Sunday, November 16, 2014

Senator James W. Grimes to E. H. Stiles, September 14, 1865

Burlington, September 14, 1865.

I am astonished to learn, as I do by your letter of the 12th inst., that any one has asserted or believed for one moment that I do not fully, freely, and as enthusiastically as I am capable of doing it, support the entire Republican ticket in the pending canvass. You say the report is that I am indifferent to the result “on account of the uncalled-for and unwise action of the Union convention on the suffrage question.” I certainly did regard that action as uncalled for and impolitic, and had I been a member of the convention I would have opposed the introduction into the platform of any new issue upon any subject, however just I might believe the principle to be. I would have opposed it because I believe that there has been no time during the last four years when it was more necessary that the Union party of the nation should present an unbroken front and stand as a unit, than at the present moment, and I would have done nothing, consented to nothing, that would have a tendency to repel a single voter from a support of the Union party, which is the support of the Union itself. I believe every vote withdrawn at this time from the support of the Union ticket withdraws just that much moral support from the Administration, and that that support is just as necessary to the Government in the present crisis as it was necessary to support our armies when in the field.

The very fact that in my view the convention erred by introducing a local issue into the canvass when the minds of the people are very properly engrossed by the transcendently great national issues pressing upon them, so far from begetting “indifference,” would give me much greater anxiety as to the result of the election, and would call forth a corresponding exertion, did not I know that the people of Iowa thoroughly understand the questions before them, and cannot be diverted from their support of the Government by any side-issue like this of negro suffrage in this State.

There is not an intelligent man in the State who does not fully comprehend all the subjects legitimately embraced in this canvass.

The Union party seek simply to fulfill in good faith their obligations assumed during the war, and to secure to the country as the fruits of four years' struggle permanent unity, peace, and prosperity.

We all know that the Democratic party desire and intend to coalesce with the returned rebels from the South. By that means, if they can succeed in distracting the supporters of the Government and secure a few Northern States, they hope to obtain control of the Government, and then will follow the assumption of the rebel debt, the restoration of slavery under a less odious name, and the return of the leaders of the rebellion to power. It was to this end that the farce was enacted a few weeks ago at Des Moines of nominating a Soldiers' ticket By The Democratic Party.

But of this folly it is hardly worth while to speak. I have neither seen nor heard of a man who is likely to be deceived by it. It is only calculated to make the actors in it ridiculous, and its only final result will be to add one disappointed man to the Democratic party.

No, my dear sir, there never was a time in the history of the Government when it was more incumbent upon every good citizen to support the Union ticket, whatever may be his intentions on the subject of universal suffrage, than now; and if I believed that there was the slightest doubt about the result, though I am admonished by my physician that I can no longer safely speak out-of-doors, as I should generally be compelled to do, I would at once enter personally into the canvass, and use what strength I have to urge upon the people the importance of the contest. But there is no need of it. The people will not be deceived or misled on this subject. The jugglery at Des Moines, when Colonel Benton received the nomination of the men who, during the last four years, have thrown every possible impediment in the way of the Union cause, was too transparent to deceive any one.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 280-2

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