The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1867-11-27
THE LESSON OF THE ELEC-
TI0NS.


York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, together
with others less important, have de-
clared against the revolutionary doc
trines of the Radical party, while in all
the rest the Radical majority has been
so much reduced as to leave them no
room to rejoice over their victory
The Conservative victory everywhere
is complete and overwhelming. From
Maine to California, from Michigan to
kentucky, the ranks of the Radical
party have been broken, and their ne
fariOus designs have met stern re-
buke at the hands of an enraged peo-
pie.
1t is not difficult to fathom the eau
ses of this radical revolution in popular
sentiment. The dominant party, in
toxicated with success, and presuming
upon the supposed strong hold it's prin-
ciples have on the minds of the people,
has so administered the government
within the past two years rs to bring
it almost to the brink of destruction
Immediately after the war, when the
minds of the Northern people were
exceedingly sensitive, the Radicals
succeeded in diffusing the belief that
spirit of rebellion still existed among
the Southern people, and offered this
as an excuse for the exclusion of the
Southern States from those rights
which they had taught were both ina
lienable and indestrucuible. When
at last the popular clamor called tor
reconstruction on some plan the Con-
stitutional Amendment was presented,
DISTINGUISHING the flower of Southern
manhood, and reducing Southern rep
resentation in Congress. Radical vic
tories in the Northern States immedi-
ately afterwards still further embold-
ened them, and their consequence was
the passage Of the infamous Military
Bills.
The object of these bills was to give
the Southern States over to the perpet-
ual control of the negroes and Radicals,
so as to afford electoral votes in a
Presidential contest and give the Radi-
cal party the permanent control of the
government. To accomplish this OBJ
ject more fully Radical military COM
manders departed from the meaning of
the Military Bills, and Congress rati-
fed their work by Supplementary
Act.
Up to this point the people of the
North looked ON with perfect indifer-
enee, and tookno interest in the degra-
dation of the Southern people at the
hands of the Black Republican party.
But when it became evident that the
whole political machinery of the South
was to be placed in the hands of a set
of barbarians; that her industry, in
which the North is so much interested,
was to be swept away; and that negro
suffrage, which they themselves so
much detest, was to be declared the
law of the whole land by Congressional
enactment, the people Of the North
rose up in a body and declared that
this thing could go no further. Negro
suffrage, wherever it was offered to the
people was Indignantly rejected. The
people everywhere have declared that
negro suffrage is not good thing, Ell
ther for the North or the South, either
for rebels or loyalists, and that they
will not have it. This is what the
recent elections mean, and our rulers
would do well to heed their voice.
We are aware that Northern MAORI
ties are the most uncertain and unre-
liable of things. We have hung our
hopes upon them before and have been
most bitterly deceived. So now mis-
take even in the smallest particular
may destroy all the good which pru-
dent course on the part of the COnser-
vatiyes ought to be able to derive from
the voice Of the people at the polls.-
Evidently the people of the North do
not believe in the Radical bugaboo of
a rebellious spirit at the South. The
admirable conduct of the Southern peo-
pie while the reconstruction farce was
enacting has forever dissipated any
such absurd belief. Neither do the
people of the North believe in negro
suffrage or negro supremacy. The
logical consequence Of this belief
would, therefore, seem to be a willing
ness that the Southern States should
be restored to their rights under such
governments as the Southern whites
should see fit to establish.
But here lies the difficulty. The
Radicals have a two-thirds majority in
both branches Of Congress, and there
is no guarantee that they would be
willing to abate any of their monstrous
demands. The reconstruction Conven-
tons are all called, and there is no ev-
idence that they are the less malignant
since the defeat of their party, or that
they will be the less sustained by Con-
gress in whatever work they may per-
form. If reconstruction is to 20 on, all
the damage may be inflicted upon us
by the present Congress before the PEG.