Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1872-07-30
Mr.. GREELEY ACCEPTANCE.

UENTLEMEN: Upon mature dellberat1on, 1t
seems tit that | should give to your letter of the
10th inst, some further and fuller response
than the hasty, unprecedented words 10 which
| acknowledged and accepted your nomination
at our meeting on the 18th
That your Convention saw fit to accord its
highest honor to one who had been prominent
ly and polntedly opposed to your party in the
earnest and sometimes angry controversies OF
the last forty years, is essentially noteworthy
That meny OF you originally preferred that the
Liberal Republicans should present another
candidate for President, and would more read-
ly have united WI b Us in the support of Adams
or Irumbu, Davis or Brown, is well known.
L owe my adoption at Baltimore wholly to the
fact that had already been nominated at Gin
clnnatl, and that concentration of forces upon
any new ticket had been proved impracticable.
Gratihed as | am at your concurrence In the
Cincinnati nominations, certain as [ am that
you would not have thus coDcurred had you
not deemed me upright and capable, find no
thing in the circumstance calculated to infame
vanity or nourish sef-conceit
But that your Convention saw fit, In adopt
ing the Cincinnati ticket, to re- affirm the Gin
clnnat Platform, IS to me source of the pro-
foundest satisfaction. That body was constrain-
ed to take this important step by no party
necessity, real or supposed. 1t might have &C.
copied the candidates of the Liberal Repub-
licans upon grounds entirely its own, or it might
have presented them LAS the first w hig Nation
al Convention did Harrison and Tyler without
adopting any platform whatever That it chose
to plant itself deliberately, by a vote nearly
unanimous, upon the fullest and clearest enun-
citation of principles which are at once incon-
testably Republican and emphatlcally Demo
cratic, gives trustworthy assurance that new
and more auspicous era is dawning upon our
long distracted country.
Some Of the best years and best efforts of my
life were devoted to struggle against Chattel
Slavery-a struggle none the less earnest or
arduous because respect for constitutional obli-
cations constrained me to act for the most part
on the defensive-in resistance to the diffusion
rather than In direct efforts for the extinction
of Human Bondage. Throughout most of those
years. my vision Vas uncheered, my exertions
we're rarely animated, by even SO much as a
hope that | should live to see my country peo
pied by freemen alone. The afirmance by your
Convention Of the Cincinnati Platform is most
conclusive proof that not merely is Slavery a.
polished but that It's spirit is extinct-that, de-
spite the protests OF 4 respectable but insulated
few, there remains among us no party and no
formidable interest which regrets the overthrow
or desires the re establishment of Human
Bondage, whether in letter or in spirit [ am
thereby justified in my hope and trust that the
first century of American Independence will not
close before the grand elemental truths on
which It's rightfulne was based by Jefferson
and the Continental Congress of'76 will no
longer be regarded as glttering generalities, :"
but will have become the universally accepted
and honored foun0atio Of our political fabric
| demand the prompt application of those
principles to our existing condition. Having
MI 1 40 ,lata
ton of Black | now Insist on the full enfran-
chisement of al! my White countrymen. Let
none say that the ban has just been removed
from all but few hundred elderly gentlemen,
to whom eligibility 10 office can be of little CON
sequence. Ny view contemplates not the hun
dreds prescribed, but the millions who are
denied the right to be ruled and represented by
the men of their uutettered choice. Proscrip-
ton were absurd if these did not wish to elect
the very men whom they are forbidden to
choose.
| have profound regard for the people of
that New@England wherein was born, in whose
common schools was taught. rank no 9TH
er people above them in intelligence, capacity,
and moral worth. But, while they do many
things well, and some admirably, there is one
thing which Lam sure they cannot wisely or
safely undertake, and that is the selection, for
States remote from and unlike their own, of the
persons by whom those States shall be repre-
scented in Congress. If they could do this 10
good purpose, then republican institutions we're
unfit, and aristocrscy the only true political sys-
tenn.
Yet what have we recently witnessed? Zeb-
ulon b. Vance, the unquestioned choice of a
large majority Of the present Legislature of
North Carolina-a majority backed BIZ ma
jority of the people who voted at its election
refused the seat in the Federal Senate to which
he was fairly chosen, and the Legislature thus
constrained to choose another in his stead or
leave the State unrepresented for years. The
votes of New-England thus deprived North
Carolina OF the Senator Of her choice, and COM
PEELED her to send another in bis stead-anoth-
er who, in our late contest, was, like Vance, a
rebel, and q fighting rebel, but who had not
served in Congress before the war as Vance had
though the latter remained faithful to the u
MON till after the close of his term. L protest
against the disfranchisement of State-pre-
sumptively, of plumber Of States-on grounds
50 narrow and technical as this. The fact that
the same Senate which refused Vance his seat
proceeded to remove his disabilities after that
seat had been filled by another, only serves to
place Ia stronger light the indignity to North
Carolina and the arbitrary, caprlclOus tyranny
which dictated it. thank you, gentlemen that
my name is TO De cOhSplGUOusiy associated with
yours in determined effort to render Amnesty
complete and universal, 10 spirit as we'll as in
letter. Even defeat in such cause would leave
no sting, while triumph would rank with those
victories which no blood reddens and which
evoke no tears but those Of gratitude and joy.
Gentlemen, your platform, which is also mine,
assures me that Democracy is not henceforth to
stand for one thing and Repubicanism for an
other, but that those terms are to mean In poll
tics, as they always have meant in the dicton-
ary substantially one and the same thing
namely, Equal Rights, regardless of creed, or
cline, OR color. hail this as a genuine New
Departure from outworn feuds and meaningless
contentious in the direction Of Progress and Re-
form. Whether shall be found worthy to
bear the standard Of the great Liberal move
ment which the American People have inau-
gurated is TO be determined not by words but
by deeds. With me if | steadily advance, over
me if faier, its grand array moves on to a.
chieve for our country her glorious, beneicent
destiny.
| remain, gentlemen, yours,
HORACE GREELEY.
To the Hon. James r. Doolittlo, chairman of
the Convention, and Messrs. E. w. Sykes,
John G. Macoabe. and others, Committee.