The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1872-10-03
NJ. PETER COOPER ON GREELEY
letter to John A. DIx-His views OF
the Campaign.

| the campaign.
The following letter has been address
ed to General John A. Dix, the Repub
lican nominee for Governor Of New
York state, by Hon. Peter Cooper, tn
venerable and venerated citizen and phil
anthropist Of New York:
New YORK, September 4, 1872
| General John 4. Dir:
HoNoRED AND RESPECTED FRIEND
| Allow me to express the pleasure tina
your nomination for the Chief Magistra
cy of our State has given to me and tn,
millions who long for government thai
will ivok to the establishment Of justic,
as the only means whereby the highes
welfare OF the State and nation can b.
efee tually promoted.
Your past services in behalf of oul
common country, should inspire all with
hope that the day will come when hon
esty and capacity will become the only
passport to all the places of public trust
There never was time when we were II
greater need of sterling integrity and 6
firm adherence to those principles that
guided our fathers in their efforts te
frame US Constitution which they in.
tended should establish justice, secure
domestic tranquility, and promoed the
general welfare by guaranteeing 9
Republican form of government founded
on the inalienable right Of every man tc
life, liberty, and the pursuits OF happl-
ness.
Guided by that Constitution the Re
publican party, united with the war De-
mocracy Of our country, has saved the
nations life, and has disbanded and paid
the largest army known to modern times.
OR government has largely reduced the
national debt, and has sayed by the poll
cy of peace Nth the Indians hundreds
of millions of dollars that would other
wise have been spent in carrying on a
cruel war against the people that once
owned the whole country, and that so
lately, that my own mother remembered
the old eheUour de .frise to keep off the
Indians that once stood where Duane
street now crosses Broadway.
Besides all this, the party in power
has kept the nation at peace at home
and throughout the world, and has Sc
cured for our country degree of pros
perity unsurpassed in the history of
mankind.
There is nothing that could be more
cruel or ungrateful than for govern
ment ke ours to leave four millions of
emancipated slaves to the tender mercies
Of the class of men who have been edu-
Gated to hold slaves as property, and are
now acting Withi that part of the Demo
cratic party who have sympathiZed with
the men of the South in all their efforts
to maintain and extend slavery.
We may we'll ask whether it would be
wise for US as a nation to incur the tre-
mendous responsibility of putting all at
hazard in order to try the doubtful ex'
pertinent OF placing the government In
the hands of party made up Of all the
disloyal, the disappointed and dissatlsi-
ed men of our country. The most OF
these men believe In white man S
government They are using all their
arts to elect our esteemed friend Horace
Greeley for the Presidency Of the United
States. By this they hope to accom-
plish their purposes Of regaainlng their
lost cause" [ fear if our friend should
have the bad fortune to be elected, he
will find that he has lent his influence to
a class of men who will use the power
they gain to place the blacks under the
bane Of serfdom or peonage, which may
be as bad, if not worse than slavery itself.
Our friend may Gnd himself, with his
best intentions, entirely powerless to con-
troll a government made up OF men VINO
believe that "the black man has no
rights which the white man is bound to
respect.
lie should take warning by ex-presi-
dent Andrew jackson, who at one time
was found reprobating rebels and their
rebellion in the most unsparlng terms
that have ever been written or spoken
by any man either living or dead,
In his TRADE against the rebels and
their rebellion he says that treason
against the government is the highest
crime that can be committed, and those
engaged in it should suffer all It's penal
ties. He declared that treason must be
made odious; that traitors must be pun
ished and impoverished. He then
says: Il hold it solemn obligation OF
every one of those States where the reb-
ell armies have been beaten back or ex
PEELED, [ care not how snail the number
OF Union men,if enough to man the ship
of State, [ hold it to be high duty to
protect and secure to them a Republican
form of government In calling con
yention to restore states, be asks !: "Who
shall restore them? Shall the man who
gave his influence and means to destroy
the government-is he to participate IL
the great work of reorganizing the gov
ernment who brought this misery on the
State If this be so, then in truth, ali
the precious blood of our brave soldiers
ard officers will have been shed in vain.
He then says: ''The traitor has ceased
to be a citizen, and in raising the rebel
lion became public enemy, and has
forfeited MS rights to vote with loya
men.
Notwithstanding sill these denuncia
tions of rebels and their rebellion, WI
find him using all his influence to place
these very rebels in power, IN connection
with that part of the country who are IL
sympathy with them. [ am entirely a
a loss to account for the infatuatlon tha
has induced my esteemed friend Horact
| Greeley to allow himself to be the candi
| date of a party so at war with all he ha
written and said in denunclatlon OF thes;
men and the principles that control them
In conclusion, allow me to offer you, II
this, the eighty-second year o. my age
my most fervent thanks Tor your deYo
| ton to all the best interests Of countr.
that shall soon leave. with my bes
wishes for its continued welfare az
prosperity.