The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1872-08-02
II. G.
His Formal Acceptance of the Demo
cratic Nomination

Hon. Horace Greeley-Dear Sir:
X is our pleasure, in compliance
with the instructions of the Demo-
cratic National Convention assem-
bled in this city, to inform you that
you have been unanimously nomina-
ted its candidate for President of the
United States. The Convention,
consisting of seven hundred and
thirty-tSo delegates, representing
every State and Territory in the
Union, adopted, without amendments
the declaration of principles affirmed
by the Convention, and strengthen
ed by the endorsement contained in
your letter Of acceptance. The ac-
ton of his great body of delegates
proves that they are, with singular
unanimlty, determined to enter, I'M
der your leadership, upon the patri-
otto duty of restoring to the admin
istration of the Government purity
and integrity, and that independence
to its departments which regards the
Constitution as alike the source and
limit Of Federal power. Laying
aside the differences Of the past, and
abandoning all purposes of mere
partisan advantage, asking for no
| pledge, other than that of fidelity to
the principles to which they have
given their deliberate and resolute
adherence, and which they believe
will command the approval of a large
majority of the American people,
they tender you their nomination,
confident that peace and coed gov
eminent will be inaugurated and
maintained under your administra-
= ton.
Respectfully yours obediently.
Signed by J. r. Doolittle, Chair
man of the Convention at Baltimore,
July 10, 1872, and members of the
Committee on Notification.
MIR. GREELEY's REPLY.
, NeW YORK., July IS, lS72.--Gen-
, tlemen; Upon mature deliberation
it seem fit that ! should give tc
your letter Of the 10th instant some
= further and fuller response than the
. haSty, unprecedented words in
, which | acknowledged and accepted
your nomination at our meeting OF
the 18th. That your convention
: saw fit TO accord its highest honor
0 to one who had been prominently
pointedly, opposed to your party II
+ the earnest and angry controversies
of the last forty years, and essential
Iy noteworthy that many of you
originally preferred that the Liberal
Republicans should present another
candidate for President, and would
more readily have united with us in
the support of Adams or Trumbull,
Davis or Brown. 1t is well known
that | Owe my adoption at Baltimore
wholly to the fact that | had already
/ boon nominated ut Cincinnati, and
that a concentration of forces upon
| any new ticket had been proved inn
practicable. Gratitied as ] am at
your concurrence in the Cincinnati
nomina ions, certain as | am thai
. YOU would not have thus cOncurred
: had you not deemed me upright ano
S capable find nothing i'll the cir
A cumstauccs calculated to infamC
vanity or nourish self-conceit, Blu
that your convention saw lit II
adopting the Cincinnati ticket, t.
+ re affirm the Cincinnati platform, il
b to me a source of the proioundes
d satisfaction. That body was con
: strained to take this important steE
Il by no party necessity, real or sup
r posed. 1t might have accepted tht
t candidates of the Liberal Republi
! cans upon grounds entirely its own, OF
il might have presented them as the
first Wing National Convention did
Harrison and Tyler, without adopt
ing any platform whatever.
That it chose to plant itself de-
liberately, by vote nearly unani-
nous, upon the fullest and clearest
enunciation of the principles which
are at once incontestably Repubi-
can and emphatically Democratic,
gives trustworthy assurance that a
new and more suspicious era is
dawning upon our long distracted
country. Some of the best years
and best efforts of my life were de-
voted to a struggle against chattel
slavery, a struggle none the less
earnest or arduous because respect
for constitutional obligations con-
strained me to act for the most part
on the defensive at a Distance
Throughout most of those years my
vision was checred, my eXertions
were rarely animated by even so
much as hope that should live to
see my country peopled by freeman
alone. The afirmance by your
Convention of the Cincinnati plat
form is a most conclusive proof that
not merely is slavery abolished, but
that its spirit is extinct; that de-
spite the protests of respectable
but isolated few, there remains
among US no party and no formida-
BILE interest which regrets the over
throw or desires the establishment of
human bondage whether in letter or
in spirit | am therefore justified in
my hope and trust, that the first cen
/ turv of American independence