race Greeley. It was a choice that from the first moment not only
defeated but almost stultified the liberal movement. It mattered not
much what principles the convention set forth. Tariff reform it had
already set aside, and Greeley was a zealous protectionist. For
scientific civil-service reform he cared nothing, and to mistakes in his
personal choices he was at least as liable as Grant. His revolt against
Grant was due partly to a dispute about State patronage. Only in
generous sentiment toward the South did he fitly represent the original
and best element of the convention. He was dropped at once by the
_Evening Post_, the _Nation_, and a large part of the liberals. The
Democrats, despairing of any other way to success, indorsed his
nomination. But the acceptance of a candidate who for thirty years had
been showering hard words on the Democracy was almost grotesque. The
South was halfhearted in his support. A few of the faithful nominated
Charles O'Conor on an independent Democrat ticket. The question was only
of the size of the majority against Greeley.

His wisest supporters avowed as the best significance of his candidacy:
"It means that the war is really over." Greeley had proved the sincerity
of his friendliness toward the South at a heavy cost. President Johnson
held Jefferson Davis in long imprisonment, with the aggravation not only
of close confinement and even a temporary manacling, but of a public
accusation of complicity in the murder of Lincoln. It was treatment
wholly unfit for a prisoner of state and a man of Davis's character. Its
effect on the South may be judged by imagining how the North would have
felt had Lincoln fallen into Southern hands and been kept in shackles
and under the charge of assassination. The imprisonment of Davis and the
avowed purpose to try him as a traitor were utterly out of keeping with
the general recognition that secession and its sequel were to be dealt
with as a political wrong and not a personal crime.

Greeley, who on the very morning after Lee's surrender had called for a
universal amnesty, showed his faith by his works when at the opportunity
in May, 1867, he offered himself, in company with Gerrit Smith, as
bondsmen for Davis, thus obtaining his release, and incurring for
himself a storm of obloquy. The storm was short-lived, but revived in
greater fury when Greeley became a Presidential candidate against Grant,
with the support of the Democracy and the South. The ca