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the malcontents. A great many speeches eulogistic of Grant were made, but they were equally strong in behalf of sustaining the existing policy of the national government that they could not be used at Baltimore, especially as Grant himself had caused it to be understood that he would, on no account, be used for any such purpose as the engineers of this meeting contemplated.

The "Renominationists" met at Baltimore and endorsed Lincoln, in effect, unanimously. The people proved to be Renominationists too, and Lincoln was chosen by the largest popular and electoral majorities ever recorded. But Greeley did not allow this glorious result to be brought about without resorting to every device in his power to prevent it. On the morning after the nominations had been announced. Greeley had remarked in his paper:

"We cannot but feel that it would have been wiser and safer to spike the most serviceable guns of our adversaries by nominating another for President and thus dispelling all motives save that of naked disloyalty, for further warfare upon this Administration. We believe the Rebellion would have lost something of the cohesion and venom from the hour in which it was known that a new President would surely be inaugurated on the 4th of March next, etc."

He continued to intrigue against the Republican nominations during the summer. First, it was proposed, with infinite braggadocia, to have both Lincoln and Fremont withdrawn (and Fremont, glad to get out of the scrape with any show of grace, soon did so); then, on the 2d of September, finding Lincoln still in the field, in spite of the probs of the Tribune quill and the disgraceful and

damaging operations at Niagara Falls (to be mentioned below), Greeley addressed the following letter to the Governors of the loyal States (a call for 500,000 troops being then but partially answered):

Hon.

:

NEW YORK, Sept. 2, 1864.

YOUR EXCELLENCY: The undersigned have been requested by a body of influential Unionists to communicate with the loyal Governors for the purpose of eliciting replies to the following queries :

1. In your judgment, is the re-election of Mr. Lincoln a probability? 2. In your judgment, can your own State be carried for Mr. Lincoln ?

3. In your judgment, do the interests of the Union party, and so of the country, require the substitution of another candidate in place of Mr. Lincoln?

In these queries, we give no opinion of our own, and request yours only for the most private and confidential use.

Yours truly,

HORACE GREELEY,
Editor of the Tribune, (and two others.)

This device failed entirely, except as it may have served to retard the recruiting of troops in some of the States. If the answers to this letter had afforded any encouragement to their purpose, there is no telling what new coup d'etat this "influential body of Unionists" might have sprung upon the country.

GREELEY'S NIAGARA FALLS EXPLOIT.

It was during the summer of 1864, about a month after Lincoln had been renominated, that Greeleypretending to be friendly to the President-attempted to draw him into a proposition to the Rebel Government for peace. We will give the history of this operation of Greeley's in the language of another, who has epitomized it in a manner suitable to our purpose:

So late as the 23d day of February, 1864, he reiterated in the New York Tribune, in this language, his views concerning the right of the South to secede :

"We have repeatedly said, and we once more insist, that the great principle embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, is sound and just, and that if the slave States, the cotton States, or the Gulf States only, choose to form an independent nation, they have a clear, moral right to do so. * * Whenever it shall be clear that the great body of the Southern people have become conclusively alienated from the Union, and anxious to escape from it, we will do our best to forward their views."

*

Recognized by the South as a leading Republican, it is not strange that Mr. Greeley should be regarded by them as the most fitting person to whom to address peace propositions. His views differed in no essential particular from theirs. Every failure of the Union armies was continually magnified by him. His views of the situation were most gloomy and despondent, and he took good care that through the columns of his paper they should be widely circulated. Early in July, 1864, correspondence was opened with Mr. Greeley by an irresponsible and half crazy adventurer known as "Colorado Jewett." On the 5th of July, Jewett writes Greeley, in reply to a note previously received from him, in which he says: “I am authorized to state to you, for our use only, not the public, that two embassadors of Davis & Co. are now in Caneda, with full and complete powers for a peace, and Mr. Sanders requests that you come on immediately to me at Cataract House, to have a private interview, or if you will send the President's protection for him and two friends they will come on and meet you."

On the next day Jewett telegraphed Greeley as follows: "Will you come here? Parties have full power."

On the 7th of July Greeley inclosed Jewett's letter and telegram to the President, accompanied by a letter of his own, in which occurs this remarkable passage:

"And, therefore, I venture to remind you that our bleeding, bankrupt, almost dying country, also longs for peace, shudders at the prospect of fresh conscription, of further wholesale devastation, and of new river of human blood; and a widespread conviction that the government and its prominent supporters are not anxious for peace, and do not improve proffered opportunities to achieve it, is doing great harm now, and is morally certain, unless removed, to do far greater in the approaching elections."

[In this letter were also embodied the terms on which Greeley proposed to effect a peace. Among these conditions were the payment of $400,000,000 to the Slave States, rebel and loyal alike, for the

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THE FAMILY RIDE.

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