Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-11-12

the Republican administration on
permanent and impregnabe basis.
The large majority by which they hay'
carried the State, will encourage thu
Democrats TO hope and strive for ma
tional supremacy. We regard it al
really only q rebuke administered to the
Republicans for their excesses and mis-
takes Only let them give indications
Of amendment, and those who have ad
ministered the rebuke will make haste Il
restore them to power 1t is only fools
and egotists who fail to profit by expe
rience.
From the New York wordl
We stand on a strong vantage ground
which may be cut from under us il we
fail to understand our epoch and to
seize events by the forelock. If the
people intrust US with the government ot
the country, il will be because we con.
vinced them by large, liberal spirit,
and broad grasp of the situation, that
we are capable of devising policy which
will settle public tranquility on a solid
foundation. The people covet national
harmony; harmony between the North
and the South; harmony between the
different races in the South such set.
tlement, in short, as will prevent either
the Southern blacks or the Southern
whites from constantly recalcitrating
against it and appealing to one or the
other political party in the North TO
disturb and upset it, 1t should be obvious
to all thinking men that we must have
more harmony in the North to accom-
plish this desirable result.
The breach which the Republican
party has opened between the two races
in the South can never be closed, so long
as one of them can confidently appeal to
half, or nearly half, the Northern people
to support them in an effort to have
things one way, and the other race can
as confidently appeal to half, or nearly
half, the Northern people in an effort to
have things in different way. What
ever the united North (bating power
less body of Radical factionists) may
agree upon as a final settlement, will be
acquesced in by both races at the South
from the sheer impossibility OF changing
it.
Now the assistance, direct or indirect,
which Republicans have given us in this
election, is quite step toward that unity
of feeling which alone can bring har-
mony to the South and durable tran
quillity to the country. Atleast half the
Republican party are little behind those
who have assisted US by staying away
from the polls.
We are opposed to any barter, or ne
gotiation, and to every sort of politica!
dicker, both as degrading in itself, and
as recognizing the nauseous and absurd
claim of political leaders to traffic upon
the people. The thing for the Demo
cratic party to do is to form a correct
estimate of the situation, and plant itseli
on policy adapted to that situation and
Just in itself. If this be done, and done
promptly, while the Republican party is
houndering in the confusion of defeat
we shall have the almost unanimous
support of the sound and moderate part
of the people. True leadership does not
lie in the spirit of intrigue, but in ideas
which hit the want of the time, ideas SO
obviously just, which so perfectly match
the situation, that they shine by their
own light with little aid from argument.
1t is by such ideas that the country
must be led and harmonized; and the
party which puts them forth is the party
Of the future.
A broad, robust, courageous common
sense exerted on the actual cireum-
stances, not the pdding refnements ol
political metaphysics, nor stupid adher
ence to inapplicable precedents, is the
source from which such fresh, living
ideas are to come; and when the right
tune is struck, the dancers will fall into
their places. The patriotism, the honest
feeling, the craving for tranquiliZing JUS
tice, already exist in the hearts of the
people, and furnish soil in which the
seed will quickly germinate
By these elections, the Republican
policy of reconstruction is demonstra-
ted failure; but no policy can be a sue
cess which does not recognize what is
true and honest in the aspirations of
large massas of the people, because it is
only by satisfying these that the North
can be far enough harmonized to prevent
one half of its people being perpetual
incentive to mutiny by either the black
or the white race in the South. What
ever just arrangement is substantially
agreed upon by The North, both races in
the South will accept and abide by. Nor
is durable settlement attainable on any
other basis.
From the Anti i-Slavery Standard.l
Never was there clearer case ofparty
suicide than the Republicans present this
autumn. Their defeat is a deserved
punishment for the insincere and shift
less policy they have chosen to pursue in
their dealing with the treacherous Exec
utive, and in their treatment of the
problem of reconstruction. Their man
agement with johnson has been such as
to make him, at each new turn, more
completely master of the situation, until
now be can better afford to be def ant
than at any previous date. He is not
likely to be slow in following up his
advantage. Refusing to eonfscate, Con-
gress has. given its sanction to a monop-
oily Of rebel landowners. Ifundisturbed,
they will presently become a most for
midable political oligarehy. Entirely
distrustful Of Johnson, whose impeach-
ment the people desired long ago, aud
we're fully led to expect when Congress
reassembed last July, weary with taxa
ton and sore with fresh grief following
the war, we do not wonder that the
Congressional party has met stern rebuke
at the polls at this time.
Presidential intriguing in the interest
of rival candidates, coupled with the old
and deep rooted prejudice against the
negro race, has had much to do with the
elections Just held. Jealous of the pop
ular sympathy with the leading and most
earnest Radicals, the middle.men Of the
Republican party have sought to divide
the vote at this time, hoping thereby to
make their candidate Of next summer in