Des Arc weekly citizen., 1868-11-17
Radical Mercy.

Swift, in his "Travels of Gulliver,'
 gives us an account of an intrigue
 against his hero, and says that when
 the punishment which was to be in-
 1icted upon the criminal. Gulliver, was
 discussed in the council ofthc Fling of
 Lilliput, some merciiul Iilliputian
 statesman proposed, instead of killing
 him, to put his eyes out only, and that
 this sagacious Lilliputian enforced his
 argument by the observation that the
 destruction of so huge creature as
 Gullivcr might cause . pcstilence, and
 thus decimate the people of the king
 dom, while with his eyes put out his
 power for mischief would be gone, and
 his strength be still available against
 thc rival kingdom of Dlefascu. This advice, after mature consideration, was adopted, and it was expected that the
 hero would submit to the execution of
 that merciful sentence with becoming grace.
 This pretended mercy is a good deal like the mercy the radicals desire to ex- tend to the South. All the radical leaders want is a surrender on the part of the people of the Southern States of all claim to the administration of the affairs of their States or the silairs of the nation. That is all. We could have hung you all, they exclaim, but we are merciful, and all we ask is that you let us manage affairs in our own way, aud everything will be "unani- mous." Like the wise statesmen of Lilliput, the radicals desire to put out
 the eyes of the South by depriving the people of that section of u voice in our national affairs, but, nevertheless, to tax their resources to aid us in carry ing the burdens of the nation. Because the people of the South will not agree 10 this, they are denominated ..ungrate- ful rebels.' But let us for a moment examine the mercy the radicals have extended to the Southern people, Radicals speak of this subject they al- wave refer to the severe measures of the despots of Austria and Russia in Poland and Hungary, where glbbets lined every highway, and hundreds of the noblest and proudest perished or were driven into exile or banished to the frozen fields of Siberia, and then triumphantly ask, Where have we cx- ercised such severityy The radicals, however, forget that to properly under stand the despotisin which is exercised over people we must first understand what liberty that people had. X des- potisn becomes greater in proportion as it deprives people of rights and | liberties once enjoyed. To deprive, for instance, a free people. that for has exercised the rights of of that right, is an in- tihitely severer exercise of despotism, than to hang hn,. fred or even thou sand of it's prominen, citizens. and leav- lug the rights of the masses nnimpaired. After the revolutions in h.ngary and Poland. many leaders and prominent 'itizens were hung and banished, but what rights did the great mass of peo- ole lose? The radicals of this cauntry nave exercised more refined species 'f despotism. They have hung no one, put they have deprived millions of our ormer feliow-eitizens of q voice in our national affairs, and they now seek to ,crpetuatc this condition. They have ,one farther. Not satisfied with the exercise of this power, they have made Inc former slave master of his former master. In the whole compass of his- tory no parallel case of severer dcspot- ism can be found. And this is the mercy of the radicals of our day, claiming to monopolize all the inc patriotism and humaaity of ,Se lasd--s,: Lsx.s Eepstlisas.