Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1872-08-01
THE PREsgD ENCY.
Mr.. Greeley's Letter Accepting the Ba
timore Nom nation.

| New York, July 23.-Thc following
is hlr. Greeley's letter accepting the Bal
timore nomination in reply to the letter
of the committee appointed to notify him
| thereof:
New York, July 18.-GeDtlemon :
Upon mature del,beration.it seems fit that
/ should gIveto your letter OF the 10Th
inst, some further and fuller response
than the hasy unprecedented words with
which [ acknowledged and ac cepted your
nomination at our meeting on the 18th
inst. Thai your Convention SAW fit to
accord the highest honor upon one who
had bren prominently and. poinfodly OPP
posed TO your party in the earnest and
sometimes angry controversies of the last
forty years is essentially noteworthy
That many of you preferred tina! the
Liberal Republicans should present an
other candidate for President, and would
more readily have united in the support
of Adams, or Trumbul!. Or, Davis Or
Brown, is well known
I owe my adoption at that time, or at
all to the facs that [ had already been
| nom mated at Cincinnati, and that con-
traction of forces upon any new ticket had
! been proved improbable. Gratifed as |
am at your concurrence 10 the Gin Gin natl
nom nation, / would not have thus con
scented had you not deemed me upright
and capable. find nothing in tho cir
oumstances calculated to infame vanity
or nourish self couceit, but that your
convention SAW fit in adopting the GIN
cinnat ticket to saatfirm the Cincinnati
platoon is to ne a source of the psoldest
satisfaction. That body was constrained
to take the important step by no party
necessity. real or supposed.
Il might have accepted the candidates
of the liberal Republicans upon grounds
already its own, or it might have pIesen-
ted, as the first wbig national Convention
did, Harrison and Tyler, without any
platform whatever.
That it chose to plant itself deliberate
~ By vote nearly unanimous upon the
| fullest and clearest cnunciytion Of prin-
ciples, VII ich are at once incontestibly
Republican and empha tically Democratic,
] I
and more auspicous era is dawn'ng upon
our long distracted country. Some of
the best years and best efforts of my lie
were devoted to o struggle against chattle
slayery-a struggle none the less earnest
or arduoas because respect Tor constitu-
tional obligations constrained me to act,
for the most part. on the defensive in re-
sistance to the d diffusion, rather than in
direct efforts for the extinction of human
| bondage
Throughout most Of those years nv
vista was uncheered, my excrtons were
never ANNA ted by even 50 much as hope
that [ should live 10 see my country peo-
pied by freemcn alone. The afirmsnce
by your Convention of the Cincinnati
platform is a most conclusive proof that
not merely is slavery abolished, but that
its spirit is extinct, that despite the pro-
tests Of a respectable but isolated few
there remains among US no party and no
formidable interest which regrets the
overthrow or desires the reessahles hnlent
Of human bondage. whether in the letter
OF in spirit.
am thereby justified in my hope and
trust that the first century Of American
independence will not close before the
grand elemental truths on which its right
fulness was based by Jefferson and the
Continental Congress of'76 will no long
er be regarded as "glttering general
ties" but viii have become the universal
ly accepted and honoroa foundations of
our political fabric. [ demand the prompt
application of those principles to our 'ez-
isting condition.
Having done what coull for the
complete emanc;pa ton of the blacks,
now insist on the full enfrahchisement OF
all my white countrymen. Let mono say
that the ban has just been removed from,
all but a few hundred eldsrly gentle-
men, to whom eligibility to Office can be
of little consequence. -
Ny view contempates not to the hun.
dreds proposed, but the millions who are
denied the right to be ruled and repre-
sented by the men OF their unfettered
choice Prescription we're absurd if
these did not wish to elect the very men
whom they are forbidden to choose.
Ihave profound regard for the peo-
pie of that New En- gland wherein l was
born. and in whose common schools [ was
taught. | think no other people above
them in intelligence, capacity and moral
worth, but while they do May things
we'll and some admiralty there is one
thing which am sure they cannot do
wisely or safely, aud that is to undertake
the selection for States remote from and
unlike their own of the persons by whom
they are represented in Congress. fthey
do this to good purpose, then Republican
institutions are unfit and aristocracy the
only true political system. Yet what
have We recently witnessed? z. B
Vance, Of North Garolina, the unques ton
ed choice Of a large majority of the pres
ent Legislature, . majority backed by
majority Of the people who voted at its
election. refused the seat in the Federal
Senate to which he was fairly chosen anu
| the Legislature was thus constrained to
choose one in his stead or leave the State
unrepresented for years.
The votes Of New England thus de-
privcd North Carolina of the Senator OF
her choice and compelled her t, send an
other in his stead another who in our
late contest was like Vance rebel, and
a fighting rebel. but who had not served
in Congress before tho war as Vance had
though the latter remained faithful to