The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1870-03-31

The Louisville Courier-Journal publishes a
highly interesting and important article on
the effects of the Fifteenth Amendment on the
different States, and particularly those of New
England. We quote q part:
The Democratic party, to take ready ex-
ample, made great mistake in what it eX-
pectcd OF the repeal of the Missouri Com
promise. The Kansas Nebraska bill, which
embodied that repeal, was made a test ques-
ton, and no man was held to be good Dem
ocrat who did not stand up squarely to the
was suspected if he tlinched for a moment
Time went on. Old Buck came into the
Presidency on flood tide and began at once
to carry out vigorously the policy of the party
in the new territories. But the result did not
answer the anticipation; and in the end it
turned out that the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise had strengthened the enemies OF
slavery instead of enlarging the area of what
was called the slave power. Both Kansas
and Nebraska grew into ultra Republican
States. The middle men, such as Robert j
| Walker and Frederic P. Stanton, went down
between two millstones; and in 1860, as in
1886, the kansas-Nebraska bill was the
strongest weapon that was used against the
Democratic party.
The Fifteenth Amendment, it seems to us,
is q dclusion of the same sort 1t has haunt
ed the Republicans a long while. 1t is the
last of the questions which were given to the
country by the war, and which belong imme-
diately to the passions and nationals of the
war The Republicans ought to desire to
keepit open as long as possible. for they have
everything to gain from it as it stands But
when the Fifteenth Amendment becomes a
sealed book there will be an end of legal
o,tsf ho1, al 80 A. -. =
status of the negro. He has been made a
freeman, a citizen and voter What else ?
To this extent laws can certainly be made
effectual. But no further To "take another
step in advance" is impossible in law The
very next step beyond is an invasion of hui
man nature. Yet the more irresponsible of
the Republican leaders will attempt to force
the Republicans to take it, and in doing so
will divide their strength.
Every one of the Southern States recon-
structed under the Fifteenth Amendment will
fall into the hands of the Democratic party,
and the Republicans cannot risk division in
the North On suffrage they can hold to-
gether-not on any other proposition concern
ing the negro. Suffrage being settled leaves
the ultras nothing to do but to agitate for
social equality, which cannot be made to
work as apolitical instrument. Besides, the
disappearance of the negro question, as a
1--we and progressive element in our politics,
will clear the field for new divisions and COM
blnatlons upon financial topics, from which
the tn Democrats o., have everything to hope. So
that the Iubllation in Radical circles over the
Fifteenth Amendment is pure effervescencc
and amounts to nothing at all. A very few
months of universal suffrage will develope the
truth of this most thoroughly.
As to the princinle of State ,;obtc ,,L;l
struck at by the Fifteenth Amendment New
England had betterlook out. She is now the
apostle of Capitalization, when she owes her
own unequal power to the strict observance
of State lines and jurisdiction. Virginia was
cut in two. Texas is to be cut in four. The
same power may reduce the six New England
States to one. This is the moral part of the
Fifteenth Amendment, which the sharper of
the Yankees should look to. The South
went to war to preserve slavery and lost it.
New England is trying to ruin the South in
order to get consolidation of the govern
ment, by which she can only apprehend the
loss of her individuality and power.