As you well know, in dozens of speeches in many states I have advocated your policies and the war.
While the economists of that day believed the conditions of poverty and misery to be inevitable, the pessimists pronounced them unendurable, and advocated a radical social change as the only hope of saving the masses from starvation.
He had fought against slavery with all the strength of his able pen; but he advocated buying the slaves for four hundred million dollars rather than going to war,--a cheaper method than our subsequent conflict, with enormous loss of life and money.
After the war Mr. Greeley, while advocating "impartial suffrage" for black as well as white, advocated also "universal amnesty." He believed nothing was to be gained by punishing a defeated portion of our nation, and wanted the past buried as quickly as possible.
The only difference consists in the opposite character of the equality advocated by these two men; one is the equality that elevates, the other is the equality that degrades; one brings a king within reach of the guillotine, the other elevates the people to a level with the throne.