Year: 1872

The following is q verbatim extract
from the letter written by General J. ID.
Imboden to Franklin Stearns, on Tues
day last, and 10 which brief mention
was made by telegraph:


"My opinion is that any party to beper-
manently useful in the South must en-
brace large proportion of both races.
The Democratic party cannot succeed
in winning to its support the great body,
or, indeed, any considerable number OF
the negro population, for reasons that
are founded on the history of the past
ten years; and for equally strong reasons
the Republican party can make no
decided impression on the general
white population of the South, there
fore we see that party lines here are
almost synonymous race lines of de-
marcation. This state of things is
productive of much mischief and tends
to perpetuate struggle between the
races that in the eud will force the
weaker race TO the wall. 1t is impossi-
ble for the Democratic party to win the
negro, and no movement il may put on
foot win do so. Therefore, esteem it a
most fortunate circumstance that this
new movement originated in the Re
publican party and is managed by dis
tinguished men of that party. The
ticket to be put forward, too, must be
Republican, or it will fail. You know
the negro character well enough to agree
with me that the mere subtleties of a
platform will make no impression on
him unless that platform is embodied in
the life and public career of the eandi-
dates representing it. They must be
new men, their names familiar to the
negro ear-familiar even when with
bated breath in the cabin quarters years
ago he discussed the possibilities of eman-
cipation through the agency of these
early friends of his freedom, of whom
he then heard something perhaps
from the angry debates of contending
parties on the stump. You must nomi-
nate men whose names are associated
with emancipation before you approach
the negro and ask him to abandon the
party to which he feels indebted for his
freedom. Proclaim the name of Horace
Greeley for your candidate for President,
and it viii be recollected at once as that
of the brave champion of his freedom,
who was known in negro quarters as
such even long before the name of Mr..
Lincoln had penetrated the South. My
opinion is that all the carpet-baggers in
all the South cannot keep in the party
traces the negro population to beat HOr-
ace Greeley. No living man has such a
hold upon their gratitude and affections
as Mr.. Greeley. How viii it be with
the whites of the South? Mr.. Greeley
was never fully known in the South till
since the war; and now that he is known
l believe he commands more uni
versally the confidence and respect of
our people than any man north of the
Potomac has for forty years. He is re-
garded as a great and good man, whose
peculiarities rather strengthen than de-
tract from the personal regard all men
have for him. l believe the nomination
of Mr.. Greeley would free the canvass
of all acrimony in the South, and that
in ninety days we should have perfect
gr0und-swell of enthusiasm embOdying
a large majority of both races. We know
that Mr.. Greeley, since the triumph of
his lifelong labor in the cause of human
freedom, has shown that he possesses a
head and heart too great to indulge in
the ignoble exhibition of exultatiOn over
q brave and vanquished people who hon
estly opposed his policy and aims to the
utmost of their power. / have only re-
fefred to his strength in the South. Ibe-
lieve he would be no less popular in the
North. His unquestioned honesty, his
thorough nationality, his sstatesman-like
ability, his rise from the ranks of the
labOring masses, his unfaltering devO-
ton to the poor immigrant thrown
upon our shores, his pursuits in life as
printer and journalist, appealing to the
esprit de corps of the editorial fraternity,
altogether constitute elements Of popu-
larity that no man has possessed in this
country for many years. Pardon this
intrusion Of my views upon you; they
are not mine alone, but are shared by
thousands of others like myself, natives
of the South, and for four years vOlun-
teers in her armies, but now longing for
perfect restoration Of peace, goodwill
and prosperity