Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-08-29
The Prophecy and the FACT.


'sThe mission of modern Democracy con-
sists in predicting evil, and in vain effo rts
toverify its sinister prophecies"
Is not Forney little mistaken in this as
sertioR? We incline to the opinion that
the mission of the Democratic and Conser-
vative press of the country is not confined
exclusively. within the limits which our
contemporary indicates. Our observation
q d ex perience teach US that the most eff
cient mission of the press opposing Radi-
calism consists in pointing out the existing
evils; in directing attention to the evil
consequences resulting to the country from
Radical misrule. 1t is true chat they have,
in times past, prophesied little, and it is
some compliment to their understanding
that their propecies have been fulfilled. For
example, they prophesieG, no very great
while ago, that the Radical party would
force negro suffrage and negro political
equality upon the country. while the Rad
ical press and politicians declared the par
ty had no such purpose; has not that
prophecy been fulfilled? or If not fulfilled
as to the whole country, is it not in the
Way of fulfillment? They predicted also
that the Radicals would force negro ascen-
dency upon the Southern States while any
such design was repudiated; has not that
prophecy been fulfilled? They also pre-
dicted that the Radical policy would ulti-
mate in annulling the Constitution of the
United States in it's application to the
Southern States and in the establishment
of a military despotism in each of them.
Has not this prophecy been also fulfilled !?
Nor has the fulfillment of these prophe-
cies been brought about by any agency of
the Democracy or Conservative element. 1t
is all the work of Radicalism. And if the
prophecies were sssiDister," as the Press at
firms, has not their fulfillment been sinister
also? In the sentence we have quoted the
Press has involved itself in a dilemma from
which it cannot escape, without admitting
that the measures of its party are evil. 1t
declares that the prophecies are sinister" /"
which Is only another term for evil. Ii,
then, the prophecies were of evil import,
and have been fulfilled, as we have shown
they have been, does it not follow that such
fulfilment is an evil? Clearly so. The
Press, therefore, has pronounced
judgment against the IN measures ,r;s
forcible because it was unconsciously done.
1t is not the first time that guilt, from its
own embarrassment and confusion, has
been made to disclose its own iniquity.
BY the force of a divine law, incorporated
into the economy of Providence, guilt is
often made the instrument of its own dis
covery and the lash of its own punishment.
1t is SO in this case. Evil was prophesied,
the prophecies are fulfilled, and OF course
evil is the sum of the fulfilment. And they
are evils indeed, as all right thinking men
admit. The results now realized were not
those for which the country stipulated
Far from it, as the proclamation of Presi-
dent Lincoln and the Crittenden resolution
will prove. 1t was never anticipated in the
beginning that merciless and frenzied
party would, at the close of the struggle,
trample the Constitution under their feet,
place the ignorant and incapable negroes
in the ascendancy in the fairest portion OF
our country by the brute force of bayo-
nets, and erect a military despotism in ten
States of the Union, to the shame of our
Republican system.