The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1871-11-30

country, that IN the Gays oil It's pFiul
t overthrew every party that resisted It
sway that but recently W S SO full o
, hope and enthusiasm, and 81 sanguine o
its return after its long ex e. to nation
al power, is now discussing whether i
will dare TO run Democrats t all at th
Presidential election of 1872! To nomi
nate candidates of their party, believer
III their own principles. is, rs they se'
plainly, to go down to foreeoomed de
feat. To abandon the field in ad ance il
political death. real or assumed. Sue!
is the sad dilemma affecting the Demo
cratic mind.
There is reason for this decline ant
fall of once powerful party 1t is writ
ten in its later history. 1t has forced
the people to believe that It has still, a.
during the rebellion, a soItheIn and q
northern face That, as it then on the
one side warred fosthe destruction Of Tic
nation, and on the other side warred or
all the war measures of the governments
SO now at the south it inspires Or paIll
ates organized outrage and assassination
and at the north denonnccs every effort
of,the nation to punish such horrid and
unexampled crimes as tyranuical and I'M
constitutional.
In It's issues they have voluntarily
made on this question they have been
smitten with political blindness -nerh aps
misled by the fact that some able Re
publcans doubted the wisdom Of all the
details Of the Ku Klux bill. But our
opponents could not have made them
selves weaker before the people at large
than by the bitter denuncations which
have been the staple of their canvassing
speeches this year. Their arguments
that the naton had no right to enforce
its constitutions and laws for the protect
ion Of its citizens, seemed exactly akin
to their theories of ten years ago, that
the nation had no right to coerce a state
which was seeking to destroy the Union,
Through all their sophistries the people
recognized that under the amendment
which devolv ed on Congress the power,
and hense also the duty, to enforce every
, jot and title Of the article by appropri-
ate legislation, congress had enacted that
wherever disguised bands, organized and
sworn to commit outrage and murder,
have made ordinary process lmprac-
ticable, where local authorities approve
their horrid iniquites, or are overaWed
by them. this reign Of terrorism aud lind
ish violence is to be ended by the nation
al power, welded, not for oppression,
but to suppress disorder and protect the
helpless. Protection Of the poorest and
! humblest against outrages that would
disgrace the convicts Of Botany Bay and
the brIgands Of Italy is the object Of this
much maigned law. And It's true iu-
tent and meaning" is appreciated and in
dorsed and henored by millions OF Amer
lean hearts-not limited, rejoice to say,
to the ranks of any one party in our
land.
1t is because the people at large recog-
nize so fully and detest S, utterly the
wicked and bloody deeds Of these danges.
our bands at the south, who rob, burn,
beat, main, shoot and hang it Is be-
cause they reject SO sternly all palilatlons
for these atrocities which dishoror the
republic; and it is because they demand
that, under our amended constitution,
that the weakest citizen shall be defend
ed against the most powerful organiza-
ton and conspiracy at home, as he would
be against the most arrogant or power
ful empire abroad and by the who!c
power Of the nation, wherever the eyer-
else of that power becomes necessary,
that all the Democratic arguments agalns
the Ku-Klux legislation Of the Republl-
recoiling, indeed, on their althorS, hive
proved to them so uumlstakeabiy an ele-
ment Of weakness.
Nor is this all that has tended to sap
the strength and blight the hopes of the
Democratic party There is a dangerous
class north as well as south, which the
people feel it would not be safe 10 install
in power in the persons of its faVolltes
or apologists. Go into any of our large
cities, east or west. Ask any Of Its cit
izens OF any party this question: ''ln
the quarter Of this where vice and evil
reign supreme where everything that ls
good and just is tramp'ed under foot, and
everything that is wicked and vile and
iniquitous, is dominant where you would
uot dare to let your wife or daughter
walk after nightfall unattended to which
party do its denizens give tn air confidence
their Endorsement and their approving
votes ?' And the answer you are sure
to receive is, to-day the weakness Of the
Democratic party. With the dangerous
power of the dangerous classes, north
and south, as plainly illustrated as it has
been of late, the thousands ofvotes our
opponents receive from them are more
than offset by tens of Thousands who re-
,ectlon, and thus to be found fraternlz
ing with them at the polls.
But. though the inevitable defeat whih
Democratic leaders see awaiting them II
they place Democratic nominees before
country on a Democratic platform. may
DO avoided By the hari kari proposition
now under discussion among them, Re-
pub!icanS must not close their eyes to the
fact that such campaign may be more
dangerous to them. as an organization,
the open field on which they have SO Of
ten met aud defeated their opponents.
| By exactly such policy was Republican
| ascendancy overthrown tn Tennessee and
Missouri Aud, though it would be
more difficult to play the same game on
the broader arena of the whole nation,
and its results in the future might be far
more disastrous to the party which sougt
political resurrection, through apparent
suicide, the fact that plan Is contem-
plated at all should impel action this
winter which would place the Repnbll-
can party on impregna Die ground. First
OF all, unity With thorough concord
and jealous energy New York could be
carried now as surely as Ohio and Penn
>ylvania aad the na lion in 1872 as sure
| ~ as the state elections of 1871, But.
next and above all, meeting the new anG
| living issues of the day like brave and
living party of faithful, patriotic and
| large-hearted men.
With hearty Endorsement of the re-
! forms attem pied TO outline in my ar
| .icle Of last month, on the Pathway of
| Victor" with generous reductions of
taxation. and especially treating taxes on
tea. coffee. incomes, etc., as war burdens
to be dispensed with in peace, and re-
served for the monetary exigeneies of
war-witf thorough and searching re-
trenchment and economy in every branch
Of the serviee-proving Republicanisnl