The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1871-08-03
The work of Bold, Bad Men.

The history of the last six years,
says the Louisville Coatrser-J oatgndl,
shows how much few bold, bad men
can accomplish. When the Thirty
ninth Congress assembled Thaddeusa
Stevens did not have exceeding fifty
followers in the House. They were
daring and desperate men, determined
to rule or ruin the Republican party.
To them the crack of their great
leaders whip was sweet music, and
they were always on the alert. Some
| joined them out of sheer acoWardice
and others because they could not 'af-
ford to have the party split asunder.
In this way q majority was secured, 4
and then those who still held on to
their conservative notions were drag
ged into caucus and forced to abandon
them on pain of excommunication
from the true church. Finally there
wasa harmonious family in both wings
of the Capitol, and its offspring now
disgraces the statute book. We have
alWays thought that. as q permanent
investment, these Radical leaders COM
mitted an egregious blunder. If they
had pursued a conciliatory policy
towards the South-if they had treated
her citizens with kindness instead of
harshness, they would have built up a
party there that could have boasted of
many honest men, formidable in mum.
bers, and entirely worthy of preserva-a
ton. Furthermore, the Union would
have been made stronger in the hearts
of the people than it had been for the
preceding fifty years. AT it is, what
do we see The floors of Congress
are soiled by carpet baggers and seal
awags without character and without
brains. The respectable Radical from
| the North is ashamed of his company.
Even Mr.. Greeley, great partisan as he
is known to be, was impelled by a
sense of duty and truth to denounce
them in unmeasnred terms. The reign
of such men cannot last. Common
decency requires that they should be
hurled into their original obscurity.-
They will only be remembered as
thieves and public plunderers. The
negroes themselves will bear with
them but little. longer. Indeed, in
many parts of the South they are al
ready voting with their old masters,
who are their truest friends. The po-
litical status of all the late insurrec-i
tionary States is only a question of
time. Five of them have emancipated
themselves, and the rest are sure to
4
will discover what consummate fools
they have made of themselves, and
we expect to hear them curse the ne
gro as a "rebel rascal" What care
the Radical politicians for the colored
race or any other race that will not
help them? The most sagacious of
I them have long since seen the mistake
they made in disfranchising the lead
/ ing men of the South, and in perpe-
/ trating many other wrongs, but they
| had not the honesty to retrace their
steps. They kept on from bad to
| worse till they capped the climax of
infamous legislation by placing such
power in the hands of the President
as the Queen of England dare not ex-
i ercise. We are not alarmists, but it is
our deliberate conviction that if the
Radical party should obtain q new
lease of power in '72 there will not be
a fragment of the old Government of
1.-The United States left at the end of
I General Grants second term. We
may not have q monarch in name, but
we will have one in fact. a9m
THERE have been more defaulters,
and and larger amount of the peo-
ple's taxes stolen In one week, of
Grants administration, than during
all the administrations of all the other
Presidents. And that was what COM
mended the administration of the
great receiver to the g continued COM
| fidencen of the recent Radical office
| holders Convention at Columbus. It