Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1870-08-11
Kentucky and Delaware.

tFrom the Baltimore American, Aug. 81
There is an inherent force in the RIGHT which
triumphs in the end over every obstacle. Neither
ignorance nor prejudice, nor superstition, nor
villainy can hold out forever against the truth.
A great wrong can only be maintained by smut
ting out tho light and in this age of free Thought
free speech and free communication, to MAINTAIN
perfect darkness is impossible. The chinese
built great wall on one side OF their empire,
sealed up their ports, ,blocladed their rivers shut
out commerce, prohibited immigration, refused
intercourse with the outside world, and by every
safeguard which tradition, custom, law or religion
could impose, tried to preserve their clviizatloh
intact. The Great Wall is crumbling to ruins
commerce has raised the blockade, and Cinnamon
are tloclSing by thousands to the Western World
to participate in the industry which a newer ana
better civilization has created. Even Chinese
philosophy and Chinese exclusiveness cannot
Withstand the light of the nineteenth century.
Kentucky and Delaware each tried the expert
ment of having little empire within itself, IN
which the institutions, laws, customs and habits
of ante-bellum times should obtain in spite OF
the revolution that had made them imposslpie.
Kentucky was the most obstinate and refractory
of all the slave-holding States She utterly re-
fused to comprehend the logic of events; secuted
the Emancipation Proclamation detied the Civil
Rights BILL and would not let her slaves go free
until the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment
to the Constitution made any further attempt to
keep them in bondage downright madness.
Although vast majority of her people sympa-
thized in the rebellion, and thirty Thousand of
her young men fought in the Confederate army,
the State nominallv remained in the Union, and
could not be made subject to those coercive
measures of reconstruction by which the seeded
States were compelled to accept the results Of
the war. The Judges Of her Courts were equal
to the occasion, and administered the law accord
ing to the precedents of the past without the
least reference to the new condition of affairs
Her State Legislature neither repealed nor modi-
fled the code that left one-third of her citizens
without the protection of the laws. Such was
the condition of society, and such the temper OF
Kentucky politicians, that the Rev. Mr.. Nasby
| took up a fictitious abode some place in the
interior of the State, and there addressed those
| immortal epistles to his countrymen which have
| done SO much towards making modern Demo-
cracy ridiculous.
| But Kentucky, with her Bourbon politicians,
her proscriptive laws, and her traditions of the
slave-holding days, cannot shut out Republican
principles. A few brave men dared from the
first days of the war to hold aloft the banner OF
the Union and az the great struggle pro,
crossed, inscribed upon it Emancipation" and
afterwards Enfranchisement. Unawed by
| threats of personal violence, enduring every
manner of social and political prescription, they
| have persevered to the end, and in this year OF
| Grace, 1870. we find such leaven of Republican,
ism i'll Kentucky politics that there is prospect
| of carrying two of the Congressional districts al
| the ensuing election.
The most extraordinary change is in the tone
| of the leading newspapers The C0u'1er-JomhdL
| which used to breathe out fire and birthstone
against the man who would dare to suggest
equal political and civil rights to all men, is
now wooing the colored voters with the tender
ness and gentleness of young lover, and from
day to day is giving advice to the white people
of Kentucky, so excellent and 30 just in itself
that we trust it will be needed. The election
for county officers was held on Monday, and il
there has been anything like fair play, the
eighty thousand Democratic majority which
used to afford SO much joy in the Northern
Democratic Camp, will be reduced at least one
half.
Delaware is not 80 populous State as Ken
lucky, and her influence in national politics If
exceedingly small. She has not been SO loud
and fierce in her championship of ante-belum
ideas, but her devotion is more tender and heart.
felt. Like decayed old dowager, with her heat
full of family traditions, she sits in dignitied sill
ence and contemplates what she is pleased tt
regard the frivolities of modern times. Some
years since the Republicans took possession Of
her chief city (Which brought great sorrow to the
old ladys heart), but up to this time she ha
held on to her country estates, and managed I,
keep them tolerably free from the taint of Radi
calism. At the next election there is stront
probability that the Republicans will carry tn,
State of Delaware, and thus Democracy as
was, will be routed from its last fortress.