Des Arc weekly citizen., 1868-04-18
The People,s Forbearance.


 What is now being perpetrated in this country by the Radicals is the work of such an odious and despicable ty- ranny, that a decent man would rather be the victim than the inficter thereof. Perhaps this is not sentiment result ing from that great evangelical virtue which knows how to find comfort even in the most desponding condition, nor is it the outcry of despair to palliate a belief in the inability of the country tc free itself from this despotisD, For VIC do not intend to make our friends be- licvc that we arc so tender-hearted as to prefer unjust suffering ourselves to a deserved chastisement of our enemies, nor do we for single moment doubt the approach of the time when the country will shake of its burden. But we mean to say that all the momentary advantages which the ruling party may draw from its cruel nominations arc such miserable equivalent for the odium incurred by that party, that the people can thousand times better bear for while to be the victims of that in- iquity than accomplices in its perpctra- tions.
 Were it not forsaken party, but the people themselves, laying the axe to the root of our Constitution; were it not the few, but the many, disgracing their country by tho present mock-trial of the President; were it not those on- ly who call themselves the representa- tives of the people, but real majority of this nation who insult the conqner- ed Southern States by imposing the rule of degraded barbarous race over their own kind--we might admit that we were reaching the last of this Re- public, and that the Government which we once thought the hope of mankind is nothing but an immense despotism.
 For if the people themselves were directly responsible for what is now going on, we would not even try to ex- tenuate their crimes by stating them as resulting from a transitory disease or alteration ofmind. What may be just ly attributed to transitory ailment in individuals is always the symptom of the incipient decadence of nations. When the Roman republic was at the verge of turning into monarchical empire, there were millions of corrup- tible men for one of the avengers Of the republic. The rich and the highly educated were bribcd by treasure and valuable positions; the soldiers by money and land grants; the masses of the people by festivals and public din- ner parties in the streets of Rome. Ev- erybody, with few exceptions, was req dy to sell his part in the republic some took more, some took less for their share. All seemed to long for servi- tude; all preferred to intrust the man. agement of State affairs to common master, rather than take the trouble of ruling themselves. To be free seemed to be a burden to everybody, and they chose to obey rather the whims of n despot than to live under government of law, which, fora whole century, was disregarded by everybody in power.
 We are yet far from such an awful condition of things. Our official world, perhaps, is as corrupt as it can be most of our representative bodies are in the market to the highest bidder; the peo- pie submit to legislative outrages with much more forbearance than We had ever thought it possible, and their in difference to the usurpation of their rights seems often very alarming. But though host of perhaps forty thous- and corrupt officers are great curse to the nation, they yet are only the one- thousandth part of the whole, aud though the seeming submission of the people to their villanous conduct may be esteemed symptom of weakness, the forbearance of the people thus far is anything but an approval. The elec- tions of last fall were proof of it, and if all signs do not deceive us, the next elections will demonstrate still better that our conviction is based upon a true knowledge of the people. st. i It is peculiar to all revolutionary par ties to hurry events, and, for those who are in the wrong, time always marches on too slowly. If the Radicals cannot wait to the end of the regular term to have new President, the people can wait for their revenge at the polls. We would live in the most horrid chaos, If the people in their opposition to Radi- oalism should follow the practice of the Radicals, and if they also should aban- don the lines drawn by the Constitu- ton for their legitimate action. Woe to the country if we do not interpret in its true meaning the seeming for bearance of the people.-W. T. Whig.