Democratic enquirer. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1867-1873, 1872-09-04


Horace Greeley has written many good things
but none surpass, we think none equal in spiri
and vigor, the letter In which he replied to thu
New York Union club that threatened him will
expulsion, when he and Gerritt Smith and 9TH
ers signed the Jefferson Davis bail bond. This
was not the letter Of a politician or nominee
for Office. Itwas written five years ago. The
date of it is May 20, 1867. But it anticipates ant
fully warrants the attitude OF Horace Greeley,
now on the platform of Cincinnati and Balti-
more. After referring to declarations consist.
ent with 1t, the letter thus concludes, with Q
prophecy of the way in which his act would
come to be regarded-a prophecy already full
lllei:
GENTLEMEN:--I shall not attend your meet
ing this evening. Ihave an engagement out Of
town and shall keep 1t. do not recognize you
as capable ofjudging or even fully apprehend-
ing me. You evidently regard me as q weak
1 arraign you as narrow minded 6lockheads,
who would like to be useful to great and good
cause but don't know hoY. Your attempts to
base great, enduring party on the hate and
wrath necessarily engendered by bloody civil
war, is as though you should plant . colony on
an iceberg which had somehow drifted into a
tropical ocean. l tell you here that out Of life
earnestly devoted to the good of human kind,
your CLllurcn Will noloCU my BOlnB W 1blCnulOnl
and signing that bail bond as the wisest act,
and viii feel that 1t did more for freedom and
humanity than all Of you were competent TO do,
though you lived to the age Of Methusaleh
ask nothing Of you, then, but that you proceed
to your end by direct, frank, manly way
Don't sidle of into q mild resolution of censure,
but move the expulsion which deserve, IL
deserve any reproach whatever. All 1 care
for Is that you make this square, stand-up
fight, and record your Judgment by yeas and
nays. l care not how few vote with me, nor
how many vote against me; for l know that the
latter will repent 1t In dust and ashes before
three years have passed: Understand once for
all, that dare you and defy You, and that 1
propose to fight it out on the line that have
held from the day of Lees surrender. So long
as any man was seeking to overthrow our gov
ernment he was my enemy, from the hour in
which he laid down his arms he was my former
ly erring C0untryman. So long rs any Is Qpp0s-
ed to the national unity; the federal authority,
or to that assertion Of equal rights of all men,
which has become practically identified with
loyalty and nationality, shall do my best to
deprive him of power; but when he ceases to be
thus, demand his restoration to all the privl-
leges of American citizenship. give you fair
notice that shall urge the e-enfranchisement
of those now prescribed for rebellion as soon as
ent with the freedom Of the blacks and the unity
of the Republic, and that shall demand recall
Of all now in exile only for participation in the
rebellion, whenever the country shall have been
so thoroughly paciiied that its safety will not
thereby be endangered. And so, gentlemen,
hoping that you will henceforth comprehend
me somewhat better than you have done, re-
main yours,
May %, 1857. HORACE GREELEY.