The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1869-05-06
-t IFrom Harpsr's weekly.
Our F9PfeuGFs the Enemy.

/ Our Friends the Enemy.
Twenty-One States have ratified the
Equal Suffrage amendment-the DEM
ocFatie party. every where opposing.
Now in party warfare, as in all other,
there is a conduct which wins the re-
speet Of the foe, as there is one which
moves his contempt. Four or five
years ago equal suffrage was defeated
in Connecticut by majority Of seven
thousand. Last spring the Democrats
elected their Governor by nearly two
thousand majority, and three Members
of Congress-. In the autumn the Re
publieans carried the State for Grant.
This spring, when, according to the
Democrats, equal suffrage was the is
sue, the Republicans elect their Gov
ernOr and gain two Members Of Con-
gress, beating the Democracy in their
strongest holds: and because the ma
jority for Governor is smaller that that
for President, the papers Of which we
speak deride the meagre and dismal
majority ! The Democratic party are
more signally defeated in the State
than they have been for many year,
and instead of frankly acknowledging
the fact, and seeing that it is futile to
fight upon an issue settled and settled
again, one of their organs feebly peeps
that it is MT much of a shower, and
another gravely declares that it is the
natural consequences Of not sticking to
Wade Hampton's platform of last
Julyl
/ The one great truth of our recent
political history is, that the Republi-
can and Democratic parties were Op-
posed upon the issue of slavery. The
Republicans won at the polls and upon
the fields of battle, and again and
again at the polls. They have eman-
cipated tie slaves. They have given
them civil rights. They have given
them political rights. At each step
they have appealed to the country,
and have been supported. They have
been intrusted with the Government
for four years more. Their new adj
ministratiOn begins by the plain dec
laration that equal rights shall be
every where protected and the laws
4 every where enforced, and by the ur-
! g mt treeommendat on that the amend
ment to the Constitution be adopted,
which finally closes even the agitation
of the question: and still the Demo
cratic party piteously asks its absurd
question, as cOnclusiYe pOliti,a a. argu-
ment, ado you wish your daughter to
marrya nigger?"
1t perceives that there is a prejudice
lin the country against color, but it is
unable to see that the country has
learned the moral peril of indulging
that prejudice. Instead, therefore, OF
accepting the facts, however much ii
may deplore them-instead of joining
issue as to the better method of secuT-
ing an equality which is inevitable,
the Democratic party ridicules the ne
gro, and argues against him, and de-
nounces him; and bellies him, and ali
as if there were really a hope of reduc-
ing him again to some vassalage. The
whole Democratic force is expended in
this business, and In sneering at the
President. The party papers have
nothing to say but that everything be
undOne.
AS usual, the Democratic party
hopes for reinvigOratiOn not from fail
debate CT great policies, but from the
Ireadmission to political privileges oi
those who repudiate the American
principle of the equality of all citizens
But that Will not be enough. The
pr iudice against color, when it was 8
bulwaTk of the system of which the
Democratic party was the defense, was
incalculably useful but with the fall
of the system the appeal to the preiu
dice is pointless. There is no insight,
no heroism in the Democratic leader
ship. The party is but a disOrderly
camp of the disaffected and disap.
pdthted. 1t must find some newer
ground than hostility to equal rights,
or relinquish the hope of success, un-
less the conduct of the Republican
party where it has a majority, as in
the Legislature of New York, shall
persuade the country that there is
really no choice between the parties,
But even in such instances as the Leg
isIature of which we speak, if is the
duty of all good citizens to remark
that it is the combination Of few Re
publicans only with the Democrats
that does the mischief.