The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1872-08-01
VI" Grcclcy'S Letter Of Accept
nnCc.
NEw York, July Is, 1872.

alton, tsccms fit that ! should give to
yoUr letter Ofthe 10th inst, some far
thcr and fuller response than the hasty,
unprecedented words in which ac-
knowlcdgcd and accepted your nomi-
nation at our meeting on the 18th,
That your Convention saw fit to ac-
cord its hiahcst honor TO one who had
prominently aud polntcdIy opposed
your patty IN the earnest and some
times angry controversies Of the last
forty years is essentially noteworthy
THAT many Of you originally preferred
that the Liberal Republicans should
present another candidate for Prcsi
dent, and would more readily have
united with MS in the support Of Adams
| or I%rulnhull, Davis or Brown, il well
known. | I'VE my adoption at Balti.
more wholly TO the fact that | had al.
ready been nominated at Cincinnati,
and that n conc ,ntration Of forces upon
any new ticket had been provcds i'm.
practicable, Gratiticd rs | am at your
concurrence in the Cincinnati nomina.
tions, certain as ! am that you would
not have thus COucurrcd had YOU not
deemed me upright and capable, find
nothing in the circumstance calculated
10 iniame vanity or noulish seIfcon
Ccit.
But that your convention saw fit, in
adopting the Cincinnati ticket, TO re.
affirm the Cincinnati platform, is to
me a source Of the pr0fomdest salts.
action. That body was constrained
to take this important step by no party
necessity, real or supposed. IL might
have accepted the candidates Of tie
Liberal Republicans upon grounds en-
rircly its own, or it might have present
cd them las the first Wing National
Convention did Harrison and Tyler)
without adopting any platform what
ever. That it chose to plant Itself de.
| libcratcIy, by n vote nearly unanimous,
upon the fullest and c~IcarGst cnuncia
ton Of principles which are at once
mcontrstabIy republican and cmphati.
cNIly democratic, gives trustworthy rs,
surancc that a new and more suspicious
era is dawning upon our long distract,
ed country.
Some Of the best years and best cf
forts Of my life were devoted to Il
struggle against chattcl sIaycry-a
Struggle none the less earnest or nr,
duous because respect for constitutional
| obligations constrained me to act for
the most part on the dctensivc-in re
sisiancc to the diffusion rather than in
direct efforts Cor the extinction OFhu.
man bondage. Throughout most Of
those years my vision WAS unchGCrGd,
my GycrtiOns were rarely animated by
even so much as II hope that | should
live to see my country pcopled by
frccmcn alone. The ailirmaucc by
Your Convention Of the Cincinnati
/ platform is Il most conclusive proof
that not merely is slavery abolished,
but that its spirit is cXtiuct-that dc
spite the protests Of Il respectable bat
isolated lew there remains among US
no party and no Formidable interest
which regrets the overthrow or desires
the ro establishment Of human bond
age, whether in letter or in spirit. ]
am thereby justified in my hope and
trust that the first century Of American
iudcpcndcuce will no! close before the
grand elemental truths ON which its
rightluincss was based by Jefferson
and the Continental Congress of l17G|
will no longer he regarded as "glitter-
ing grucraIitics,' but will have become
The universally accepted and h0nored
foundations of our political fabric.
demand the prompt application OF
those principles TO II existing condi-
ton. Having done what | conld for
the complete emancipation Of blacks, |
now insist on the full REIMBURSEMENT
Of all my white countrymcn, Let none
say that the ban has just been removed
from all but a few hundred elderly
gentlemen, to whom eligibility to Office
can he Of little consequence. My view
contcmplatcs not the hundreds pro-
scribcd, but the millions who are de,
MED the right to be ruled and repre-.
scented by the men Of their mfettered
choice. Prescription were absurd if.
these dill not Wish to elect the very
men whom they are forbidden to
choose.
| have a profound regard for the
people Of that New England wherein
| was bonn, in whose common schools
| was taught. rank no other people
above them in intelligence, capacity,
and moral worth. But while they do
many things well, and some admirably,
there is one thing which | am sure
they cannot wisely or safely undertake,
and tina. is in the selection, for States
remote from and unlike their own, of
the persons by whom those States
shall be represented in Congress. III
they could do this to good purpose,
then Republican institutions were unfit
and aristocracy the only true political
system.
Yet what have we recently witness
ed? Znbulon b. Vance, the unques-
tionable choice of large majority of
the present Legislature Of North Caro-
lina-a majority backed by a majority
of the people who voted at this cleo.
tion-rcfuscd the seat in the Federal
Senate to which lie was fairly chosen,
and the Legislature thus constrained
to choose another in his stead or leave
the State unreprcsented for years
The votes of New England thus de.
prived North Corolina of the Senator