acceptance, No. =.
The following is Mr.. Greeley's letter, accept
ing the Baltimore nomination, in reply TO the
letter of the committee appointed to notify him
thereof:
NEW YORK, July Is, 1872.
GENTLEMEN: Upon mature elaboration il
seems Lit that 1 should give to your letter OF the
10th instant some further anu fuller response
than the hasty unprecedented words in which
/ acknowledged and accepted your nomination
at our meeting on the 18th instant.
That your convention saw MT to accord its
highest honor to one who had been prominently
anu polntedy opposed to your party in the earn
est and sometimes angry controversies OF the
last forty years is essentially noteworthy. That
many of you liberal republicans should present
another candidate for President, and would
more rapidly have united with US in the support
OF Adams or Trumbull Davis or Brown, is well
known. owe my adoption at Baltimore wholly
to the fact that had already been nominated at
Cincinnati, and that a concentration OF forces
upon any new man had been proved impracti-
cable.
Gratifed as / am at your concurrence in the
Cincinnati nomination, and certain as L am that
you would not have thus concurred had you not
deemed me upright and capable, L found nothing
in the circumstance calculated TO infiame vanity
or nouTish self conceit. But that YOUR convention
saw tit to Teaffirm the Cincinnati platform is 10
me a source of the proioundest satisfaction.
That body was constrained to take this step by
no party necessity, real or supposed. 1t might
have accepted the candidates of the liberal re-
publicans upon grounds entirely its own, it
might have presented them a. the first whlg
convention did Harrison and Tyler, without
adopting any platform whatever.
That it chose to plant itself deliberately, by a
vote nearly unanimous, upon the fullest and
clearest enumeration OF principles which are at
once incontestibly republican and emphatically
democratic, gives trustworthy assurance that a
new and more suspicious era is dawning upon
our long distracted country. Some of the best
years and best efforts of my life were devoted to
a struggle against chattel slavery, a struggle
none the less earnest and arduOus because
respect for constitutional objections constrained
me to act for the most part on the defensive in
resistance to the diffusion, rather than in direct
efforts tor the extinction, OF human bondage.
Throughout most of these wears my vision was
uncheered, my exertions were rarely animated
by even so much as hope that | should live to
see my country peopled by freemen alone. The
affirmance by your convention of the Cincinnati
platform Is most conclusive proof that not
merely is slavery abolished, but that its spirit
is extinct; that despite the protests of a respect
| able, but isolated, few, there remains among us
| no party and no formidable interest which re-
grets the overthrow or desires the re-est ablsh-
ment of human bondage, whether in letter or
| in spirit. L am thereby justified in my hope,
and trust that the first century of American
Independence will not close before the grand
elemental truths on which its rightfuness was
based by Jefferson and the Continental Con-
gress of &c will no longer be regarded glitter
ing generalities, but will have become the uni
versaly accepted and honOred foundations of
our political fabric. demand the prompt ap-
plication OF these principles to our existing con-
ditOn.
Having done what could for the complete
emancipation of the blacks, 1 now insist on the
| full entranchisement of all my white country
men. Let none say that the ban has just been
removed from all but a few hundred elderly
gentlemen to whom eligibility to Office can be
| of little consequence. My view contemplates
not the hundreds prescribed, but the millions
who are denied the right to be ruled and repre-
sented by men OF their own unfettered choice
Prescriptions were absurd if these did not wish
| to elect the very men whom they are forbidden
to choose.
L have a profound regard for the people OF
that part OF New England wherein L was born,
In hasa uol,aa Iz
no people above them in intelligence, capacity,
and moral worth; but while they do many
things well, and some admirably, there is one
thing they cannot safely or wisely undertake
and that is the selection for states remote from
and unlike their own, of the persons by whom
these states shall De represented in Congress. Ii
they could 90 this to good purpose, then repub-
hcan institutions are unfit and aristocracy the
only true political system. Yet, what have we
recently witnessed? H. b. Vance, the unques-
toned choice Of large majority of the present
Legislature of North Carolina, a majority
backed by majority of the people who voted az
It's election, refused the seat in the Federal
Senate ID which he was chosen, and the legisla-
ture thus constrained to choose another in his
place or leave the state unrepresented for wears
The votes of New England thus deprived
North Carolina OF the Senator of her choice and
compelled her to send another in his stead
another who in our late contest was, like
Vance, a rebel, and fighting rebel, but had
not served in Congress before the war as Vance
had, though the latter remained faithful to the
Union till after the close of his term. L protest
against the disfranchisement of a state, pre-
sumptively OF a number of states, on ground 80
narrow and technical as this. The fact that the
same Senate which refused his seat proceeded to
remove his disabilities after that seat had been
filled by another, only serves to place in a
stronger light the iDdignity to North Carolina
and the arbitrary, capiciOus tyranny which die
tated it.
thank you, gentlemen, that my name is to be
conspiciously associated with yours in deter
mined effort to render amnesty complete and
universal in spirit well in letter. Even de-
feat in such a case would leave no sting, while
triumph would rank with those victories which
no blood reddens, and which evoke no tears hut
those of gratitude and Joy.
Gentlemen, your platform, which is also mine.
assures me that democracy is not henceforth TO
stand for one thing and republicanism for
another; but these terms are to mean in politics.
az they have always meant in the dictionary,
substantially one and the same thing, namely.
equal rights, regardless OF creed or cline or
color. hail this as a genuine new departure
from outworn feuds and meaningless conten-
tons in the direction of progress and reform.
Whether / shall be found worthy to bear the
standard of the great liberal movement which
the American people have inaugurated is to be
determined, not by words, but deeds-with mt,
If L steadily advance; over me ii falter, its
grand array moves on TO achieve for our coun-
Try her glorious benefcent destiny.
1remsn, gentlemen, yours,
HORACE GREELEY.