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After touring the South, Greeley was formally welcomed home to New York on
June 12, 1871, with a serenade and greetings at the Lincoln Club Rooms at Union
Square and by an audience of thousands on the street outside. Speaking on a
platform erected in front of the Club Rooms, Greeley declared, “I desire no
office, and though I never shall decline any nomination that has not been given
to me—[laughter] I shall certainly seek no office whatever [applause].” His
carefully phrased observation, “I never shall decline any nomination that has
not been given to me” was clearly open to easy misquotation and
misinterpretation. In fact, that entire section of his oration could be
mistaken as a petulant declaration of independence from the Republican Party he
had done so much to establish. Greeley went on to speak of his experiences in
the South, the evils of “thieving” carpetbag rule, and urban corruption in the
North. For the editor, it was time the nation left behind the politics arising
from the Civil War. |
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