Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-08-20
The Republic Need. Statesmen.

er, but it might have been averted by q
kind and conciliatory word, but if SO, care
was taken that the word was not spoken.
When the war ceased, hope beat high
in the patriotic heart, that peace and broth
erly feeling would again bless US as ma
tion and people. The people were disap-
pointed. We were promised peace, but
while the Radical rulers held 'the word OF
promise to the ear, they broke it to the
party in power, after years of war, wagtd d
ostensibly to maintain it. with the loss of
blood and OF treasure, greater than ever
n ,tion had before, in the same length OF
time, declared the States which passed Sc
cession Ordinances were out of the Union
and could not come in until admittt
with conditions by Congress, the
States in the meantime being held
as conquered provinces" without any
rights within the Union and none ont
of it, that the Radical leaders were bound
to respect, and are TO be so held until they
give unmistakable signs that their Electo-
raj votes would be cast as the Radical lead
ers direct.
In other and better days of the Republic,
the great markets OF Southern and Eastern
Ohio, Indiana, and of all the other States
watered by the Ohio and Mississippi and
their tributaries, furnished to the South the
surplus produce of the farmer, and the corn,
flour, bacon, etc., of the West fed the cotton
and sugar growing States. Cincinnati,
Louisville, st. Louis, Wheeling, Pittsburgh
and the other large river cities got their
growth and their wealth from this trade
That trade, so necessary to the West and so
vital to her interests, is now, in a great
measure. cut off, and, instead of a choice of
markets, the farmers of Ohio have left that
of the South, with its cheaper water COM
munication, for the dearer one by rail to the
Eastern cities. .,sr-,..-
The war left the cotton and sugar States
almost desert waste. The Radical
legislation, in the shape of Re-
construction laws, and the action of
the military commanders, who govern
these States-the benevolence OF the Freed
mems Bureau, which supports the negroes
in idleness, has kept it so. The energies of
islation, would ere this have again made
their fields white with cotton or green
with the blades of the sugar producing
cane. This poverty of the South-the fail
ure of the .'intelligent contrabandsn to
work for living, when they are fed and
fattened by the Freedmen's Bureau, and
their children educated by the United
States with money drawn from the people
by taxes, has deprived the West of its nat
ural market for its surplus produce, and
with it has cut off the greater portion of
the exports of the United States to the Eu-
ropean markets. Before the war, the cot
ton, hemp, rice, tar, turpentine and other
articles of the product of Southern labor,
exceeded all the other exports of the Uni
ted States combined, and the hundreds of
millions of dollars which drained Europe
of specie for our benefit is now lost as the
Legitimate fruit of Radical legislation.
To right these wrongs-to make our
nation respected abroad by making our
people prosperous and happy at home
we need statesmen in Congress and in the
Presidential chair. President JOHNSON is
powerless to act for the public good, for
the leaders of the party that made him
President, because he will not aid them in
their patricidal efforts to sink the country
that they may retain power, are his per-
sonal and vindictive enemies, pledged, by
their acts, to thwart all the measures he
proposes. Unfortunately for the country,
these men hold the power of Congress and
use it for the basest of party purposes.
In the new Congress, in which Ohio this
fall elects nineteen members, It is to be
hoped statesmen will fill the seats of mere
placeme en- and party tools. The President
to be elected in November will be states-
man of enlarged experience = one who
will have due regard to his fame by
having the interest of his country at heart
so far as the duties of the Executive De-
partment of the nation is concerned. Ho-
RATIO SEYMOUR will seek to heal the dis
sensious of the country-to make the Union
a Union of hearts and OF hands, and ce-
ment it by the bonds of fraternal love. This
done, the markets of the South, at remu-
nerative prices,w soon again be opened to
Western produce-our farmers again have
choice of markets, for the South will then
be able to produce enough of their great
staple for the European market, and thus
will peace and prosperity again take the
place of lawless Radical rule, which has
built up colossal fortunes tor its adher-
ents on the ruins of the Republic.
The Way General Ewing was