Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1868-08-13


few weeks. 1t did not, therefore, adjourn,
but took a recess to meet again, if its parti-
san interests should demand its reassembling.
Never before in the history of our country has
Congress thus taken menacing attitude to-
ward its electors. Under its influence some
of the States organized by its agents are pro-
posing to deprive the people of the right to
vote for Presidential electors, and the first
bold steps are taken to destroy the rights of
suffrage. It is not strange, therefore, that
thoughtful men see in such action the proof
that there is, with those who shape the policy
of the Republican party. motives stronger and
deeper than the mere wish to hold political
power-that there is dread of some expos
ure, which drives them on to acts so desper-
ate and so impolitic. Many of the ablest
leaders and journals of the Republican party
have openly deplored the violence of Congress
sional action, and its tendency to keep up dis
cord in our country. The great interests of
our Union demand peace, order, and return
to those industrial pursuits without which we
cannot maintain the faith or honor of our
Government. The minds of business men are
perplexed by uncertainties. The hours of
toll of our laborers are heightened by the cost
of living made by the direct and indirect ex-
actions of the Government. Our people are
harassed by the heavy and frequent demands
of the tax-gatherer.
Without distinction of party, there is a
strong feeling in favor of that line of action
which shall restore order and confidence, and
shall lift off the burdens which now hinder
and vex the industry of the country. Yet at
this moment those in power have thrown in-
10 the Senate Chamber and Congressional hall
new elements of discord and violence. Men
have been admitted as representatives of some
Of the Southern States: with the declaration
upon their lips, that they cannot live in the
States they claim to represent, without mill
tary protection. These men are to make laws
for the North, as well as the South. These
men who. few days since, were seeking as
suppliants that Congress would give them
power within their respective States, are to-
day the masters and controllers of the actions
of those bodies. Entering them with minds
filled with passions, their first demands have
been that Congress shall look upon the States
from which they come as in conditions of
civil war; that the majority Of. their popula-
tons, embracing their intelligence, shall be
treated as public enemies; that military forces
shall be kept up at the cost of the people of
the North, and that there shall be no peace
and order at the South, save that which is
made by arbitrary power.
Every intelligent man knows that these
men owe their seats in Congress to the disor-
der in the South. Every man knows that
they not only owe their present positions to
disorder, but that every motive springing
from the love of power, Of gain, of a desire
for vengeance, prompts them to keep the
South 10 anarchy. While that exists they
are independent of the will or wishes of their
While confusion reigns they
are the dispensers Of the profits and the hon.
ors which grow out of government Of mere
force. These men are now placed in posi-
tons where they can not only urge their views
of policy, but where they can enforce them.
When others shall be admitted in this man
ner from the remaining Southern States, a.
though they will have in truth no constltu-
ents, they will have more power in the Seu-
ate than majority of the people Of this Tn
ion living in nine of the great States. In vain
the wisest members Of the Republican party