The Writings of Carl Schurz/From Horace Greeley, May 20th, 1872

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Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz and others, edited by Frederic Bancroft

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New York City: G. P. Putnam's Sons, page 377

3451991Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz — From Horace Greeley, May 20thCarl Schurz and others

FROM HORACE GREELEY

New York, May 20, 1872.

Private.
I have yours of the 18th. The corrections you make in the letter of notification shall be followed.

I thank you for the frankness of your view of the situation. That it does not accord with mine only proves that your advices differ from mine. I am sure that is all.

Now let me speak.

I fully understood Mr. Ferry. His officeholders have their necks in the noose—they are threatened with destruction for his sake—and he must save them if he can. He may cause himself to be universally detested; he cannot stop Connecticut going for the Cincinnati ticket at Baltimore and in the choice of President. Keep this letter, and see if I am not right.

Baltimore is far more certain to adopt and ratify the Cincinnati ticket than you are to support it heartily. New York will vote it solid; New England nearly so; the South ditto. Here is enough without looking further. We shall carry this State by more than fifty thousand majority—good judges say seventy-five to one hundred thousand.

New York and the fifteen ex-slave States choose nearly half the electors. None of these can be carried by legal votes against the Cincinnati ticket, which will have the votes of Connecticut and New Hampshire, and of Rhode Island also if Sprague says so.

I believe our chance is even for the votes of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the Northwest. But for German hostility, it would be more than even. As it is, Trumbull and Palmer may be beaten in Illinois, but I don't believe it.

I shall accept unconditionally.