West Virginia Argus

HOW HE WAS CONVERTED
Why General Tom Ewing Cut Loose from the Republican Party.

Cincinnati Enquirer.

When General Ewing left the Republican party he was a citizen of Kansas, and continued such for more than three years thereafter -- having, in the meantime, in 1868, supported Mr. Seymour for the Presidency. The people of Kansas had before that time conferred upon him high offices. He was one of the political leaders of the State, in the line of promotion to the highest honors; and the State at that time was and ever since has been, overwhelmingly Republican, which party also then held the National and nearly all of the State Governments.

Could personal and self-considerations have induced this change?

General Ewing returned to his native town and State in 1870, and again became a citizen of Ohio. The following letter under date of November 10, 1867, taken from the National Intelligencer of November 3d, 1867, gives the reasons why he could not support General Grant and the Republican party. It is addressed to Colonel O. A. Bassett of Lawrence, Kansas, and is as follows:

'WASHINGTON, November 18, 1867. -- Dear Colonel: I have your letter of the 10th inst., advising me of the formation of Grant clubs by many of our comrades in Kansas, and asking my opinion of the movement.

'I earnestly wish to be in accord with the great part of my Kansas and army friends, and still hope to unite them in supporting General Grant for President. But I want first to know whether he approves the reconstruction measures, for if he does I cannot support him. I regard them as mischievous -- begot of revenge, misdirected philanthropy and lust of power. I would as soon expect a house to stand on the crater of a living volcano as a State, where whites and blacks being nearly equal in numbers, the whites are proscribed and the blacks made rulers. Such a Government cannot long have the heartfelt sympathy of any large body of white men anywhere. Blood is thicker than water, and Northern whites will sympathize with Southern whites in their struggle to shake off the incubus of negro rule. If there were no prejudice of race to affect their action the Northern people would still refuse to produce in the States of the Union Hayti or San Domingo, or any other government and civilization the negro has established since the flood. To punish the Southern whites for their treason the Northern people might possibly for a time be willing to afflict them with such governments, but self-interest forbids it. It were like the fabled war of the belly and the members. The North already groans under the punishment now being inflicted on the South, and must, besides, pay for the whip. The negro governments, when formed, must be propped by Northern bayonets, and, however costly, they can never safely be withdrawn. When reconstructed, each one of those States will be like a magazine, all secure while carefully guarded outside, but when left unguarded a chance spark will blow it and all about it to the devil.

'Entertaining those views, I would not support any candidate for the Presidency who indorses the reconstruction measures, even if they were legal, still less as I consider them wholly unconstitutional, and full of danger and precedents.

'I write you explicitly, because I value your good opinion and want you to know how I think and feel, and mean to act on the stupendous questions which lie around and before us.

Yours faithfully,

Thomas Ewing.'