New-York tribune., 1872-10-11
UELL DEFINED ISSUES

to say that upon this point we do not agree
with our neighbOr; for we should not DO
found claiming the attention OF the pubic
nor should we have entered into this contest
so largely nor would Mr.. Greeley have been
candidate at all, if the Grant Administration
and the Grant party had not been fairly open
TO adverse criticism. So far from regrettng
the course which We have pursued. we are
more than ever convinced by the events OF the
last week of its propricty and of its pressing
necessity. So far from considering temporary
defeat to be any reason for sparing the Grant
impolcy, we see in it only an incentive TO a
renewed exertion. SO far from giving up this
| fight, we propose to continue it, whatever
party may be in place upon the issues to
which the present political divisions OF the
republic owe their rise. So far from being
ready for surrender, we affirm that we have
only just begun to fight.
Instead OF wanting "well defined issues in
evolving q principle of government" it seems
to US that the campaign has been crowded
with them. Reconciliation with the South,
Reform at the South, Reform at the North,
an end to prescription, to carpet-bag robbery,
to the reign of corruption and the choice OF
Governors by convicts,-are not these we'll
defined issues do not these involve principles
of government 1t is true that we have been
Obliged to resort to personal attack but We do
not remember different turn of affairs In
any other canvass with which we have been
acquainted. Was there no personal attack in
the long contest Of the Whig party with the
jackson, the Van Buren, the Tyler, the Polk
Administrations Was there no personal at
tack in the defense of Mr.. LincOlns OF the
opposition to Mr.. Johnson's Administra-
toni However deeply principles and
measures may be involved, men who
stand forward as responsible for those
measures or principles must bear the
brunt of the assault. If there be any dlt-
ferent way of carrying on political contest,
we should be grateful to anybody pointing 1t
out to us. If Members of Congress sell their
votes for railway shares and dividends; II a
Senator of the United States goes about tell
ing falsehoods to catch the votes of Irishmen
and Germans if Grant makes family matter
of the Offices, and sends unworthy persons to
represent us at foreign courts, either because
they are his relations or those of his particular
friends; if all the Postmasters in the country
neglect their business. and conspire to break
down the circulation of newspaper because
they do not like it any better than 1T likes
them if the Heads of the Departments leave
their duties to make partisan stump speeches
in behalf of the President; if clerks paid by
the nation are detailed to envelope documents
and to cheat the Post-Offce by forging franks,
then we say that there is plenty of issues
always and wherever and by whomsoever these
offenses are defended.
The main issue must not be forgotten.
When an Administration undertakes to
dictate to the people its own continuance
III place and power, there is an issue
and vital one at once. We might well
lose our equanimity while the Republican
leaders were dealing so largely in must and
shall. We deny the right of any party thus
to dictate to the people; and we say here,
what we shall be ready TO repeat come to us
victory or defeat, that it is of bad augury
when the honest opinions and the independent
votes of citizens are made the occasion of
libels of caricatures as ill-natured as they
are stupid, of imputations under which no
honorable man can rest quietly for a moment.
There are those who have been groaning and
scolding most of their lives in pulpits and in
newspapers and upon platforms, about the
partisan despOtism under which thought and
speech and action labor in America and yet
some of the men who have been most con-
spicuous in denouncing this slavery have stood
aghast at the audacity of citizens who
decline to surrender themselves body,
soul, and spirit, to a mere military name
One might have guessed that men
like Garrison, and Beecher, and Phillips, for
example, would at least have respected tho
moral courage of those who have honestly
severed the ties which bound them to party.
Good Heavens! Is all the moral courage. all
the cOnscientiousness, all the patriotism, and
all the political perspicacity monOpolized by
two old AbolitiOnists, one orthodox minister,
the Postmasters, and the editors of Grant organsf
We decline to think so. We decline to have
these gentlemen dictate to us what we shall
think, what we shall say, what we shall print,
whom we shall support, and for whom we
shall vote! Push aside, if you please, all
other matters, and we affirm that here is an
issue and most urgent one Years hence.
should the methods adopted to keep Grant in
power be successful, honest men will mourn
the blindness and indifference which, if we
may say 80, acclimated the worst political vices
in q republic which has no safety and can
have no permanence unless free thought, free
speech, and free action shall be religiously
respected. This is MT, fellow-ctizens, ques-
ton whether Mr.. Greeley shall or shall not be
President, but whether you shall be allowed,
be you in majority or minority, to vote as you
please and to have your votes count as you
cast them.
CHAPTER 700.
Among the acts passed by our late extra