The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1872-05-24
MI / s G eIIaneous
Mr.. VOORHEES, ON THE CINCINNATI
CONVENTION.

In the House of Representatives, last
week, Hon. D. w. Voorhees,, of Indiana,
gave his views in regard to the nomination
of Horace Greeley. The position occupied
by Mr.. VOORHEES, in the party and in the ma
ton, will cause his remarks to be read with
interest:
Mr.. VOORHEES, ofIndiana, rose to person.
al explanation, and having obtained con-
sent to proceed, sent to the Clerks desk to
be read a paragraph from newspaper to
the effect that he was hating and hesita-
ting as to the position he should take as
to the support of the nominee of the Cincin-
natl Convention, and that as his Democratic
colleagues were all said to be in favor of Mr..
Greeley, he was likely to lose the favor of
the district where his voice had so long
been potential. He declared that he did
not halt or hesitate. He had not halted
or hesitated when he had not more than
fourteen Democratic colleagues in the House
nor did he now. If he could ever be tempt
ed to abandon the principles of his poiit-
ical life, it might have been then. AS to
the nominee ofthe Cincinnati Convention,
who ever believed in the high protective
tariff principles or its chief man, might
support him, but he (Voorhees) would not.
Was he expected to support Mr.. Greeley
because he had been the life long champion
| of doctrines which he (Voorhees) opposed
Was he expected as Western man, repre-
senting Western laboring constituency
that was ground down by high protec-
tive tariff monopoly, to support the great
champion of protection Was he expected
to support a man who had been the most
clamorous advocate in all the land for the
Ku-Klux legislation, which had desolated
the homes of the Southern people? If Mr..
Greeley's nomination promised relief to
that blasted and down rodden section,
there was not much which he (Voorhees)
would not forego to subservc so holy and
so benign q purpose but Mr. Greeley had
been the earnest advocate of the legislation
which had paralyzed and Frustrated the
South, and was that the reason why he
should get his support He was told that
the present Administration had been cruel
and unkind to the South; but the Admin
istration had simply executed law which
the Cincinnati nominee had dictated to
Congress. That was all the difference be-
tween them. One was the executive officer
acting under his oath of Office to execute
the law, and the other was man who had
no oath on his conscience in regard to the
matter, but who had urged the passage of
the legislation. Was he expected to sup
port Mr. Greeley because within a recent
date he desired a still further extension of
the Presidents power to suspend habeas
corpus all over the South Was he expec-
ted to support him because he was the ear
nest and urgent advocate of the present
force-bayonet election law, that subjected
every voting precinct of 10000 people to
the supervision and, in certain contingent
cies, to the control of the military Was
he expected to support him because two
months ago this very man had clamored
and ragged in his great organ in favor of a
law to place the local elections in the State
of New York under Federal control, and
also, in certain contingencies, under mill
! tary control? Was such man fit to re-
ceve his vote for the Presidency Was
such man fit to be IN that high place a.
Was that the voice of craftsmanship which
was called for at this great hour2 Was
that the reform that had been promised ?
Was he to go before the loyal Union senti-
ment of the country and appeal to it in IA
vor of a man who stood on the record for
the "inalienable right" of State or of a
community to dissolve the Union? Was
he, as friend of the Southern people, called
upon to vote for II man who, during the
entire fall and winter of 1860, wrote with
all his acknowledged power in favor of the
inalienable right ofany dissatisfied portion
of the country to break up the Union and
form another Government for themselves
Mr., Greeley had pot recanted those opin-
ions; but on the contrary, in his book on
the American Conflict, published in 1864,
he had analysed and defined them to this