The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-05-25

5oHE j. H. r; RuonHs' nax,Ds0s' Secretaries
HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York
city.
New YORK, May 90, 1872
GENTLEMEN: have chosen not to ac-
knowledge your letter of the Sd instant.
until could learn how the work of your
Convention was received in all parts of
our great country, and Judge whether
that work was approved and ratified by
the mass OF our fellow citizens. Their
response has from day to day reached
me through kilograms, letters and the
comments OF journalists Independent of
official patronage and Indifferent to the
smiles or frowns of power The number
anu character of these unconstreined.
unPurchased, unsolicited utterances
satisfy me that the movement which
found expression ut Cincinnati has re-
celVed the stamp of public approval, and
been hailed by majority Of our coun-
.rymen as the harbinger of better day
for the republic.
l do not misin terpret this approval as
especially complimentary to myself, nor
even to the chivalrous and Justly es-
teemed gentleman with whose name T
nine. receive and welcome it as a
spontaneous and deserved tribute TO that
admirable platform of principles, wherein
your convention 30 teTsely, 80 lucidly, 80
forcibly set forth the convictions which
impelled and the purposes which guided
Its course-a platform which, casting
behind it the wreck and rubbish of worn.
out contentious and by-gone feuds. em.
bodies in fit and few words the needs
ana aspirations of to-day. Though thou
sands stand ready to condemn your
every act. hardly syllable of criticism
or cavil has been aimed ut your platform
OF which the substance may be fairly
epitomized as follows:
L. All the political rights and fran
chises which have been acquired by our
late bloody convulsion must On shall be
guaranteed, maintained, enjoyed, re-
spected evermore
IL. All the political rights and fran
chlses which have been lost through that
convulsion should and must be promptly
established, 80 that there shall be
henceforth no prescribed class and no
disfranchlsed caste within the limits of
our Union, whose long estranged people
shall re-unite and fraternize upon the
broad basis of universal amnesty with
impartial suffrage.
III: That, subject to our solemn con.
stitutional obligation to maintain the
equal rights of all citizens, our policy
should aim at local self. governments, and
not at Capitalization; that the civil au-
thorlty should be supreme over the mill
tary; that the writ Of hd6eas corpus
should be jealously upheld as the safe
guard OF personal freedom; that the in.
divldual citizen should enjoy the largest
liberty consistent with public order; and
that there shall be no Federal subversion
OF the internal polity of the several
States and municipalities. but that each
shall be left free to enforce the rights
and promote the we'll being of its inhabi.
tants by such means as the Judgment of
its own people shall prescribe.
lV. There shall be real and moi
merely simulated reform in the civil
service OF the republic; to which end it
is indispensable that the chief dispenser
OF its vast official patronage shall be
shielded from the mnin temptation to
use his power selfishly by rule inexora-
oiy iorbiddlng and precluding his re-
election.
V. That the raising OF revenue, whe
ther by tariff or otherwise, shall be
recognized and treated as the peoples
immediate business, to be shaped and
directed by them through their repre-
sentatlVes IN Congress, whose action
thereon the President must neither over.
rule by his veto. attempt to dictate, nor
presume to punish, by bestowing Office
only on those who agree with him or
Withdrawing it from those who do not.
VI. That the public lands must be
sacredly reserved for occupation and &C.
QUESTION by cultivators, and not reck-
lessly squandered on the projectors OF
railroads for which our people have no
present need, and the premature con.
struction OF which is annually plungino
US into deeper and deeper abysses Of
fOraiOn indahta1paoo