Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-07-24
POLITICAL.
An Able Letter from Horace Greeley.
His Formal Acceptance of the DEM
Deratic Nomination.

His Formal Acceptance Of the Dem.
Deratic Nomination.
OHciaI. -
NEW York, July 23.-4oficial notification
of Greeley's nomination at Baltimore:
Baltimore, july 10, 1S72.-To Hon.
Horace Greeley-Dear Sir; 1t is our pleas
1re, in compliance with the instructions of
the Democratic National Convention assem-
bled in this city, to inform +, ou that you
have been unanimously nominated its can
didate for President of the United States.
The convention, consisting of T32 delegates,
representing every Stats and Territory in
the Union, adopted without amendments
the declaration of principles affirmed by the
Convention of Liberal Republicans
at Cincinnati and strengthened by the en-
doIsement contained In your letter of ac-
ceptance. The action ofthis great body of
delegates proves that they are, with singular
unanimitS, determined to enter, under your
leadership, upon the patriotic duty of
restoring to the administration of the gov
ernment purity and integrity, and. that in
dependence TO its departments which re-
CARDS the constitution as alike the. source
and the limit of federal power. Laying
aside the differences of the past, abandoning
all purpose of mere partisan advantage,
asking for no pledge other than that Of f.
deity TO the principles to which they have
given their deliberate and resolute adhe-
renee, and which they believe will COM
mand the approval of large majority of
the American people, they tender you their
nGdart fhaf f,aAan And 0oOd
government viii be inaugarated and main
tanned under your administration.
Respectfully yours obediently.
Signed by j. &. Doolittle, Chairman of
the Convention at Baltimore, July 10, 1872,
and members of the Committee on Motif
cation.
MIR. GreOIey's Reply.
Nelo York, July 18, 1872. 2.-Gentlemen !:
Upon mature deliberation it seems fit that
l should give to your letter Of the 1eth inst.
some further and fuller response than the
haaty, unprecedented words in which l
acknowledged and accepted your noInina-
ton at our meeting on the 18th. That
your conTentiep ssw lit to accord its high
est honor to one who had been prominent
ly, pointedly, opposed to your party in the
earnest and angry controversies OF
the last forty yeats, and essentially
noteworthy that many of you originally
preferred that the Liberal Republicans
should present another candidate for Presi-
dent, and wouli more readily Fave united
with as in tts sapport of Adams or Trum.
bull, Davis or Brown. 1t is well known
that owe my adoption at Baltimore who'll
" to the fact that had already been nom
mated at Cincinnati, and that g ceneentra-
tion of forces upon any new ticket had been
proved inpracticable. Gfatiied as | am at
your concurrence in the Cincinnati
nominations; certain as / am that you
would not have thus concurred, had you
not deemed ms upright and capable, | tind
nothing in the circumstances calculated TO
inflame vanity or nourish self conceit. But
that your convention saw fit in adopting
the Cincinnati ticket, TO re-affirm the Gin
cinnati platform, is to me source OF the
profoundest satisfaction. That body was
constrained to take this important step by
no party necessity, real or supposed. 1t
might have accepted the can
didates of the Liberal Republicans upon
grounds entirely its own, or it might have
presented them as the first Wing National
Convention did Harrison and Tyler, with
out adopting any platform whatever. That
it choose to plant itself deliberately, by
vote nearly unanimous, upon the fullest
and clearest enunciation of the principles
which are at once ineontestably Republican
and emphatically Democratic, gives trust
worthy assurance that new and more
auspicious era Is dawning upon our long
distracted tountry. Some of the best years
and best efforts of my life were devoted to
a struggle against chattel slavery, struggle
none the less earnest or aduous because
respect for constitutional obligations con-
strained me to act for the most part on the
defensive at distance. Throughout most
of those years my vision was
cheered, my exertiOns were rarely
animated by even so much as a
hope that l should live to see my country
pe0pled by freemen alone. The affirm
ance 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
respectable but isolated few, there remains
among US no party and no formidable inter-
est which regrets the overthrow or desires
the establishment of human bondage
whether in letter or in spirit. am there
fore justified in my hope and trust, that the
first century of American independence
will not close before the grand elemental
truth on which its rightfulness was based
by Jefferson and the continental Congress
Of '76 will no longer be regarded as
glittering generalities, but will have become
tie universally accepted ndhonored found.
| alton of our political fabric. demand the
prompt application of those principles tC
our existing condition. Having done what
could for the complete eman,
cipation of the blacks, now insist on the
| full enfranchisement of adj my white
| countrymen. Let no one say the bar ha;
| Just been removed from all but few hun
dred elderly gentlemen, to whom eligibility
to office can be of little consequence. Ny
view contemplates not the hundred pro
scribed, but the millions who are denjet
the right to be ruled and represented by mel
of their uDfet,e cred choice. Prescription
were aosurd if these did not wish to elec
| the very men whom they are forbidden Il
choose. l have profound regard for th,
people Of that New England wherein
was born, in whose common schools
was taught. / rank no othe
people above them in intelligence
capacity and moral worth. But while thel
do many things well and some admirably
there is one thing which l am sure the
can't wisely or safely, and that is the selec
ton for States remote from and unlike thei
own of the persons by whom those State
shall be represented in Congress
If they could do this to goot
purpose, then republican institution
were unfit and aristocracy the only tru
political system. Yet what have we re
Gently witnessed? Zebulon B. Vance, th
unquestioned choice Of large majority @
the present legislature of North Carolina,
majority backed by a majority of the peopl
who voted at his election, refused the sea
in the Federal Senate to which he was fa;rl
ed to choose another in his stead or leav
the State unrepresented for years. TIL