Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-11-15
Confessing Judgment.


In commenting upon the overwhelming
majorties by which the popular will has
lately expressed its condemnation Of
Radical policy, it is edifying TO see how
leading organs Of radicalism, which have
been the most extreme and truculent in
their advocacy Of the measures which
have just been repudiated by the people,
now virtually coneede that they have
been in error, and are twisting aud turn
ing TO find some way Of extrication from
the consequences of the odium in which
they have involved their cause and party.
Those who are the most ferocious when
they possess power are generally the
most abject when their capacity for
mischief is diminished and we see an
illustration of this truth in the altered
tone of presses which, whilst they thought
they had the world in sling, were ram
pant, and reckless of the effects of their
policy upon capital and labor, trade and
commerce, material and national pros
perity, upon the peace and repose Of the
whole country, and as indifferent TO
human happiness, and even life in one
section Of it, as if the inhabitants Of that
section were pirates and savages, out
lawed from the pale of civilization and
of all mercy, human and divine. In
calling upon General Grant to lift them
out Of the mire in which they have
plunged themselves, they virtually ac-
knowledge that new line of policy
is necessary to redeem the blunders
and crimes they have been guilty of
at kn IUf pf
tary name is essential to accomplish
that perpetuation Of power which
their measures have endangered. The
New York Ecening Post, a Republican
journal which has been generally sober
and moderate, canddly confesses that
the extreme course Of Congress has had
much to do with the change in the public
mind. 1t declares that the Republicans
have had entire power and responsibility
ever since the close of the war, but the
three things which were required of
them-to restore the Union, put our
finances on such basis that business
men might know what TO look forward
to, and devise system OF taxation which
shall supply the wants of the Treasury
without interfering too much with the
productive interests of the nation-they
have not accomplished, and the people
are dissatisfied. 1t charges that nearly
all that Congress has done since the
constitutional amendment, article ii
Occurring the civil rights of all men in
the. States) J, was passed, has been need
less violent, unstatesmanlike-we might
almost say fanatical;" and that if that
amendment had been proclaimed as a
finality, the South would have gladly
aeceded to its terms; but Congress could
only be satisfied with "shearing the
Executive of the powers which rendor
him responsible, and with debating to
the States their domestic constitutions
Some of them went so far as to propose
that uniform law of suffrage should be
forced upon all the States, loyal as well
as rebel, in equal disregard of the policy
of the Constitution and Of the opinion Of
the people" ].
The Tribune proceeds TO proclaim that
the Republican party rests under two
obligations; the first to the freedmen,
and the second to the national credit;
and that if any evasion or concealment |
of its principles is attempted, it will 60
down and deserve its fate. The differ
ence between Mr. Greeley and those who |
are running off to seek some refuge from
the dilemma in which they have placed |
themselves is, that he had distinctive |
policy, and that not proscriptive one,
and that if he advocated universal suf-
frage, he also advocated universal am
nesty, thereby exhibiting humanity |
and breadth of view which held out
some chance of reconciliation, and
under which he does not feel the
same necessity to fee from impending
that is weighing heavily upon
those who disfranchised intelligent white
men, while they enfranchised ignorant
blacks, and have been clamoring gem
orally for merciless prescription. The
however, teach lesson to all
shades OF Radicals, the most humane as
well as the brutal, that some trust is to
be put in the Southern people to do
themselves what most nearly concerns
them, or what is need(ul aud practicable,
in adapting their laws and policy to the
situation, without forcing it
upon them by arbitrary
legislation. - Baltimore
Sun