New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-04-11
THE CYST OF DEMOCRACY.

THE GIST OF DEMOCRACY.
The gist of Democracy in this country
can not be better defined than it has been
recently by the C0arier-Jounal This
paper processes, to be Conservative
Democratic journal; and in an article of
much length, headed Congress and Ken
lucky" intended as an answer to Senator
Morton's course in the Senate upon the
subject of outrages in the South, the fol-
lowing extraordinary language appears,
which must be accepted as the whole sum
and substance of Democracy when and
wherever it holds sway:
We maintain, however, the right and
also the sound theory that every State
should be left to its own devices. II, being
left free to itself, Its people choose to fight
and quarrel; to kill one another, to burn.
pillage and destroy, why, that is their con-
Germ. They make their bed and lie in it.
If they prefer condition of war to con-
dition Of peace, let them be gratified by all
means. Distant and unfriendly interfer-
ence can only foment the evil. Force may
repress violence for time. Or it may
overturn free system and raise up des-
potic system. But. when once applied, it
cannot be safely withdrawn. It cures
nothing. 1t corrects nothing. 1t merely
keeps the people subdued. just as soon as
it is removed, the old spirit, intensified,
breaks out, and the old trouble has to be
gone over again. If Kentucky is to be SUBJ
jected to cOercive violence, MI. Morton may
expect to see all the efforts Of good men set
at naught, and the course of benefcent
public opinion checked.
This is in reality the pith of demo-
cratic government, but not the essence of
that liberty that is to secure '.social
order based on sound and equal laws. :"
What social order can people expect,
if they who choose to fight and quarrel,
to kill one another, to burn, pillage and
destroy, are to have their own way, re-
gardless of the wholesome restraints of
law and the rights of their more peacea-
BILE fellow-citizens? Because desperadoes
prefer a condition of this kind, is it right
that they should be permitted to disturb
and disgrace civilized society, admitting
they confined their acts of violence among
themselves? It is not right presented in
this light, which is far from correct. The
people do not prefer condition Of war.
They do not choose TO fight and quarrel.
We hold that this is not the condition of
society in any of the Southern States.
Bands of lawless men have disguised
themselves in portions Of the South for
the purpose of making war on peacea BILE
men for the purpose of breaking
up and destroying republican govern
ment in the States that have been sub
jected to reconstruction. But this condi-
ton is not the choice Of the people.
The Courier-Jomnal evidently regards
the disposition of the federal government
to remedy this condition of things as
wrong views it as a distant and un-
friendly interference that can only foment
evil! With the same propriety it might
urge it is wrong to repress violence Of
any kind; wrong to arrest the murderer;
wrong to arrest the incendiary; wrong to
arrest any one who wickedly and with
malice aforethought commits an offense.
If it is despotism to do this, it is more
endurable than the lawless despotism of
men who prowl about in disguise and
murder inoffensive citizens, simply be-
cause theyj have dared to exercise the
rights of freemen.
1t is just as right to punish offences of
this kind as it is to punish offences Of any
kind; and none but the most blinded par
tisan would accuse the government of
c6ercive violence because it desires to give
protection to those who are suffering from
the expressions of others, who are disposed
to deprive them Of their political rights.
The men who resort to this mode of reach
ing political power do not ask for sober
counsels, are not actuated by humane mo-
tives, and have no thought of popular in
terest- They are selfish, brutal and abso-
lutte in their will to coerce their unlawful
commands upon others.