Year: 1867

| by pretending TO discover with surprise some
thing that l have for years been publicly,
cmphatically prOclaiming.


i must hurry over much that deserves q
paragraph to call your attention distinctly to
occurrences in November last. Upon the Repub-
licans having, by desperate effort, handsomely
carried our State against formdablo-lOOking
combination of recent and vonOmOus apostatcS
with our natural advcrsaries, q cry arose from
several quarters that | ought TO be chosen H..
s. Senator. At once, kind, discreet friends
swaymed about me, whispering Only keep
"stiil about Universal Amnesty, and your cleo
"t ton is certain. Just be quiet few weeks,
"and you can say what you please thereafter.
'You have no occasion to speak now"
slept on the we'll meant suggestion, and delib-
erately concluded that could not. in justice
TO myself, defer to it. | could not purchase
Office by even passive, negative dissimulaton.
No man should no enabled TO say to me, in
truth, eff had supposed you would persist in
"your rejected, condemned Amnesty hobby,
would not have given you my vote so
wrote and published, on tho 27th of that month.
my manifesto entitled "The True Bases OF he
construction" wherein, repelling the idea that
| proposed o diclcr with the ex-Rebels, cx-
pIicitly said


al am for Universal Amnesty far as immunity from
fear Of or for the peon be
featcd did think II desirable that JEFFERSON DaviS avn
seems to me that this might properly have been done
many months ego But it was not done them and now
would rcndIe passions that have nearly burned out or
been hushed TO sleep would fearully conyulso and
Citation ard Eindy feeling there it would large
sum directly and far Larger ndScy d re IN none to
agreement verdict can Imagine no good end 10
be .nbseryed by such trial. nays hsI neep h
treated as they are"


Is il conceivable that men who can read,
and who were made aware of this declaration
for most of you were present and shouted
approval of Mr. Fcssendcn's condemnation Of
thereaftcr-can now pretend that my aiding to
have Davis baied is something novel and un-
expected


-Gentlemen, shall not attend your meet
ing this evening. have an engagement out OF
town. and shall keep it. | do not recognize
you as capable of judging, or even fully appre-
hendng me. You evidently regard me as
weak sentimcntalist. mislcd by maudlin phi
losophy. | araig You as narrow-minded
blockhcads who would like to be useful TO
great and good cause, but do MT know how.
Your attempt TO base a great, enduring party
ON the hate and wrath necessarily eDgendered
by a bloody Civil War; is as though you should
plant q colony on an iceberg which had some
how drfted into tropical ocean. i tell you
here that, out of a life earnestly devoted to
the good of human kind, your children VIII Sc
lect my going TO Richmond and signing that
bail bond IA the wiscst act, and will feel that
it did more for Freedom and Humanity than
all of you were competent TO do, though you
had lived To the age of Methuselah.


| ask nothing of you, then, but that you
proceed TO your end by a direct, frank, manly
way. DO MT sidle off into a mild resolution OF
ccnsure. but move the expulsion which you
purposed, and which | deserve if deserve any
reproach whatever. All care for is, that you
make this a square, stand-np light ana record
your Judgment by Yeas and Nays. / care not
how few vote with me, nor how many vote
against me; for | know that the latter will re-
pent il in dust and ashes before three years
have passed. Understand once for all, that
dare you and defy you, and that | propose to
fight il ont on the line that | have held from
the day of Lees surrender. SO long as any
man was seeking To overthrow our Govern
ment, he was my enemy; from the hour In
which he laid down his arms, he was my form
clly erring countryman. So long as any is at
heart opposed to the National unity, the Fed
eral authority, or TO that assertion of the
Equal Rights of All Men which has become
practically identified with Loyalty and Nation
ality, ] shall do my best to deprive him of
power; but, whenever he ceases TO be thus, |
demand his restoration to all the privileges OF
American citizenship. ] give You fair notice
that ! shall urge the Northumberland of those
now prescribed for Rebellion so soon as shall
feel confident that this course is consistent
with the freedom of the Blacks and the
unity of the Republic, and that l shall
demand recall of all now in exile only
for participating in the Rebellion, whenever
the country shall have been so thoroughly
pacied that its safety will not thereby be en-
dangered. And So gentlemen, hoping that you
will henceforth comprehend me somewhat bet
ter than you have done, remain,


Yours. HORACE GREELEY.
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