The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-06-02
The grfrmes Or tine Nsn1fcnl Party
1.-The Day OF

--gEhe Day of Nketr1Dmx4en
The most severe commentary that could
haze been written upon the crimes and
abuses Of the Radical party, j furnished
in the apologies which the wretched apos-
fates who had lisedin and (some ofthem)
fattened on. the South. offered to an
offended community for joining il in the
late canvas in this State. They did not
pretend to claim anything from its sense
of justice, or from its reverence for the
Constitution or from its magnanimity.
They admitted that it was cruel, unjust,
coWardly, ungenerous and oppressive.
Its acts after the surrender of the South
ern armies were conclusive ON this point.
They were justified only by monsters Of
the Beast Butler species, and carpet-bag
cormorants, who insisted that the policy
of vengeance was the proper way to deal
with people whose crime consisted In
their attempted practice of the doctrine
that governments should derive their
powers from the consent of the governed.
Even Alcorn himself who wants to erect
monuments to Lincoln now since he finds
himself elevated to ''bad eminence" on
the ruin of his eountrymen, in 1866
when the chances of a seat by the side of
Sumner grew dim in the distance ad-
mitted that the terms which had then
prescribed for the South, were harsh and
oppressive. But they were as the weight
of feather to mountain compared to
the wrongs and humihations which have
been heaped upon her devoted head since
that time.
These apostates in their appeal to their
oppressed countrymen for little chari-
table indulgence, admitted the crimes of
the Radical party, but spoke of its pow
ER, and urged that since nothing could
be gained by holding out against it, safe
ty, if not homer, dictated that the South
ern people should purchase their peace
by becoming its champions and attaching
themselves to its train.
There was humiliation and disgrace in
this AFFECT proceeding which the misera-
bic creatures who engaged in it could
never have incurred but for the sake of
the pottage for which bad, weak men
have sometimes sold their birth-right.
But it was creditable to them neverthe-
less that they did not insult the intelli-
genee, nor outrage the sensibilities of the
people who had been the victims of Rad
zeal tyranny, by indicating its policy.
They only asked to be charitably Judged
while they appeased the monster by a
time-serving and humiliating surrender
ofprinciple to expediency.
As the downward road is easy, some OF
these apostates have descended to depths
from which they are sending up praises OF
the same party, but they are understood
to be the hollow adulation of sycophants
and hyPocrites to the power that feeds
them. By the mass of the people who
have been outraged and trampled under
foot, the Radical party is despised as an
agent Of oppression by the strong and
cowardly against the weak; and the day
is speedily coming, as it is anxiously de-
sired, when the sceptre will fall from its
grasp.
Even fair-minded Republicans have
come to lament that the dominant party
has entitled itself to the undying hatred
of the South by its utterly selfish and
revengeful policy. That this course has
for the time chained ten States to the
triumphal car of that party, is not to be
questioned; but it is nevertheless true
that this bondage is but temporary, and
that when they have secured the right Of
independent action, they will work out
their own deliverance and trample like SC
many reptiles in the dust the vile creatures
who have pampered themselves on then
misfortunes.
n volume of meaning on this subject
is embraced in the following extract from
a letter of the well-known Washington
correspondent of the Cincinnati CONNER
cial, leading Republican paper:
It's acts have been
aggressive to the last extent. and it is no ex-
aggeration TO say that the Government al
Washington has aorought more injury to the
SO nth since the 11df than IL 1cQs allie to effect
during the conflict Of arms
1t is the strangest folly that ever affected
a sane people. One would suppose. after
70 81 y
states could not be treated as conquered
l provinces, and continue as such a part of
our Republic under the Constitution. that
Gus only policy was one of kindness. 1t was
our duty to heal, as far as possible, the
wounds terrible war had inflicted and.
by forgetting and forgiving, teach the late
enemy that we were now fellow citizens
/ conformity interested in the great Republic
and common country. Instead of this we
have sought to intimidate the men whose
bravery. let the cause have been what il
may, won our respect and the worlds adj
nliration and in place of direct confiscation
and punishment ere hare disfrancItised and
robbed and abused until the feeling at the South
| Is n01o more deadly than echen ON. soldiers
trere Devastating their feEdS and burning their
homes. In the anxiety to protect the negro.
and punish the late master, we have lost
sight of our own rights under the Constitu-
ton, and made Of our Government a ma
chine that may. &C any time, in the hands of
! party. be directed with cruel oppression to
| any part of our Union. In return for all
/ thiHshe net result is a colored Senator who
holds his place not in the right of superior
mental qualifications, but for that he is
! eolored. and a host of gentlemen, in Senate
and House. who sit as representatives of
| region to which they are not only alien but
against whose best interests they are in
| deadly antagonism. The wisdom of their
policy can be appreciated when we rernem-
| Der that the time must come. and is proba-
| bly, near at hand. when the General Govern
ment will have to leave the negro. without
aid, in the handSofthe very men it has wan
] tonly abused. robbed and insulted. Senator
DrdLe tpiU 90 out, tie Democratic ,,s,r,,, 9-STy