LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. FROM U. S. GRANT. "To GENERAL J. R. HAWLEY, "President National Union Republican Convention: "In formally accepting the nomination of the National Union Republican Convention of the 21st of May instant, it seems proper that some statement of views beyond the mere acceptance of the nomination should be expressed. The proceedings of the Convention were marked with wisdom, moderation and patriotism, and I believe express the feelings of the great mass of those who sustained the country through its recent trials. "I endorse the resolutions. If elected to the office of President of the United States it will be my endeavor to administer all the laws in good faith, with economy, and with the view of giving peace, quiet and protection everywhere. "In times like the present it is impossible, or at least eminently improper, to lay down a policy to be adhered to, right or wrong, through an administration of four years. New political issues, not foreseen, are constantly arising; the views of the public on old ones are constantly changing, and a purely administrative officer should always be left free to execute the will of the people. I always have respected that will, and always shall. "Peace and universal prosperity-its sequence-with economy of administration, will lighten the burden of taxation, while it constantly reduces the national debt. Let us have peace. "With great respect, your obedient servant, "WASHINGTON, May 29, 1868." "U. S. GRANT. LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. "HON. J. R. HAWLEY, FROM SCHUYLER COLFAX. “WASHINGTON, D. C., May 30, 1868. "President of the National Union Republican Convention: "DEAR SIR: The platform adopted by the patriotic convention over which you presided, and the resolutions which so happily supplement it, so entirely agree with my views as to a just national policy, that my thanks are due to the delegates as much for this clear and auspicious declaration of principles, as for the nomination with which I have been honored, and which I gratefully accept. "When a great rebellion, which imperiled the national existence, was at last overthrown, the duty of all others, devolving upon those intrusted with the responsibilities of legislation, evidently was to require that the revolted States should be re-admitted to participation in the government against which they had erred only on such a basis as to increase and fortify, not to weaken or endanger, the strength and power of the nation. Certainly no one ought to have claimed that they should be re-admitted under such rule that their organization as States could ever again be used, as at the opening of the war, to defy the national authority or to destroy the national unity. This principle has been the pole star of those who have inflexibly insisted on the Congressional policy your Convention so cordially indorsed. "Baffled by Executive opposition and by persistent refusals to accept any plan of reconstruction proffered by Congress, justice and public safety at last combined to teach us that only by an enlargement of suffrage in those States could the desired end be attained, and that it was even more safe to give the ballot to those who had loved the Union than to those who had sought ineffectually to destroy it. The assured success of this legislation is being written on the adamant of history, and will be our triumphant vindication. More clearly, too, than ever before does the nation now recognize that the greatest glory of a Republic is, that it throws the shield of its protection over the humblest and weakest of its people, and vindicates the rights of the poor and the powerless as faithfully as those of the rich and powerful. "I rejoice, too, in this connection, to find in your platform the frank and fearless avowal that naturalized citizens must be protected abroad "at every hazard," as though they were native born." Our whole people are foreigners, or descendants of foreigners. Our fathers established by arms their right to be called a nation. It remains for us to establish the right to welcome to our shores all who are willing, by oaths of allegiance, to become American citizens. Perpetual allegiance, as claimed abroad, is only another name for perpetual bondage, and would make all slaves to the soil where first they saw the light. Our national cemeteries prove how faithfully these oaths of fidelity to their adopted land have been sealed in the life-blood of thousands upon thousands. Should we then be faithful to the dead, if we did not protect their living brethren in the full enjoyment of that nationality, for which, side by side with the native born, our soldiers of foreign birth laid down their lives? "It was fitting, too, that the representatives of a party which had proved so true to national duty in time of war, should speak so clearly in time of peace for the maintenance untarnished of the national honor, national credit and good faith as regards its debt, the cost of our national existence. "I do not need to extend this reply by further comment on a platform which has elicited such hearty approval throughout the land. The debt of gratitude it acknowledges to the brave men who saved the Union from destruction, the frank approval of amnesty based on repentance and loyalty, the demand for the most thorough economy and honesty in government, the sympathy of the party of liberty with all throughout the world who long for the liberty we here enjoy, and the recognition of the sublime principles of the Declaration of Independence, are worthy of the organization on whose banners they are to be written in the coming contest. Its past record cannot be blotted out or forgotten. If there had been no Republican party, slavery would to-day cast its baneful shadow over the Republic. If there had been no Republican party, a free press and free speech would be as unknown from the Potomac to the Rio Grande as ten years ago. If the Republican party could have been stricken from existence when the banner of rebellion was unfurled, and when the response of "no coercion" was heard at the North, we would have had no nation to-day. But for the Republican party daring to risk the odium of tax and draft laws our flag could not have been kept flying on the field until the long-hoped-for victory came. Without a Republican party the Civil Rights bill-the guaranty of equality under the law to the humble and the defenceless, as well as to the strong—would not be to-day upon our national statute book. "With such inspiration from the past, and following the example of the founders of the Republic, who called the victorious General of the Revolution to preside over the land his triumphs had saved from its enemies, I cannot doubt that our labors will be crowned with success. And it will be a success that will bring restored hope, confidence, prosperity and progress, South as well as North, West as well as East, and, above all, the blessings, under Providence, of national Concord and Peace. "Very truly yours, "SCHUYLER COLFAX." |