Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1872-08-24
THE BEST OF HIS LETTERS.

Horace Greeley has written many good
things, but none surpass, we think none
equal, in spirit and vigor, the letter in
which he replied to the New York club
that threatened him with expulsion, when
he and Gerritt Smith aud othors signed
signed tho Jefferson Davis bail bond
This was not the letter Of politician or q
nominee fer Office. 1t was written five
years ago. The date of it is May 20, 1867.
But it anticipates and warrants the attitude
of Horace Greeley, now on the platform of
Cincinnati and Baltimore. After refer.
ring to other declarations consistent with
it, the letter thus concludes with proph.
csy Of the way in which his act would
come to be regarded-a prophesy already
fulfilled:
GENTLEMEN Shall not ATTEND your
meeting this evening. have an engage
ment out Of town, aud shall keep it, l do
not recognize you as capable of judging or
even fully experimenting me. You evil
IDENTIFY regard me as weak scntimentalist,
misled by maudln philosophy. 1 ar
raigo you as narrow minded blockhcads,
who would like to be useful to great and
good cause but don't know how. Your
attempts to base great, enduring party
on the hate and wrath necessarily engen-
dered by bloody civil war, is us though
you should plant colony on an iceberg
which had somehow driftcd into a tropical
ocean. l tell you here, that out of a life
earnestly devoted to the good of human
kind, your children will select my going to
Richmond and signing that bail bond as
the wiscst act and will feel that it did more
for freedom and humanity than all of you
were competent to do though You lived to
the age Of Mcthusaleh. l ask nothing of
you, then but that you proceed to your end
by direct, frank. mauly way. Don't
siddle off into mild resolution Of censure,
but move the expulsion which l deserve,
if deserve any reproach whatever. All
l care for is that you make this square
stand up fight and record your judgment
by yeas and nays. l care not how few
vote with me, or how many vote against
me; for know that the latter will repent
it in dust and ashes before three years
have past. Understand, that once for all,
I dare you and defy you, and that pro-
pose to fight it out on the line that have
held since the day Of Lees surrender. So
long as any man was seeking to overthrow
our Government he was my enemy; from
the hour in which he laid down his arms
he was my formerly erring countrymen
So long as any one is opposed to the ma
,ioual unity, the Federal authority, or to
that assertion of the equal rights Of all
men which has become practically idcnti-
fed with loyalty and nationality, shall do
my best to deprive him of power; but
when he ceases to be thus l demand his
resignation to all the privileges of Amcri-
can citizenship. l give you fair notice
that shall urge the e-enfranchisement of
those now prescribed for rebellion so soon
as I shall feel cogfdent that this course is
consistent with the freedom of the blacks
and the unity of the Republic, and that I
shall demand recall Of all now in exile
only for participating in the rebellion
whenever the country shall have been so
thoroughly pacified that its safety will not
thereby be engendered. And so, gentle
men, hoping that you will henceforth com.
prehend mo somewhat better than you
have done, remain.
Yours, HORACE GREELEY.
May %, 1867.