Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-07-31
The N. Y. NatiOn-Literary Pre-
tenders and Dishonest Parlisans.


The N. T. Nation, whose pretence is lit
erature, but whose forte is extreme parti-
sanship in politics, condemns Hon. VIM.
MuNGUKs who represents the 9TH District
of Ohio in Congress, because, in recens
speech, he argued, and quoted authorities
to prove, that the proposed forced advance
ment of the Negro to, political equality, and
by consequenceto social association, could
not from physiological and other reasons
elevate the Negro and must only degrade
the White race. The authorities he cited
ere with oraculsr brevity pronounced ''ab-
surd," and he is insolently assumed to
know nothing of his subject. To show the
animus Of the Nation LIN his speech Mr..
NJ. acknowledges! his obligation for ''mdny'
of his ideas to DR.. White, of Toledo, and
j the dishonest critic quotes him as saying
''most.ot his ideas,'' thus giving point to
his sarcasm by a falsehood. And the Ma
tion critic further insists that such a dis
] cussion would in any case be an outrage
Gus encroachment on the time of the
4 House!o .ZsF 7rdE -'urna s'aee,nHI i.if q E.'
Lamaware that to quote history, mat
ter of pertinent science, or philosophy be-
fore the present Congress, is in sense use
less.i That body having noregard for any
| thing but the enactment of such laws as
shall punish and degrade all who oppose
i the permaneney of their partisan ascend!
ancy, and totally Indifferent to the intiu-
ence on the country now or in the future,
of their action, provided, they can preserve
their party power, argument, authority,
reason and philosophy are wasted on them
But when this Nation critic declares sab
surd" authorities that he can neither deny
or answer, and which sustain conclusion
he is opposed to, and denounces necessary
discussion pertinent to the subject, he is as
insolent in his denunciation. as he is dis.
honest in quotation. I do not write to de-
fend Mr.. Mungen., His speech: is his full
justification for its utterance. But when
prominent man like Whiting, then Solicit
or Of the War Department, in public adj
dress could inform the American people
that Hannibal, the Carthagenian, was of
the same stock as our Negroes, no discus
sion of'matters chronological can come aRiss
to the mass of the present Republican
party, and as his misstatement is rather the
rule than the exception among Republican
leaders, no discussion on such subjects are
either absurd or unnecessary. Had the
character of the Negro, his antecedents
and his capacity for civilization, been the
theme of controversy and not the mere le-
gal phases of the question, and these mat
tiers been better understood by the mass of
the American people, it would have been
~.
bad eminence in public affairs, under the
glittering generalities of Liberty, Equali-
| ty and Homogeneity, to have imposed their
/ remorseless schemes of vengeance on the
country as measures of reconstruction of
Union they aim to render impossible, and,
to secure a bomogeneity which can have
no existence. 1880 III, 81
1t is to publications like the Neu York
Nation, protesting independence, and that
exc out skimming of knowledge with
large pretence of devotion to literature and
philosophy, that we are. indebted that
the ideal of better and purer life for
humanit Y than has yet been realized
in the world, is degraded to the con-
ception of improving. the Saxon and
Celtic races by an intermixture with the
deformed and savage negro types.
Strictly and bigotedly partisan, the writers
in such periodicals get credit as indepen-
dent teachers of liberal principles, on
false pretences fully as immoral as those
which subject men in more material pur-
suits to criminal punishments. Take up
the numbers of the Nation of the 18th and
26th and it will be found that though
guarded in terms, more extreme opinions
are advocated than will be found in the
Times and Tribune. The late unconstitu-
tienal legislation of Congress over the
South is 1complimented as the evidence
of a spirit of moderation, with the covert
intimation that if that measure of despotie
tyranny is not found sufficient to bend
these conquered provinces to the grossly
partisan 2 ends of the Congressional
majority, further and more extreme
measures will be right and justifiable.
And yet this press, which puts at its head
ings its disclaimer of responsibility for ar
ticles inserted, as if independence was its
rule, takes care that no Democratic utter
ance finds place in its columns, while 1t
is filled with articles toadying the outrages
practiced on our institutions in the name
of liberty by violent, usurping majority
in Congress, and actual minority in the
Union. If the ability of the literature in
this class of periodicals excused the worth
lessness of the political thinkings, or rath-
er pretense of thinking, this might disarm
censure. BUTT is not so. The style of the
writing is fair, the general criticisms toll
cradle, with here and there respectable
communication, but only funkeyism could
find thought of high order, or literature
of distinguished merit in any of the litera-
ry Republican journals. The false pretense
of independence and impartiality does not,
it is true; impose on the experienced; but
on the young and inexperienced-by far
the greater number-these do not Jistin-
guish between the assumption of manly
impartiallty and the reality of subservient
sycophancy to immediate power, and are
apt to suppose that the intellect of the
country is in sympathy with its abuses
when it is only the voices of shallow pre-
tenders to literary excellence that thus
echo and idealize the wrong and mistake
it for and call it right. .-Fof-.s- -.
Let me say that Democrats do a wrong in
their Indifference to support Of this Kind
of politico-literary periodicals. Demo-
Gratis are generally confident of their prin-
ciples, and too regardless of covert though
malignant assault. Not SO with their op-
ponents. Every measure and means that
can be taken, fair or foul, is resorted to by
them to prevent the circulation of periodi-
Gals opposed to their partisan measures. l..
] meet Republican publications frequently in