Year: 1870

| To the Editors Of the New Era:


Having for years past entertained no av


pectation of ever again filling any pubIic
Office, have been to some extent snrprised
10 learn that it is generally reported and
believed that am, or will be a candidate
for promotion at the November election.


Regretting that anything should make it
necessary for me to depart from that silence
and quiet, which has been with me since
the war, both q matter of taste and policy;
but to prevent Misunderstanding it is con-
sidered due to the public, and to those
partial friends who have presented my
humble claims to the people, to say that l
am not, and do not expect to he, a candi-
date for any Office. In my opinion it is
not for the interest of the disfranchAed
and oppressed people of the Southern
States for men like me-"outlawed" by
what is called the Fourteenth Amendment
to the Constitution Of the United States
! to be candidates for Office when the ques-
ton can be made before Congress, or the
United States courts. Admitting that the
Fourteenth Amendment is an impolitic,
unjust and expost facto enactment, i'm
posed upon the country by exceptional
agencies, in violation of the letter and
and spirit of the Constitution and of Ameri-
can law and history, yet the ruling party
has the power to enforce it, and every CON
test, and every law suit, involving the
question will prove q misfortune and delay
the general removal of disabilities.


It is maxim of English law, ''that the
crown is indestructible, and the King can
do no wrong" 1t is to be regretted that
the eonquering party In the late civil war
did not establish it as a constitutional
axiom, that the States live forever, and the
people can do no wrong; that whole COM
munities can neither be attainted or tried
by municipal law for military or political
offences which have already been punished
by the calamities and horrors of a most
disastrous war. As many of the ablest
minds in the Republican party are now
advocating immediate enfranchisement
there is reason to hope that this unwise
policy viii soon be abandoned.


But at this time it is not probable that I
would be allowed to hold any Office to
which the partiality Of my fellow-citizens
might elect me, and it could be no less
than crime if by any ambitious act of
mine the general enfranchisement should
be delayed. There should be no regrets
on my account-the post of honor is now
emphstically the private station; and
have always done better for myself in pri-
vate life than in public office; and do not
pretend that my services could be Of any
great benefit to the people. 1t is better
in the sight of God and impartial history
to be the oppressed, than the oppressof:
better conquered and disfranchieed than to
have destroyed the liberty and constitution
Of my country, and to have made hire
hngs of the people and their children for
the next one hundred years.


The Government of the United States
has no good cause to hold me by the force
of public law as an enemy and rebel. |
Three times have been honorably dis |
charged from its armies, and have rebel |
and loyal leg !; the one shattered under
the United States flag at the battle of 'Mo-
limo del Rey," the other under the rebel
flag at Perryville, and without changing
my opinions in regard to past political
questions, am still true and reliable
friend to the prosperity and happiness of
the people of these States. If this is not |
my country, then have no country.


Intending never to seek another public |
Office, and remembering with gratitude |
past favors, being ready at all times to
obey the wishes Of my friends in any posi-
ton to which the voice of the people may,
prejudice to themselves, assign me.


l am with respect,


JOIN II. SAVAGE.