Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1872-05-25
81. aREELEY,s RRpLY.


1 try, ana IuQge whether that work
was approved and ratified by the
mass of our fellow citizens. Their
response has from day to day reach
ed me through kilograms, letters
and comments of journalists indie
pendent of official patronage and in
different TO the smiles or fFoWns of
power. The number and character
ofthese unconstrained,u npurchased,
unsolicited utteFances assures me
that the movement which found eK-
preston at Cincinnati has received
the stamp of public approval, and
been hailed by a majority of our
| country as the haTbinger of better
day for the public. / do not misin-
| terpret this approval as especial
| complimentary TO my self, nor even
to the chivalrous and Justly esteem
ed gentleman with whose name l
thank your convention for assOciat-
ing mine. l receive and welcome it
as spontaneous and deserved tri-
butte to that admirable platform of
| principles wherein your convention
so tersely, so lucidly, so forcibly set
forth the convictions which impell-
ed and,the purposes which guided its
courses platform which, casting
behind it the wreck and rubbish of
worn out contentious and bygone
facts, embOdies in fit and few words
| the needs and aspirations of to-day.
| Though thousands stand ready TO
| condemn your every act, hardly
sentiment of criticism or caVal has
BEEN aimed at your platform which
in substance, may be .epitOnized as
follows:
l. All Political rights and fran
chises, which have been acquired
| through our late bloody convulsiOn,
must and shall be guaranteed, main
tanned, enjoyed and respected ever
more.
2. All political rights and fran
chiseses which have been lost
through that convulsion should and
must be promptly restored and re-
established, SO that there shall be
hencefOrth no prescribed class, and
no disfranchised caste within the
limits of our Union, whose long es-
tranged people shall re-unite and
fraterniZe upon the broad basis of
universal amnesty, with impartial
su ffrage.
3. That subject to our solemn
constitutional obligation to maintain
equal rights as citizens, our policy
should aim at local self government,
and not at Capitalization; that the
civil authority be supreme over the
military; that the writ of habeas
corpus should be jealousy upheld
as safeguard of personal freedom;
that individual citizen should en-
joy the largest liberty consistent
with public order, and that there
shall be no federal supervision Of the
internal policy of the several States
and municipalities but; that
each shall be left free to enforce the
rights, and promote the well being
of its inhabitants by such means as
the judgement of its own people
shall prescribe.
4. There shall be real, and not
merely a simulated reform in the CT
vii service of the Republic. To
whitehead it is indispensable that
the cheap dispensation of its vast
official patronage shall be shielded
from the temptation to use power
ding and pre-cluding his re-elec-
ton.
IS That the raising of reve-
AuCg 4lCElCl ny ldI111 Vi OIAEI W ISL
shall be recognized and treated as
the peoples immediate business, to
be shaped and directed by them,
through their Representatives in
Congress, whose action thereon the
President must neither overrule by
his acts, or attempt to dictate, nor
presume to punish by bestowing Of |
flee only on those who agree with |
him, and Withholding it from those |
who do not.
6. That public lands must be ga
credly reserved for occupation and |
acquisition by cultivators, and not |
recklessly squandered on the pro-
jects of railroads, for which our peo- |
pie have no present need, and the |
premature construction of which |
is annually plunging us deeper and |
deeper into abysses of foreign in |
2. That the achievement of these |
grand purposes of universal beue-
ficence is expected and sought at the
hands of all who approve them, ir-
of past affiliations.
s.. That the public faith must at l
all hazards be maintained and the /
national credit preserved.
9. That the patriots deYOtedncss,
and inestimable services of our fell
who as soldiers or
sailors, upheld the flag and main
tanned the unity of the Republic,
shall be ever gratefully remembered
and hOnOrably requited.
These propositions, so ably and
presented in the platform
OF your Convention, have already
fixed the attention, and command
ed the assent of large majority of
our countrymen, who joyfully adopt
them, as do, as the basis of a true,
national reconstruction
of a new departure from jealOusies
and strifes, and hates which have no
longer adequate motive or even
plausible preteXt, into an atmosphere
Of peace and fraternity, and of mu-
tual good will. In vain do the drill
seTgeants of decaying organizations
flourish menaceingly their trunch-
cons and angrily assert that the files
shall be closed and strengthened. In
vain do the whippers in of parties,
once vita, becaue rooted in the vital
needs OF the hour, protest against
he straying and boiling, denOunce
men nowise their interiors as trait
prs and renegades and threaten them
with infamy and ruin. l am conf
dent that the American people have
already made your cause their own; /;
further resolved that their brave 1
hearts and strong arms shall bear it
IN to triumph lin this faith, and with
he distinct understanding that if !
elected l shall be the President not of
! party but of the whole people, l ,
accept your nomination in confident
rust that the masses of our coun- {
-ryment, North and South, are eager
20 clasp hands across the bloody
,hasm which has too long divided | ;
hem, forgetting that they have been
enemies in the joyful conscious ]
ness that they are and musthence- I
'orth to remain brethren. I
Yours, gratefully, 1
[Signedl HORACE GREELEY. {
TO Hon. Carl SchurZ, President; {
Hon. Geo. w. Julian, Vice PreSi- I
lent; and VIM. f. Mclean, John G.. I
Davidson and !. Ill. lohdcs, Secre- /
aries of the National Convention of '
liberal Republicans of the United /
states. Ia