Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1869 — Greeley’s Letter of Acceptance. [ARTICLE]

Greeley’s Letter of Acceptance.

New York, October 9, 1861). To lion. IlajniliQii llnrriff and associates, JiepubliCBn st«ne Coimnittee: Gentlemen: Absence in the interior of the State precluded a prompt response to the nomination you have seen tit to tender me. I improve the earliest moment to reply to your kind notification. You do not need to lie told that I did not want the nomination any more than 1 c.wccted it, and that I do not desire the oluce. But co km p r t.-1 political life Has Its responsibilities and its duties as well as its opportunities and its honors, and I accept without hesitation, thanking you for the faith you have evinced in my .devotion to the Republican cause.- I trust that some friend may lie aide to say with truth at my grave that my political friends never were asked by me for agy favor, and never required of me any honorable service that I did not cheerfully render. There arc those who would persuade us that the Republican party has finished its work, and should now dissolve and pass away.. They say this in full view of the Fifteenth Amendment, whereof the ratifi cation by the States is stiil pending, and by no means assured. They say it in defiance cf the fact that we are called to vote this fall directly to abolish or retain the property qualification whereby a part of our own citizens, who were required to serve, and did serve, in the armies of the Union, Rre yet denied the right of suffrage. Four colored men from the township adjoining mine fell dead on the single field of Olustee, fighting bravely for freedom and their country; and now their sons are denied a voice in the government of that country by the efforts and votes of men who have no more .property and no better education tlian they, and who took excellent care never to risk their lives in defense of the Union. If there be one Union soldier—even one—who votes to deny the right of suflrage to the sons of those who fel 1 fighting for the Republic, I must believe that he was impelled to enlist rather by love of bounty than love of country.

For myself, having all my life done what I could to secure a legal and practical recognition of the equal rights of American citizens, having on two occasions stood at the polls, aa. I usually do on election days, andmstnbuted ballots in favor of abolishing this most invidious and iniquitous property qualification, I rejoice in the third opportunity now afforded me for so doing, ana shall thankfully improve it In the course qf nature, I cannot expect to live many years longer; but I hope to be> spared long enough to see this relic of slavery erased from the fundamental law pf our State. If unsuccessful now, I "Shall urge a resubmission of the question at the earliest day, and so again and again until sham Democracy shall be wearied or shamed into saying, like its prototype, the Unjust Jqdgc of old, “Though i fear not God, neither regard man, yet will I do justice to this poor suitor, lest by continual coming he weary me." In no State within my knowledge has this question of impartial suffrage been repeatedly submitted that a large gain of votes to the right side was not realized at each successive trial until victory crowned the exertions of the cliampions of equal rights. Let us never doubt, that such will be the result in our State, and with steadfast faith in the ultimate triumph of justice, let us thank God and take courage. This is the off-year in politics. Men whose patriotism barely suffice to take them to the polls when a President, or when nt least a Governor and members of Congress, are to be chosen, will not come out this’fill. The great army of disappointed office-seekers and selfish aspirants to live off' the public will also contribute vastly to the legions of sulky stay-at-homes. Gen. Gillct, lacking the miraculous power which fed multitudes to repletion on a few small loaves and fishes, has offended these patriots beyond the hope of present forgiveness. Let me, therefore, entreat them .to go to the polls, and there work and vote simply for the constitutional amendment securing iinpiirtial suffrage. They will thus proclaim that their personal disappointments have not affected their principles, and that their past professions of Republicanism were not insincere. They shall be most welcome to vote against me, and stiß claim to be better Republicans than I Mn,-if they will thus evince unabated devotion to the cause.

I congratulate you on the assured triumph of equal rights regardless of color in a future by no meansremqte. The general adhesion of the South to thisprinciple iiwures its success. There will be, aS there has been, a great party throughout the South which calls itself Conservative and stigmatizes its opponents as Radical; but the former claims to be as Heartily and thoroughly for equal rights as the latter, nuts colored men on its tickets, and in every way manifests its faith by its works. Even though this position were reluctantly taken. I do not believe it insincerely held, and 1 clearly see that it can in no case be abandoned. Nor can a great national party base itself on equal rights in the South andon proscription and caste at the North. It will have to take a decided and unequivocal position in preparing for the next Prcsidental contest*; and that must be one which does not divest it of i) hope of carrying a single State south of the Potomac. The line of battle of the advocates of “ a white man’s government ’’ is thus fatally broken, and their total discomfiture merely a question of time. It lithoves us to take care that New York be not taught her duty to the humble and despised by South Carolina, but that she resume her proper place in the van of themighty host that strikes for justice, progress and universal liberty. While slavery endured, the proscription of the blacks rested on a perfectly intelligible and logical founitation. It was deemed fit that the men who voted should be. palpably distinguished from the men Who were sold at auction. The reason having vanished, the proscription remains only 4$ a tree cut off and stuck in the gjtolind nSF • erv< as a F :irt y standard or rtnyrng-postlotsg after its vitality has de parted ; but- all know that its ’ days art [ numbered, and that it must soon fall of ita own Weight, if jot qfileily taken down

which is safest and lx-st. All-Intelligent Democrats know, and in convermiion admit, inevi'ably become a land of equal rights and equal laws; buttheparty man agers say to eaoh other, “ We can carry two or three more elections—or, at least thu one—by crying down with the blacks: the fifture must take care of llaelf.” And thus a great wrong is persisted in through th* selfish arts and calculation of men who nrofouwdly despise the prejudice whereby they neverthelessiicek..an4.hope to profit. They do this in the conviction that many voters who are no baser, are a great deal mere ignorant and stupid than themselves. In the confident trust that the canvass on which we are now entering will be signalized by determined though quiet effort on the ]>art of the friends of Gen. Grant’s wise, prudent and patriotic Administration, and that its result will shame the laggards and faint hearts who are never ready to put forth efforts except when they are not needed, 1 remain, yours, grateftfily, Hohace Gkeei.ey.