Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-05-22


address and resolutions unanimously adopted
by the Convention. Be pleased to signify to
US your acceptance of the platform aud uoull-
nation, and believe US. very truly yours,
G.. Schurz, President,
Geo. ". Julian, Vice President.
VIM f. Mclean.
John ID. Davidson,
J. II. Rhodes, Secretaries.
To Hon. Horace Greeley, New York city.
MR. GREELEY REPLY.
New YORK, May 20.
Geatlemen-I have chosen not to acknowl-
edge your letter of the Sd Instant until could
learn how the work of your Convention was re-
ceived 10 all parts Of our great country, and
Judge whether that work was approved and rat
fled by the mass of our ftllow-cltizens Their
response has from day to day reached me
through kilograms, letters and comments Of
journalists, independent Of official patronage,
and indifferent as to the smiles or trowns OF
power The number and character of these
uucoustrained unpurchased, unsolicited utter
apces satisfy me that the movement which
found expression at Cincinnati has received the
stamp of public approval, and has been hailed
by the majority of our countrymcn as the har-
bipger of better days for the Republic. do
not misinterpret this approval as especially
complimentary to myself, nor even to the chlv-
alrous and Justly esteemed gentleman with
whose name | thank your Convention tor asso-
ciatlng mine.
receive and welcome it as spontaneous and
deserved tribute to that admirable platform OF
principles wherein your Convention so tcrse!!y'
so lucidly and so forcby set forth the convlc-
-. ,,,,,nllol opa tho yhIpb
guided it's course. \ platform which, casting
behind it the wreck and rubbish of worn-out
contentious and bygonc fcuds, embodlcs IN lit
day. Though thousands stand ready to con-
denim your every act. hardly syllable of criti-
ciSm or cavil has been aimed at your platform,
of which the substance may be fairly epitomizcd
as follows:
l. All the political rights and franchises
which have been acquired through our late
bloody convusion must and shall be suaran-
teed, maintained, enjoyed and respected ever
more.
3. All the political rights and franchises
which have been lost through that convul sion
should and must be promptly restored aud re-
established, so that there shall be hencetorth
no prescribed class and DO disfranchlsed caste
within the limits of the Union, whose long es-
tranged people shall reunite and traternze upon
the broad basis Of universal amnesty with im-
partial suffrage.
s. That subject to our solemn constitutional
obligation to maintain the equal rights OF all
citizens our policy should aim at local and self
government, and not at CONTAMINATION. That
the civil authority should be supreme over the
military; that the writ of habeas corpus should
be iealously upheld as the safeguard of personal
freedom that the individual citizen should en-
low the largest liberty consistent with puolic or
der, and that there should be no Federal sub
version of the internal polity of the several
States and municipalities, but that each shall
be left free to enforce the rights and promote
the wellbeng of its inhabitants by such means
as the Judgment of its own people shall pre-
scribe.
4. There shall be a real, and not merely SIM
ulated reform in the civil service OF the Re
public, to which end it is indispensable, the
chief dispenser Of its vast official patronage
shall be shielded from the main temptation TO
use his power selfshly by a rule inexorably for
bidding and precluding his reelection.
s. That the raising of revenue, whether by
tariff or otherwise, shall be recognized and treat
ed as the peoples immediate business to be
shaped aud directed by them through their
representatives in Congress, whose action there
on the President must neither oyerrule by his
veto, attempt to dictate nor presume to punish
by bestowiug office only on those who agree
with him, or withdrawing it from those who
do not.
g. That the public lands must be sacredly re-
served for acquisition or occupation by cutiva-
tors, and not recklessly squandered on the pro-
iectors of railroads, for which our people have
no present need, and the premature construc-
ton of which is annually plunging us into deep
er and deeper abysses of foreign Indebtedness.
!. That the achievement Of these grand pur-
poses Of universal benefcence is expected and
sought at the hands Of all who approve them,
irrespective of past affiliations
s. That the public faith must at all hazards
be maintained, and the national credit be pre-.
served.
g. That the patriotic devotedness and ines
Unable services of our fellow citizens, who as
soldiers or sailors upheld the flag and maintain
ed the unity of the Republic, shall ever be
gratefully remembered and honorably requited.
These propositions so ably and torcibly pre-
sented iu the platform Of your Convention,
have already fixed the attention and command
ed the assent Of a large majority of our country
men, who ioyfully adopt them as | do, as the
basis of a true bene6cent national reconstruc-
ton of a new departure from Jealousles,, strfes
and hates which have no longer an adequate
motive or even plausible pretext, into an atmoss-
phere of peace, fraternity and mutual good
will. In vain do the drill sergeants of decay
ing organizations flourish menacingly their
truncheons, and angrily insist that the files
shall be closed and Strengthened. In vain DO
the whippers-in of parties once vital, because
rooted in the vital needs of the hour, protest
against straying and boiling, denounce men
nowise their interiors as traitors and renegades,
and threaten them with intamy and ruin.
am confident that the American people
have already made your cause their own, fully
resolved that their brave hearts and strong
arms shall bear it on to triumph: In this faith
and with the distinct understanding that if cleo
ted shall be the President not of party, but
of the whole people, accept your nomina,
ton, in the confident trust that the masses of
our countrymen. North and South, are eager
to clasp hands across the bloody chasm which
has too long divided them, forgetting that they
have been enemies iu the joyful consciousness
-, - I L !.