The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1870-02-01
Extracts from ''szacs.'s'' vFasitEsg-
tom LETTERS


Nevada, deserves credit mark is corn
ering Sumner on the fifteenth Amend
ment. He asked the Massachusetts
blatherskite if he had voted for that
amendment, or if he was present when
it passed the Senate. Certainly" said
Sumner, Il am always present. And
so for once the Honorable Chawles was
betrayed into lie by his staggering
egotism, for the record shows that he
left the SeEate Chamber and did not vote
for the amendment. He had all along
denied the necessity for the amendment,
and contended for the right of Congress
to regulate suffrage by legislative enact
ment, and hence he lodged when the
vote came"
SUMMERS NEoLIGIsM
"Sumner has given us new wofd.--
At least he has launched upon the sea of
Senatorial Verbosty craft unfamiliar
to the navigators of that watery waste.
1t occurred in debate yesterday, when
from the easy and elegant imbecillty of
his vast erudition he "evoked from his
inner consciousness'-pardon the trans
cendentalism, but the subject is worthy
of 1.-THE majestic phrase "constitution-
al ,2diculosity," by which he designated
the idea that State could rescind its
ratification Of the Fifteenth Amendment.
Now, is the working cyclopedia of use
less and unentertaining knowledge aware
that constitutional ridiculosity," is,
from the very nature of the case--er III
te,miai, to put it in classic term-an cl-.
ocutioLary jackassity? If not why not?
What is constitutional can't be ridicu-
lous,still less can it bulge out in the sub
stantiye and tongue e-stammering form of
ridiculosity; and cice cersa. But Sum
ner determined long since, like St. Arm
and in his youth, "to be remarkable or
die" Pity he can't succeed in both, as
well as he has in the first :"
REPUTATION.
"Repudiation is q measure which must
originate with the people, for politicians
are by the nature Of their vocation too
cowardly to venture it. 1t will be taught
by the stern logic of necessity, and once
familiarized as the great relief it really
is, it will sweep all before it like the
rushing of a mighty whirlwind-Demo-
Gratis, Republicans and all. No speech
from Mr. Mungen or any body else will
accelerate it-no resolution from Mr..
Garfield or his friends in Wall street will
retard it. The tax collector is its stand
ing argument; the decay of commerce
and the increase of want and suffering
its convincing reason. One of these
days the people will arouse from their
delirium of loyalty, and begin to ask
what, after all this debt represents. When
| they find the answer to be-a broken
Union, an unrighteous tribute, and an
unmitigated burden, they will raise the
standard of Reputation, and rally to it
all the country over. Then let Mr.. Gar
field come up with his little paper decla-
ration, and we shall recall that scene in
ancient history where the old Danish
monarch went down TO the sea=shere in
his chair and told the waves to keep back.
AT last accounts the venerable Canute
was in fair way to get wet unless he
picked up his little stool and retired
And so il will be with the Garfields and
Schencks and tie Boutwells who shall
attempt to stay the flowing tide Of re-
pudiation, when it shall once have set in
-as set in it certainly will, before many
years"
tMack' says of JULIAN and CoLFAx
'.In all probability Julian viii be re
nominated. He has way of "setting
things up" for That purpose which ought
to be perfect, inasmuch as it occupies 6
year and eleven months of each of his
two years terms. He is, besides,a 5eao
ideal Radical about the meanest CON-
pound of villainy and hypocrisy that
ever stood erect in two shoes. He and
his friend Schuyler are made after the
same pattern. Schuyler is Julian, plus
q chronic grin; and the two together
haven't the intellect of a Chesapeake
oyster in month without an in it."
OF Radical reconstruction he has mo-
a very exaulted opinion:
s'9ut, in all candor and seriousness
what are the net results of the more thar
four years of legislation-tie pretended
object of which has been to ssrestore tht
Union" From the first act, in Decem.
Der, 1865, to the last of yesterday, eve
ry measure Of Congress on the subjee
of the Southern States has tended to wi
den instead of to heal the breach between
the North and the South. 1t has beer
a continual rubbing of the wound, in
stead of bringing the plaster, to use ;
simile from Shakespeare; until not only
has every semblance and feeling of un
ion been blotted out between the two
sections, but the real fact of the matte
lis that union so far from being possibl,
has been rendered even undesirable, ex
cept on conditions which Imply revo
luton greater than that through which
we have passed. The South is still un
! der military control-the reconstructed
States as well as the unreconstructed.-
A country half as large as continenta
1 Europe is subject to the beck and bid o
provost marshals and brigadier gener
! ais"
i an ten States of the Union there i
far less of civil liberty to day than ther,
is in Austria and there is no likelihood
of an improved condition of affairs fo
years to come, for Radicals know very
well the game they are playing, and tha
the moment they withdraw the militar,
from the South, that moment reconstruc
ton turns from laughable farce.into
mournful tragedy. This has been s,
from the first, and will be to the end
You may pass as many amendments tt
the Constitution of the United States al
you please but you must amend the con
stitution of Nature itself before you cal
persuade the people of the South to sub
! NIT willingly to the twin bastards of re
construction, negro rule and carpet-bas
representation .
Here is a pop at GRANT the Gift En-
terDrise Man: Jta