Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-10-02
Cancellation.

Mr.. PENDLEToN and the other Demo
cratic orators continually preach concilia-
ton. They proclaim that the success of
Seymour and Blair will be a true millen-
mum. 1t will be the dayspring of peace
and good will. Indeed, the Reverend
Chadband himself could not more unctu-
ously set forth the blessedness of forgive
ness than these gentlemen.
Now, magnanimity in public affairs is
not only good, but it is polite. A govern.
ment which emerges victorious from a
domestic struggle commits the greatest of
blunders if it adopts vindictive policy
toward its oponents, or even if it proceeds
to full legal extremities. When England
suppressed the Jacobite risings in 1715
and 1745 the Government put some of the
chiefs to death. But it was not sound
policy. When Jefferson Davis was cap
tured in the most ignominious plight many
Englishmen said that of course he would
be hung. One eminent Englishman re-
marked that there was not government
in Europe, England included, that would
not hang him.
The Republican party controlling the
Government of the United States were
much wiser. They have not shed the
blood of single rebel in vengence, nor
so great and victorious party so humane
and just and wise. IF the defeated rebels
were, as they claimed, of another "coun-
try" they surely could not expect to be
treated as citizens of this. If they were
not of another country, but traitors baffied
in an attempt to overthrow the Govern
ment, they were liable to be hung. But
the United States authorities, rejecting all
thought of punishment for the past, con-
sidered only how to secure the future.
They said: "Some of the leaders must,
as an obvious guarantee of good order, be
for the present disfranchised, for the rest,
every body shall equally share political
power" And even this they did not say
until those leaders had haughtily defied
them. The magnanimity of this policy
lay in its unprecedented moderation; it's
wisdom was shown in the creation of a
loyal constituency.
Now what is the conciliation which Mr..
Pendleton and the other orators propose. !.
It is not new demand with them. When
Wade Hampton and Forrest and Lee were
at the throat of the nation, these same
gentlemen advised Cancellation by submit
ting to the rebellion. Now that Forrest
and Hampton have been defeated in the
field and hope to save their cause at the
polls, these gentlemen advise the same
Cancellation by surrender. In other
words, they insist that Forrest, Hampton,
and their friends shall have political power
in their States to the exclusion of loyal
men. Mr.. Pendleton is in favor Of the
conciliation of black codes and the good
will of the Ku-Klux Klan. The millenni
um which he mellifluously predicts reveals
itself in Georgia by the expulsion of the
colored members; in South Carolina and
other States by the alternative offered to
the colored population of submitting to
their own degradation or starvation; in
the country at large by the demand of the
candidate whom he supports that the or
ganization of the Southern States shall
be overturned by the sword. The con-
ciliation preached by such apostles as Mr..
Pendleton and Mr. Cox is such as has be-
come dismally familiar to the people Of
the United States-it is letting the most
troublesome, spiteful, and dangerous peo-
pie in the country have their own way.
Against these apostles of peace bought
by abject submission of the moral convic-
ton and intelligence of the country to its
ignorance and passion and baffied hate,
the Republican party proolaims the con-
Citation Of common-sense, the goodwill
Of justice, the peace in free country.