Year: 1872

Gr:tZ Brown.


HIS LETTER ACCEPTING THE NoM1NA 10,
OF THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION


ST.. Louis, Mo, June In repl,
to the notification of his nomination
as Vice President by the Cincinnati
Convention, Gov. Brown makes the
following response:


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, JEFFERSON CRY
MAY 81, 1872.


GENTLEMEN Your letter advising
me of the action of the Liberal Re
publican Convention at Cincinnati
has been received, and I return
through you my acknowledgment Of
the honor which has been conferred
upon me.


I accept the nomination as a can
didate for Vice President, and in
dorse most cordially the resolutions
setting forth the principles on which
the appeal is made to the whole pco-
pie Of the United States.


A century is closing Upon our ex-
periencc of republican government,
and while that lapse of time has wit
messed a great expansion of our free
institutions, yet it has not been with
out Illustration also of grave dangers
to the stability Of such a system. OF
those successfully encountered, it is
needless to speak of those which
remain to menace IT'S, the most
threatening are provided against, as
[ firmly believe, in the wise and
pacific measures proposed by your
platform. It has come to be the
practice of those elevated to positions
Of national authority to regard pub
lie service but as a means to retain
power. This results in substituting
mere party organization for the
Government itself, which constitutes
u control amenable to no laws or
moalities, impairs all Independent
thought, enables a few to rule the
many, and makes personal allegiance
the road to favor. It requires little
forecast to perceive that this will
wreck all liberties, unless there be
interposed q timely reform Of the
Administration from its highest to
its lowest station, which shall not
only prevent abuses, hut likewise
take away the incentive to their
practice. Wearied with tho conten-
tons that are carried on in avarice
OF spoils, the country demands re-
pose and resents the efforts OF Off
cials to dragoon it again into parti-
san Lostilitics. And I will zealously
sustain any movement promising IL
sure (eliverance from the pel,ils
which have been connected with the
war. It is safe to say that only
those are now to be feared which
come of al abuse OF victory into per-
manent estrangement. The Union
is fortified by more power than ever
before, and it remains rs an impera-
tive duty to cemcnt nationality by a
perfect reconciliation at the North.
A widespread sympathy is aroused
in behalf of those States Of the South
which, long after the termination Of
resistance to the rightful Federal au-
thority, are still plundered under the
guise Of loyalty and tyrannized ever
in the name of freedom. Along with
this feeling is present, too, the rec
ognition that in complete amnesty
alone can be found hope Of any re-
turn to constitutional government as
of old, or any development ola more





enduring unity and broader national
life in the future. Amnesty, how
ever, to be eficacious, must be real,
not nominal ; genuine, not evasiye.
It must carry along with it equal
rights as well as equal protection to
all for the removal of disabilities
as to some, with enforcement as to
others, leaves room for suspicion
that pardon is measured by political
gain. Especially will such professed
clemency be futile in the presence OF
the renewed attempt at prolonging a