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of a Presidential election, either by the defeated minority on the one hand, or the triumphant majority on the other, resorting to violent measures to retrieve the losses of the former or redress the grievances of the latter.
The American people must meet this question in limine. These baffled conspirators threaten violence whatever may be the result of the election.
Patriotic men of both parties, rising superior to the claims and clamors of faction, must, through the omnipotence of the ballot, trample the last throe and wriggle of life out of this pestilent serpent of Nullification and Revolution.
During the period of doubt as to the result of the impeachment trial, it was considered possible that the president of the Senate, then
Mr. Wade, of
Ohio, might succeed
Andrew Johnson, and in this event that the cabinet would necessarily be reorganized.
This gave rise to much speculation as to its probable composition.
Many names were discussed in the
Sun, but that of
Horace Greeley was counted as the first.
In presenting it on April 30th,
Dana used the following language:
... Of Mr. Greeley's capacity for the office of Secretary of State, the Republican party can have no manner of doubt since his famous letter to the blockheads of the Union League.1 He has the advantage of Mr. Seward that he can be brief and forcible.
Mr. Greeley's political record is without reproach.
It will be remembered that from the time
Dana left the Chicago
Republican till he took charge of the
Sun he contributed to no public journal, and took no public part in shaping national policies, but he was an observant spectator of both national and international events.
From the end of the
Civil War, and before the volunteer army was disbanded, he held that the first duty of the government
