New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-10-10
Ccirii SIniih 10 Horace Creeie,
pETERroro, Oct. |. 1872.


PETEREoEo, Oct. |, 1872
lion. Horace Grccley:
MY DEAR SIR: Ii is surely not for me- T.
question the proprictv OF your being upon ~
, eiectioneerin9 tour. For, whenever the hand
iul OF old Abolitionists stuck me up for COY
ernor or President, not only electioneerc,
for myself, but voted for myself. | confess
that L had no sense OF mOdcstv 10 RESTRAIN
me from either.
see that the rCConCilemcnt of the Nortl
to the South is the burden Of al, or nearl,
all the speeches with which you cnliven ant
grace your extended tour. It is rightly So
For 1t is no time, now, to be talking of tariffs
and free trade, nor of any OF the common
political and economic questions. would
have every other subject than that of the
rcconcilement of the North to the South OK
cluded from the public mind in this election.
| But, whilst / agree with You that this, and
this only. is the theme for the hour, |, never
theless, dissent entirely from your mode of
treating it. You call on the Republican
| party To be reconcilcd to the South But
| from the day when General Grant allowed
General Lee to surrender on terms so gener-
Gus, as TO melt the rebel army to tears, the
! Republican party has been reconciled to the
south. Never was conqucror so lenient
as or nation to the conquered. 1t denies to
no one, North or South, the right of suffrage;
and to less than two hundred OF the pre-
| cminently guilty amongst the conquered does
it deny the right To hold office. Moreover.
even these, including Davis, stephens. and
ToOmbs, would nave been relieved of this
disability, if, at any time, ;'..r ;rrul spirit
had suffered them to ask for i..c relief
Iregret to find you joining in this clamor
of the demagogues about the "carpet-
baggers." How absurd to make the election
i'll the Southern States OF Northern imm-
grants an evidence of the lack of reconcile
ment on the part of the Republican party to
these States? They elect whom they will
Just as the Northern States elect whom they
will.
In all your pleas for this reconcilemcnt
you persist in putting the saddle on the wrong
horse. Do, my old friend, do correct this
mistake. You know as well as any man
that the only lack of this recOncilcmcnt is On
the part of the Democratic party toward the
colOrcd people. Why, then, should Won not
say so? | besecch you, by your love oi
truth and candor and by your lifelong advo-
cacy OF fair play, to say so. Not even the
Presidency could compensate YOU for express
inc this truth. You idolzed Henry CLAW.
Would that you, too, might say as he said
" / had rather be right than Presidentu'
the last half century, the Democratic party
has planted Itself immovably against or coll
Ored brethren and that, for much longer
than the last quarter of q century, its spirit
against them has been little less than infer |
nal. You do not forget its never-fagging
and ever-bitter opposition to the abolition of
slavery, and how intensely hostile it was to |
the Frccdmen's Bureau and to all other
measures for cnlightcnins and protecting the
poor freedmen. You do not forget how in |
tleXibly it cOntGnded against granting the |
ballot and equal rights to the black man.
both of the North and South and its per-
sstcnt cry for ga white mans government
cannot yet have ceased to ring in your ears. |
Your new friend Voorhees, and other Copper
heads who are going about with you, still |
continue to hiss at any other than - q white |
mans government
need not 90 farther back than the last
Presidential election for damning proofs OF
the murderous war which the Democratic
party has carried on against the black man.
The sympathics Gifts candidate for the Presi- |
dcncy with the negro-cirshing rebels were !
too marked to be denied. II was he, who |
called the New York rioters whilst they were
burning colorcd orphan asylums and hang |
inc and burning colorcd men my friends - |
1t was he who promised these rioters his best |
efforts to get the draft stopped-and, this, |
too, at the most critical period of the war. |
But if the Democratic party showed its |
neGro-hating heart in the selection, at that !
time Of its Presidential candidate, far more !!
cmphatically was it shown in the selection of
its. Vice Presidential candidate. Only five |
days before the Democratic Nominating Con-
yention, General Blair wrote his famous letter !
to Colonel Brodhead, in which he recon- |
mcndcd a resort to force and arms to break |
up the reconstruction of the South, and re-
store to the white man his former exclusive |
political power. This letter so charmed the /!
Convention and happily expressed the warm
desire Of his heart, that its author was put, |
promptly and unanimously, in nomination |!
for Vice President. Not ut all strange /
is it, but entirely natural, that to this |
same General Blair, far more than to any
other man, belongs the credit of originatn.
this fusion movement of which you are made, /
so grotcsquely and flrcicaliy, the iiglre-head /
| say not this i'll Encouragement Of yourself
but simply to express my sense of The alb /
sur,litv of putting dyed-in-thc-wo Rcpub- /.
lican at the head of the Democratic party. /.
Ninetccn-twcntieths Of these, who have gone |.
into this fusion movement, were Democrats |
and are Democrats still; and should the |
calamity OF your election hefall the country, |
they will, Of course, hold you bound to rep
resent not the Republican but the Democratic
element in this dls@racetul compound. They
will even 90 so FAR as to claim that by the
cOnciliatory terms of your letters of accept
ance, you are bound to reverse President
Grants policy toward ku-kuXism; to have
the monster dealt lcniently with under State
authority and be exempted from suppression
by the power Of the Federal Government.
Nor have | spoken Of your ludicrOus posi-
ton at the head of the Democratic party to
disparage the Judgment Of that party. A
more cunningly chosen device than its use
Of your name for dcludng and drawing OFF
credulous Republicans there could hardly
have been.
Since the virtual cspousal of General
Blair's bloody plan for getting rid of all ne
gro share in the Government, the Demo-
cratic party has kept on in its war upon the
negro. Even i'll the very last session OF
Congress, its members voted soiIlt against
extending equal civil rights Z" The colorcd
race, and against protecting that race from
the ku-kluy Democratic devils, who spend