The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1871-08-03

| And this represented at that time the
/ feeling of all good men over the
country, including the South itself and
without distinction of party in the
North ; for men then for a while felt
that the country was higher than par
ty and that the constitution as con-
structed by statesmen and jurists was
indeed the law of the land. There
were bad men in the South who had
mostly been shielded through favor
itism, in bomb proof appointment
who by trade had absorbed the prop
erty which belonged to soldiers in the
field and bad men in the North. who
had cried for vengeance on the people
who had laid down their arms. They
/ were men whose vehenence was only
iequalled by their absence from our
armies; or the camp followers who
knew how to-gather what brave men
left, in order to keep with their colors,
or the broken ana disappointed men
who went South to get into offices
which they did not deserve, and which
they won by proving under pretence
of friendship, the worst enemies of
the colored men, and whose hopes of
continuance lay in. keeping up and
fostering strife, And to help these,
the carpet -baggers, all of them with
out conscience, and many of them
criminals, who spell pray with an e g"
and never practice it under any other
orthography, whom Mr.. Greeley has
SO recently and Justly denounced -
Peace in the South, and their soccupa-
ton is gone; disturbance is the, only
element in which their foul lives could
survive. There are doubles here and
there in the South, Northern men who
went With honorable purposes and
with designs to make homes amongst
the people, but they viii be found op-
\ posed to the ssfoolish system of Cap
saincy,o' as it was called in the days, of
Elizabeth and now adopted foolish
because partial, uni just and oppressive.
1t seems to me that there was 8, time
in the history Of this country when
the exercise of magnanimity on the
| part of the North would have secured
q country. once more united in sympa-
! thy, as in territorial connection. Gem
erosity by. the yictors to the van
quished was never thrown away, and
the gratitude would have been for the
RepubI bIican party, the party in power
and already committed to q, long lease
of it in the Congress, and the Bench,
and the Administrative departments
also, had they, acted wisely and justly.
They would have won to themselves
the support of the South, secured for
the future an immense body of DEM
4 ocrats who had acted with them polit-
ically during the war, and they would
have retained with them great NUM-
bers of Republicans, who hold the
j opinions delivered by the saints of
their honored old Constitution owing
Wing party; enough had they been
wise and just to have continued them
in power for administration after adj
ministration,,i on raff Iezf c<,s 5iosIo
r. But they, were wanting in faith in
the people, in the principles on which
QUE governments, State and Federal,
! rested, or careless of the obligations
| which they imposed, or in love with
] the centralization of all powers in the
Federal government were ready for
the coming of " the man on horse
back. Knowing. the best. they choose
the Worser part; there were no neces.
stiles of legislation to yield to amend
ments, for they had two-thirds in each
body The power was. supreme to do
as they listed. for they saw no Judlcian
ry interposing the limitations of the
Constitution And so this party was,
4 and is, and is } to be, responsible for
the conditi on into which the country
has been brought by the unconstitu-
tional and oppressive measures which
they have adopted ( measures tdestruc-
tive to the interests of the whites who
owned the massfofI the property and
to the blacks who owned all the labor
/ of the country. Nor can it be said
that they bad, not time for the task
| OF the ten years of which I spoke,
| four were spent in war and six in
ltpeace-lohg enough to give time for
trial Of measures, even If they were
tentative only; but no man can look
over them fairly without believing
that theYfw were experiments, not to as
certain what was best for the people
of the South, black and white, but
how far they dare trust the people Of
| the North; fh these measures, nearly'
all of which were in, derogationo of
what had been common right" in the
minds of all our people. 5.-.,4i.,-,,,
i have gone into no details as to this
| legislation. Some of it persisted in
the using, or was found impracti cable
lin execution. Some expired by lapse.
of time, e,some by repeal ;but each did its
partin assuring the white that there was
Isno hope of Justice for him, and assur-
ing the black that there was indemnity
for him, n o matter what he might DO,
and the result has been to make. every
/ thing insecure in the South, an inse-
curity which must continue until that
government which Mr.. Lincoln de-
/ ciared to be the worst government
in the world" a military government,
lis taken wholly away. 1t was so
! odious to him that he said, he prefer
red the government of one-tenth of
the people to that kind of government,
/ which must be. unjust, because the
lease could not be Investigated by
proper persons the General in charge
could net investigate it (; the RESPONSE;
i bility must go down from subal tern to
subaltern, and perhaps to the most ig-
norant in the, service, certainly not to
a judge or lawyer. i heard the speech
have, never read it, but ! believe i
do no injustice to his inbred fatredoto
the exercise ofgmartial law, except in
/ the plainest cases. .ifesGf9uiJ 20 as.
II, I do not refer to these laws because
they have any force in the future, or
should control our nation in matters
now to be decided by your votes.
i do not refer to them because their
! legislation was injurious to the people
of the South, for to many that would
be an argument in their favor, but be-
cause it was injurious to us in the
North. Every blow aimed at them
was equally Injurious to us, for, our
material prosperity was bound up IN
dissolubly withstheirsg s7ooR 9dl 500
4 There area higher siderations,
political and mora, Il than any which
could, arise from our material interests,
but j do not urge them.n They would
4 be useless against the passions which
arose from the war, and my only OBJ
! ject in referring to the conditions OF, the
country following the war; was to
= show what an opportunity was in the
hands of the Republicans, and how it
was recklessly thrown away. 1t re-
tnoiua for, n q to coueidar hoW xva NAV