46 ME. Greeley's response. 



trict, where I have worked for the last forty years, where I know a 

 great many people, and where whatever I may have of property or 

 business is located. They put up my name and ran me for Con- 

 gress, giving me all the Republican votes and some more. So, 

 again last Fall, our friends in the Sixth District saw fit — when I 

 was prostrated by sickness and unable to fulfill engagements to 

 speak made for me by the State Committee — to unite on me as their 

 candidate for Congress ; and they supported me in the face of 

 twenty-eight hundred Democratic majority in the previous contest. 

 I could not speak to them. I could not even visit them ; but I stood 

 in my lot, and shared the fate of my party and its other candidates. 

 Well, gentlemen, there was one other time. In the Fall of 1869, 

 your State Convention met, nominated a most respectable and 

 acceptable State Ticket, and adjourned. My name was not even 

 thought of. But a few days later, consternation was spread by the 

 news that three leading candidates on that ticket had peremptorily 

 declined ; so your State Committee was hastily assembled, and saw 

 fit — being obliged to make a second nomination in order not to let 

 the election go by default and give up the Legislature without a 

 struggle— to fill one of these places on the ticket with my name. 

 I was not consulted. I knew nothing of their purpose. I was 

 absent from the City, and only returned after all had been done, to 

 be told, " Don't say a word ; you must stand ; that is the end of 

 it ; " and I stood. 



Now, fellow-citizens, I am not at all grateful to the Republican 

 party for these several nominations. I accepted them, as I accept 

 any public duty that seems to be fairly incumbent upon me ; 

 and I did what I could to secure the success of the ticket on which 

 my name was printed. I am very grateful to those generous and 

 gallant Republicans who, in the face of certain defeat, rallied around 

 me and gave me a hearty support, ninning my name in each case 

 a little ahead of the average of my ticket. For that support, I am 

 grateful ; for the several nominations, not at all. 



But, gentlemen, the past is past. " Let the dead bury their 

 dead." I am perfectly willing to pass receij)ts with the Republican 

 party and say that our accounts are now settled and closed. They 

 owe me nothing for being a Republican ; I could not have helped 

 being one if I had tried ; and, being a Republican, it was in my 

 nature to do all I could for the success of that party which em- 

 bodied and enforced my personal convictions. I was just as grate- 



