New-York tribune., 1870-12-21
DOTH NOT WISDOM CRYr


If we could only bring the remaining oppo-
ncnts of Universal Amnesty TO comprehend
and meet the actual matter in issue--if we
could make them realize and adpit that we
are not asking them TO be magnanimous, or
merciful, or forgivng, or anything OF the sort,
but simply that they should not overthrow
the Republican ascondency by most insane
stupidiy-we could bring the controversy to n
close within o month. We ask OF them not
even that they shall not commit suicide, IT
they will, but that they shall not force the
great party of the Union TO do so in defiance
of it's own better Judgment ....
just consider the recent development OF
public sentiment in Missouri.
That State has been the arena of fierce and
bloody Civil War--a Missouri Civil War. 1t
was no "War between the States there what
ever it may have been on the Potomac or Che
Tennessee, but u war Of ncighbor against
neghbor, brother against brother. II broke
out there at "a very early day, and held on to
the last. Hostile armies swept repeatedly across
the State, leaving desolation in their track.
Worse still citizens we're shot in the midst of
their families, by those who had been their
familiar associates !; green boys were shot rs
traitors or spies, on the sentence OF courts
martial, for no other offcnse than trying to
reach Union or Rebel camp, to volunteer,
across territory which was c0nstructiyely held
by the opposite party. Hundreds were waylaid
and bored through with bullets from ambuShed
foes IA they were quietly, unsuspcctingly,
| taversng some public highway. The diabolic
hate engendered by civil war WAS never more
general or mare intense than in Missouri. And
the lnionisls at the close of the struggle, dis
| franchiscd and prescribed their beaten adver-
saries, as the latter, if triumphant, would un-
doubtcdly have done. ...... .,
But five Yeas have passed., giving passions
time to cool. The Rebels were prescribed
with more undeniable reason than elsewhere.
They could not plead that they went
with their State; :" for their State refused to
! co. and they f0ugat against her az well as
! against the GniOn. They were prescribed
| therefor not by Federal authority, but the
State Constitution. The question of their Re-
enfrancbisement was made in the late Elec-
| ton. The Rebels being all Democrats, the
Democratic party was of course eager to en-
| franchise them for it's own sake. The Repub-
leans who had predetermined to bolt and run
| their own machine must have the Democratic
to be vociferous for Northumberland. Now
if the Republicans who are not bolteis
had seen fit to aequiesce, and pass
Schurz's resolve rs they did that of his
cronies respecting The Tariff, they would
not, indeed, have prevented the bolt but they
would have immensely weakened it by depriv-
ing it of all colOrable pretext. But Schurz made
an exasperating speech to the Republican State
~ 4 foI n,1
suited, walked right into the trap set for them
and rejected the resolve, protesting that they
would not be bullied, but would leave each
voter free to vote for or against immediate
Enfranchisement as he should see fit. Here
upon the bolt took place, and the coalition of
Democrats and Boilers cemented by
common hostility to Prescription. Their sue
cess was thenceforth inevitable, but their ma
jority was factitiously swelled beyond its right
full proportions
We now ask the particular attention of
Gen. Butler, Mr.. Maynard, and their remaining
disciples, to the following official returns of
the total vote of Missouri:
FOR Gorernor-Gratz Brown, Bolter and Dem iOi.37i
McCmrg regular Repub; ........ Gi,3SG
On restoring ne Right Of Suffrage 10 Rebeis:
Yos.............. .127 6i3 No
0, restoring % tem TIE rigat 10 hold oo'ct:
Recommendation No. 1905
| on abOlishing he Test oath Jor Jurors:
| Yes..........l3l,49 400 NO..................1079O
DO we need any more of such boiling and
such voting to convince us that the day for
Disfranchisement and Prescription has passed
that the question is no longer, "Shall these
abe overthrownin but "Shall the Republican
"party willfuly bury itself beneath their
"ruinsq' They cost us Virginia in 1862 they
have just cost us Missouri and West Virginia.
Shall they he blindly upheld till we have
nothing left to lose?