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 I believe every vote withdrawn at this time from the support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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