Year: 1868

]


OenOunces the Democratic


Candidates and Policy


Gen. Dix, the American Minister tc
Paris, has sent the following letter to g
friend in New York. It was not writ.
ten for publication, but the gentleman
to whom It was addressed has consent.
ed to give it to the public,


U. PARIS, Sept. 4, 1863.


My DEAR SIR:-It was my hope
that my distance from home would
have saved me from all participation in
the political excitement prevailing
there But I noticed in one Of the
newspapers that I am heart and hand


with Seymour. am not aware OF
anything IN the present or the past
which could rightfully subject me to
such an imputation.


have been acquainted with Mr..
Seymour more than a quarter of a cen
tury. He is an amiable gentleman, of
unexceptionable private character, and
respectable talents, But you know as
well as I that he has not single quail
iication for the successful execution OF
the high official trust to which he has
been nominated, and he is especially
deficient in that frmness of purpose
which in critical emergencies is the
only safe guard against public disorder
and calamity. He has been twice at
different times Governor Of the State
Of New York, and he has in neither
case had the talent or the tact to keep
the Democratic Party Of the State to-
gether more than two years. IshOuld
regard his election at this Juncture,
when steadiness of purpose, decision
and self control are so much needed, as
one Of the greatest calamities that could
befall the country. Moreover, he has
been put in nomination by a conven-
tiOn which has openly declared the
purpose Of those it represents to pay
the greater part of the public debt con-
tracted to preserve the Union, in de.
preciated paper. Such a measure
would, in my judgment, be a palpa-
BILE violation of the public faith, pledg-
ed under circumstances which should
have been binding on all honorable
men. Mr.. Seymour has made public
speeches to show that it is our duty to
pay the debt in specie. In accepting
his nomination to the Presidency he
adopts the declaration that it ought to
be paid in paper. 1 know nothing so
humiliating in the history of Ameri-
can politics as this regeneration. It
was, perhaps, not unfit that Mr.. Sey-
mour after presiding, in 1864, over the
Chicago Convention, which declared
the war failure, should preside over
the Convention of 1868, in which a
proposition to discredit the debt con-
.tFacted to carry on the war was receiv-
ed with ''tremendous cheering" and
that he should be the chosen instru-
ment to execute this act Of national
turpitude.


[ do not believe that the wishes or
opinions of the great body of the DEM
oeratic Party are fairly expressed in
these proceedings. They have moth
ing in common with the statesman
like views of policy and the high sense
of national honor which guided the
party when Martin Van Buren. Will
liam L. Marcy, Silas Wright, Lewis
'Cass and Stephen A. Douglas were
among its most conspicuous members.
l see but one source of safety for the
country under existing circumstances,
and thatis the election of Gen. Grant,
On his decision of character, good
sense, moderation and disinterested
patriotism, I believe the South will
have far better hope of regaining the
position in the Union to which it is
entitled, than under man whose po-
litical career has been in nothing more
cOnspicuously marked than in an ut
ter inirmity of purpose.


Independently of all these consider
atiOns, should be greatly surprised if
the people of the United States were
to elect as their Chief Magistrate a
man who was making, at the Acade-
my of Music, on the 4th of July, 1863,
a speech deficient in all the character
istics of an elevated love Of c6untry, at
the very hour when Gen. Grant was
carrying the victorious arms of the
UniOn into Vicksburg, and when
of our fallen eOuntrymen
were pouring out their blood on the
plains of Gettysburg, in defence of
their homes and the Government,
which Mr.. Seymour was doing all in
his power to embarrass and discredit.


I am quite willing that you should
show this letter to any friends who
may take an interest in my opinion in
regard to the coming election, and /
am particularly desirOus of rem0bing
the impression, if it exists, that lam IN
favor Of Mr.. Seymour, or the repudia-
ton Of any portion of the public debt.


I am, dear Sir, very truly yours;


JOHN A. Dix.