Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-05-30
HON. JAMES F. WILSON.
He Pays His Compliments to the
Editors Who Don't Like
the Call

FAIRFIELD, Iowa, May 1S.-Ed
Hasok-Eye: read in the Daily
Hasck-Eye of this date, the following
editorial paragraph, viz:
at won't do for the Iowa organs of
the Administration to attempt to
write down the Hon. James F. Wilson
because he does not join with them in
denouncing the call for the State Con-
vcntion. No policy that President
Hayes or any other man may invent
will reveal any truer or braver Re-
publican than James +. Wilson,"
lam q Republican but lay no claim
to being truer or Drawer in this regard
than my fellow-workers in the party.
When wrote the brief note to Henry
c. Leighton, in which I expressed
my approval of the call issued by him
forthe meeting of the Republican State
Convention on the 9th proximo,
little thought that it would bring
down on me the several animadver-
sions which have since appeared in
some of the Republican papers of the
State. Nor would I have withheld
my pen 1t the whole array had been
before me.
Let me reduce that call to the form
of a confession of political faith and
in this way test the Republicanism of
those who accept it. Using the exact
language Of the call the result is as
follows, viz:
First. / "believe in the steadfast
and unwavering principles Of right,
liberty and justice, as exemplified in
the past record and platforms of the
republican party from its birth when
it began its uncompromising crusade
upon human slavery, until the last
shackle fell, and the slave became a
man endowed by this party with all
the rights his former master possess
ed and in which he must be protected
at any cost"
Second "I Q believe in cherishinQ
with prpI unabated, its devotion to
the cause of loyalty against treason,
and can never forget the services of
of the loyal blue, though forgiving
the rebel gray"
Third. I"bclieve that the United
States is nation and not merely q
confederation of States"
Fourth. I "believe in the strict
and vigorous enforcement of the con-
stitutional amendments, both in let
ter and in spirit, for the absolute pro-
lection of all-the weak as we'll as the
strong, in every right of suffrage, cit
izenship, liberty and equality"
Fifth. l "believe the majority
should rule, and deprecate all at
tempts at political or official interfer-
encc Herewith"
Sixth. I "believc that ignorance
and vice will go hand in hand, and,
therefore, desire to see our free
schools nurtured and fostered as the
best safeguards of the nations life."
Seventh. 1 "believe that until
these ends are accomplished, and
these rights guaranteed and secured
to the inmate of the lowest hovel in
the land as well as to the inhabitant
OF the palatial abode, the work of
the Republican party is not yet ac-
complished."
Eighth. 1 I"invite all to cooperate
with me in keeping alive the fires up
on the party altar and in giving the
state a good, economical and careful
ly administered government"
This is all there is of it. That is the
call which the papers referred to in
your above quoted paragraph denom-
mate "gush," and proclaim "a subject
OF ridicule from the Mississippi to the
Missouri river" The editors of
those papers are unwisely over-zeal-
GUS. l believe l know President
Hayes quite as well as they do, and
feel safe in saying that if they cannot
subscribe to. the foregoing confession
ofpolitical faith, he can and does. In
deed, it they will take the trouble to
ask him what he thinks of Republi-
can who can't subscribe to it, l think
he will tell them that such an one
'ought to he scalned2 Ynprs, ,trnlv.