The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-01-27
rollsica, Assassination and Massacre.

built and that right quickly.
Political Assassination and Massacre.
From one Of those democratic organs that
can see no hating place for the people between
we take this reference to tho recent rev0lu-
tionary acts Of Congress -" These measures,
which strike at the very foundations Of civil
liberty, are we'll calculated to exasperate the
people and provoke on the part Of those i'm.
mediately affected by them violent resistance,
which, though justifable, is not necessary.
But for the means Of correction afforded by
the approaching Presidential and Congress
sional elections they would inevitably excite
a OWL war, which would end In less than sixty
days with the conversion OF the CITY Of Wash
ington into gallows yard, wherein tho trees
would be plentifnlly loaded with pendent
Senators and Representatives, while General
Grant would hang from the neck Of tho colos-
sal copperhead that surmounts tho Capitol"
This is one kind of political philosophy, and
kind that has found favor 10 the world before
now. It assumes that when wrong Is done BY
party the true remedy IL for an opposing
party to do q greater wrong, and 50 strike
balance; that the way for nation to give
greater security to its threatened liberties y
for the factions to follow all the bad examples
that each Is able to set the other until 1t Is
fully demonstrated which has tho greater
capacity for evil. Then II il supposed the
party outdone will take to moderate AID
virtuous courses, and the whole nation will
agree to stand on it, good behavior, satisfied
that the violation of law Ia game that great
many may play at
However rational all this may seem to phi
losophers "bemused in beer," the historical
occasions on which the plan no, been tried
give strong verdict against its general sdop-
ton. 1t is as clear as countless examples can
make facts that so soon as the agitation of
political questions takes the form Of mob vio-
lence or massacre--so soon ~ . 'reign OF
terror" succeeds to discussion--ths cause Of
the people is for the time being irretrievably
lost; while 1t Is equally true that isolated po-
litical murder, as of a prominent leader in any
great crisis, Is the greatest Of blundes and
always secures an exactly opposite result to
that 1t proposes And 1t Is quite in accordance
with the natural relations Of things that this
should be SO. 1t at first glance seems reason
able enough that in general revolutionary
turmoil when ell the restraint Of order and
law IL thrown away, and physical power must
rule, that the victory should rest simply and
inevitably with the masses and 1t is this idea
no doubt that always leads to such appeals to
brute force. III fact, however, It il at that very
crisis when the thoughts and purposes Of the
people are supposed TO rule with supreme
power that the people are most easily made
subject to ambition and tyranny. The
mass Is never so helpless as when II Is left
to the government OF ih own instincts and
the use OF its own reason. II II throw
away law, which L. merely the larger
reason Of the universal intellect applied
10 guide Its acts---if it throw away such
guide and presume to depend upon its own
perceptions, 1t Is fooled by every cunning
knave, and it's vast power becomes the tool Of
any ambitious adventurer In securing his
own elevation. What 10 worse, the horrors
that cnsue from the popular appeal to force
justify tyranny before the world when it puts
the people in chains, for chains at least imply
some sort Of order. For the truth Of all this
we need not 60 beyond the history OF France
in our own century
As to political murder defeating its own aim,
we have seen II terribly exemplihed at home
1t was in sympathy with the spirit Of the
Southern people that President Lincoln was
slain; but no stroke given by any soldier Of the
North, no campaign Of Northern army,
hardly any series Of victories gained by .
Northern general, laid on the South such bur
den Of misery ~ did the blow OF that single
murderer. Had Mr.. Lincoln lived reconstruct
ton would have been ere this IN accomplished
fact, and the South would have been going for
ward, side by side with the North, In tho race
for material prosperity. No Congress could
have stood at issue with man so strong be.
fore the people, and we should have escaped
all this bitterness Of dispute in which the
South is the real victim, and all tho cruel laws
that attempt 10 crush her beneath the heel Of
the slave. That one crime gave now power
to the tsnatssl spirit that had fairly lost Its
Impulse as the war drew 10 close, and may
be charged with these three horrible years Of
the torture Of reconstruction. Let the people
beware OF leaders who teach that the appeal to
murder and massacre can possibly be . reme-
dy for any OF our political evils
Tho Southern ReconstructIcu Conventions,