| OCR Text |
Show TUB NEW lOKK "HERALD" OH GHK ELEIi It is scarcely a week to-day since the first nomination in tbe Presidential campaign was placed before the people by the Cincinnati convention, and already al-ready the pioneer candidate has been assailed by the opposition press with a personal vindictiveness tnat we had hoped might be excluded from the present canvass. There is nothing in the public or private record of Horace Greeley's life to warrant the scurrilous attacks that are daily made upon him by the partisan ortran- whose hot wrath is excited by the honor that has been conferred upon him. Commencing lite as a compositor he worked his way upward up-ward until he became tbe head of the leading political journal of the country; and the punty of bis life, the kindn.-ot kindn.-ot his heart and the simplicity of his mann2rs have been as honorable to him ae his business success. Vet, now I that he i a candidate tor tie LitLet oti.ee in the cift ot the American peo- 1 pie, his virtues have suddenly become vices m tbe eyes of his energies. 1; his assai.aDL continei their ai-ue? t;"' hi? ecccntncities and pomiiantio thc:r I pep "'r,aii'ic would riot be M ff-i ff-i 'fri-ive jit-'I Trprhf ni'.b1!"1 : bat I - ir i..d-:?- :r.r" to ; .V! r -n w.-h f :'-:?t I -.hey can se.cu A cr.j i -ursai, edited by an alien Englishman, who misunderstands misun-derstands the American people and has but a superficial knowledge of American institutions, takes the lead in this style of warfare, and denounces Horace Greeley as a traitor to the Union, a secret conspirator with the Southern rebels and an associate of Tammany ihieves. A Cockney Briti--h subject, who worships the reignine monarch and is overawed in the awful presence of the lord mayor, cannot be supposed to oomorehend or to appreciate appre-ciate the honorable ambition of every American to attain to the proud omee of President of the republic, and hence his sneers at breeley on tins ground are natural enough; but the citizens of the United States who have watched "Uncle Horace's" career since their boyhood will scarcely endorse the Kug-lish Kug-lish New York editor's judgment when he declares that Greeley, in his laoo-i- ous, well fought and truly American j career, ha ''schemed and plotted, slan-1 dered good men and screened ra-cals. ! outraged every principle of puline;;! . ci"n--ist.eccy and spurned uvt-ry obligation obliga-tion of public virtue." Copperhead organs, four years a no, teemed v'.th persjnal abu;c of Grant and with ntleetk'tis upon his personal habits, and Kng:ib-uien Kng:ib-uien read these slanders and were too have reached atimher pre-ideuttal e:ii:-vass, e:ii:-vass, and the first candidate ia the field is ridiculed, caricatured, reviled aud denounced; now laughed at as little better than a fool, and again branded as an associate of thieves who has spurned every obligation of public virtue. It is no wonder that foreigners foreign-ers totally misunderstand the character of our people when they view us in the light we cast upon each other. We protest at this early stage of the campaign against the introduction ot : these personalities and scurrilities into ! the pending canvass. They cannot be indulged in" by one parly without rt-c.ul- j ing upon its own candidates; aud for the honor of the nation we call upon Americans, at least, to discountenance such a mode of political warfare, however how-ever well it may suit the tate or answer an-swer the purposes of foreigners who can have no real sympathy with the republic. Horace Greeley is a true type of American life a self-made, honest-hearted, energetic man, having bis peculiarities and eccentric notions, but all the mora American on that ae count, L be wears oowhide boots, destituto of polish, they have carried him bravely through an honorable career, ca-reer, marked out by enterprise and ending in success. If his coat hangs loosely on his shoulders aud drags at his h els it bullons over a heart, that is proud of tbe laud of bis birth aud full of kindly feeling for his fellow men. If bis old white hat lacks the fashionable curve in the brim, and looks like a venerable and not well preserved family fam-ily relio. it oovers a brain full of genius, ever ready to labor in the cause of freedom free-dom and for the advancement of the human race. Uidicule and abuse arc harmless weapons against such a man, for the people of tho United States know him and honor him, and every eye has a kindly look and every hand a friendly grasp for "Uncle Horace." N. Y. Herald. |
