“Respected Sir: We are here this morning to ask you to go and see Mr. Plimpton, of the “Commercial,” and say to him for us, that we not only thank but congratulate him for his recent bold and manly utterances in favor of truth. The time has arrived for those blessed with the knowledge presented by Spiritualism to bravely avow it, and we are glad that he has taken the initiative in the Queen City of the West. The time has truly passed when such avowal entails social ostracism or any kind of persecution. The banner of truth has been unfurled, and ye brave souls marshal the veteran hosts under it and onward to victory. You will find less obstruction than you think, for believers in this much-abused gospel of light are more numerous than you conceive. Besides you have myriad hosts of heaven at your backs. Falter not, move onward with firm and confident step. Be steadfast and true and bright laurels await you. The victory is not always to the strong, but to the active, the vigilant, and the brave. The army of Spiritualism has already swollen into huge proportions, and its ranks are being daily augmented. The decree has gone forth and the triumph will come. Truth shall arise for the eternal years of God are her’s, and nothing can stay or retard the onward march to victory of the grand army of invisible hosts.
“Horace Greeley.
“J. G. Bennett, Sr.
“Henry J. Raymond.”
CHAPTER XVIII.
COMMUNICATIONS FROM HORACE GREELEY, GOVERNOR
O. P. MORTON, AND A. P. WILLARD.
On the 7th of April, among other things, I received the following:
“Unless some changes are made in the conduct of your government direful consequences are to be apprehended. Under the present mode of administration it is continually subjected to very heavy straining, and it can not much longer stand it. Many reforms are needed, and the requirements of patriotism demand that they be seriously considered and acted upon. Your civil service is entirely wrong, and can not be continued much longer without serious detriment to your form of government. The integrity and stability of your institutions are constantly menaced by it. You claim that you have an elective government. Is the claim true? Thousands of important public offices are not filled by the elective voice of the people. They are filled by appointment from purely partisan considerations—for partisan purposes and as a reward for party services and party zeal. Fitness and worthiness are secondary and minor considerations. Hence arise clamorings of party strife, and the engendering of the festering sore curses of corruption. The Presidential office had better be abolished than to continue it invested with such vast patronage in dispensing official appointments. There exists no valid reason why the people themselves should not select from their neighbors postmasters, revenue officers, etc., as well as state, county, and township officers. The Presidential office should either be dispensed with or its incumbent elected by a direct vote of the people without the intervention of the cumbersome and corrupting electoral machinery. The electing of men to elect other men to office is the dodging of a responsibility and the surrendering of a right of the people that can not be defended upon sound principles.
“Another danger confronts you menacingly and demands watchful attention. It is the startling aggregations of wealth among the few, and wrung from the sweat of labor. These immense accumulations find utilization in the creation of merciless monopolies which have already assumed gigantic and threatening proportions in the United States.
“Stock gambling is not a whit better in morals than any of the games of cards by which the unwary are fleeced out of their hard earnings. The participants and operators in the one are no better than in the other, and yet the one, under your Christian civilization is applauded while the other is denounced. How long yet will the people continue to be hoodwinked and handicapped by designing political tricksters. We have seen the star of hope, but now behold the star of promise rising in its refulgent splendor, and therefore we take heart.