The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-10-11
Letter from the Old Anti-Slavery
Candidate for the Presidency,
The Danger Of Eleeting Horace Greeley
10 the Chief Magistracy.
Mr.. Hale Advises All His Friends to
Vote for the Recollection of
Cen. Grant.

tOWu, La, WTOJe 10 the hON. JONI L
Hale, of New Hampshire, regarding his
position in the present campaign, and
received the following reply:
DEAR SIR: have received your let
ter informing me that you had seen
among the "news items OF the papers
the statement that had "ouite recent.
ly declared a preference for Mr.. Greeley
for President and asking me if the
report is true. That | have either de
clared or entertained any such prefer
ence is news 10 me. The report is a
specimen of the means used by the
cabal of Democratic and Radical"
ofhce-seekers who support Mr.. Greeley,
in their desperate attempt to deceive
the honest masses of both parties. You
say you have taken the liberty Of ask
ing the question, being namesake'
of mine, and an approval Of my "polit-
zeal history" and you avow your con-
viction that the statement is "prema-
ture, if not absolutely false" You are
entirely correct in this supposition, and
il is gratifying TO me to receive such an
assurance that | have maintained the
cause of liberty and justice first, and
peace and order afterward, in such g
manner as to render my apostasy in
credible.
You ask my explanation OF the course
taken by Mr.. Greeley, Mr.. Sumner and
others.
Mr.. Greeley's case is plain enough.
On pages 35S and 359 of the first vol
ume Of his " History Of the American
Conflict you will find his own account
OF himself as he YVES at the breaking
out Of the rebellion. He there says
that on the second day after Mr.. Lin
coins election, November 9, 1860, "the
following leading article appeared in
the New York Tribune" You will find
be says in that article: If the Cotton
States shall decide that they can do
better out of the Union than in it, we
insist on letting them 60 in peace" To
avoid oil possibility Of being misunder-
stood, he repeats the ga ne doctrine in
different words: "Whenever con.
siderable portion Of our Union shall de
lberately resolve TO 60 out, we shall
resist all coercve measures designed TO
keep il in" Lest one article might not
make his position sufficiently conspic-
uous, he wrote and published many
articles containing the same doctrine.
Lest all his newspaper articles on the
subject should, in the course of time,
be forgotten, he copies one of them into
his " History of the American Conflict"
for the apparent purpose Of preserving,
in the durable form of a historical re-
cord, his undisputed claim TO the title
Of an original secessionist.
If a majority Of Southern voters, that
is, of free white men, would "deliber-
ately resolve to 90 out" he pledged
himself 10 resist all coercive measures
designed to keep them in. That was
the simplest plan ever suggested for the
dissolution Of the Union and the per-
petuation Of slavery. What stronger
invitation "to 90 out" could he have
given the South than that pledge ito
resist all coercive measures designed to
keep it in ?" Shareholders, anxious
"to 20 out" but dreading the "coercive
measures,' read Mr.. Greeleys pledge
republished in every Southern paper.
It's effect is well known. Among the
influences that changed the doubling
and hesitating white men of the South
into firm and ardent secessionists, none
was more effective than Mr.. Greeley IS
pledge TO "resist all coercive measures.
Whether that pledge WAS the means Of
turning the scale, and giving the active
seoessionists their majority, we may not
certainly know until the day of final
reckoning. But this we do know, that
for all the ruin, desolation and misery
OF the secession war, no man, North or
South, is more responsible than Mr..
Greeley.
1t is worthy of note that Mr.. Greeley
admitted the Megahty OF secession. lie
admitted the right of the Government
to save the Union by "coercive meas
ures," but insisted that the Government
should not exercise that right If lie
had thought the Union had no right tc
defend itself, he would have taken 6
position whore a brave man, entertain
ing that opinion, might sorrowfully
stand. But admitting the right to de-
fend the nations life, he insisted that
il should not be defended, but he basely
surrendered without a blew. The
treason of his position was only sur
passed by is cowardice.
Mr.. Black President Buchanan's AT
torney General saw this dastardly plank
in Mr.. Greeleys platform, and, under
his advice given November 20, 1860, Mr.
DuCllAIslAl' III iiio s.lilahA Alltcssik'
to Congress, took the ground that tn,
Government had no right "to coerce'
seeding State. Observe the date
and the language, and you will see that
under Black = advice, Buchanan adopte,
G.eeley's secession doctrine, all but tn
oowardly part of it. Tho venomou
abuse with which Mr.. Greeley FOLLOWED
President Buchanan to his grave, AM
Mr. Black up to the year Of grace 1877
may be explained by the fact that thei
rejection OF the pusillanimous plank G
his secession platform exposed him t
universal contempt.
When he found his secession prime
ples unpopular, and the subscription
list of the Tribune falling off, that pape
suddenly advocated an exterminatin
and merciless prosecution of the wa
Notwithstanding a vast majority of tn
Southern whites, encouraged by his SO
emn pledge, had deliberately resolve
TO 90 out"
Suppose he hired somebody else