Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1872-05-30
Horace Greeley's Letter
of Acceptance.

men, nave CHOSEN nOI 10 ac-
knowledge your letter Of the Sd
inst, until l could leirn how the
work Of your convention was re-
ceived in all parts of our great
country, and more, whether that
work was approved and ratified
by the mass of our fellow citizens.
Their response from day TO day
reached me through kilograms, let
ters and comments of journalists
independent of official patronage
and Indifferent to the smiles and
favors Of power. The number and
character Of these unconstrained,
uDpurcLased, unsolicited utteran-
ces satisfied Inc that the move
ment which found expression at
Cincinnati has received the stamp
of public approval, aud has been
hailed by a.majorityaof7e coun-
try as the harbingerof a better
day for the Republic. | do not
miSinterpret this approval as es-
pecially complimentary to myself,
nor even the chivalrous and Just
ly esteemed gentlemen with whose
name thank your convention for
associating niue. | receive and
welcome 1t as a spontaneous aid
deserved tribute to that admira-
bic platform of principles wherein
your convention SO tersely, SO for
chilly 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 cOnten-
tons and by-gone feuds, embodies
in fit and few words the needs and
aspirations Of to-day. Though
thousands stand ready to condemn
your every act, hardly syllable.
of criticism or cavil has been
aimed at your platform, of which
the substance may be fairly eX-
pitomized as follows
/. Ali political rights and FRAN
chises which have been acquired
through our late bloody convul-
sion, must and shall be guaranteed,
maintained, enjoyed and respected
evermore. g.s 4ai
2. All political rights and fran
chises which have been lost
through that CONFUSION should
aud must be promptly restored and
re-established, SO that there shall
be henceforth no prescribed class
and no DISTINGUISHED caste within
the limits of the Union. whose
long estranged people shall reunite
and fraternize upon the broad ba-
sis of universal amnesty and i'm
partial suffrage. an
3. That, subject to our solemn
constitutional obligation to main
tain the equal rights of citizens,
our policy should aim at local
government and not centraliza-
ton; that the civil authority shall
be supreme over military, the
habeas corpus should be jealousy
upheld as the safeguard of person
al freedom; that the individual
citizen should enjoy the largest
liberty consistent with public or
der, and there shall be no Federal
dictation of the internal policy of
the several States, but that each
shall be left free to enforce the
rights and promote the well-being
of its inhabitants by such means
as the judgment of its own people
shall prescribe.
4. There shall be a real and
not merely a simulated reform in
civil service of the Republic, to
which end it is indispensable that
the chief dispenser of its vast Of
fetal patronage shall be shielded
from the mean temptation, to use
his power selfishly by rule mex
orably forbidding and precluding
his re- election.
5. That the raising of revenue
whether by tariff or otherwise,
shall be recognized and treated as
the peoples immediate business, to
be shaped and directed by them
through their representatives in
| Congress, whose action the Presi-
dent must neither override by his
veto. nor attempt to dictate or pre-
sumo to punish by beStOwing Of
fee only on those who agree and
Withdrawing from those who do
not. ~
6. That the public lands must
be sacredly reserved for occupa.
ton and acquisition by cultivators
and not recklessly squandered on
the projectors of railroads for
which our people have no present
need, and the premature construc-
ton of which is annually plung-
ling the United States into deeper
and deeper abysses of foreign in
debtedness.
! 7. The achievement of these
o,oo6 ,orrnoSaS Of univorcal hana