Worcester daily spy., 1871-09-12

Pamphets, essays, ana SullOIldlS huNC ueel
published 10 explain or criticise the ''ncw de-
parture" so unsuccessfuly attempted by some
of the democratic leaders; and they all do no
more than bring more clearly to view the
troubed condition of the democratic party
which has moved some of its chief managers to
undertake the remarkable task of peTsuadng
the party to disowa itself until after the coming
presidential election, The actual meaning of the
maneuver called "new departure" has at no
time been so much in the dark as to be doubt
ful to anybody. The purpose is to disguise the
party for time, and make it seem to inconsid-
crate voters what it is not. The most interest
ing portion of the literature il has brought into
circulation is that which has come from its
critics, especially its southern critics This dis
closes very fully the influence and the aims
which would necessarily control the party, if it
could elect the next president
one of the most notable of the critical and
protesting documents is entitled Concession, or
How the Lost Cause and the Independence of
the South may be Secured 1t spurns the
.'new departure" as "yena, hypocrtical, false
hearted, Yankee" contrivance which no high
strung southcrner should deign to use; and
then. in the usual style of glowing political fire.
eaters. swings round the circle INTO the other eX
IRENE as far as possible, as if the writer would
say TO his democratic associates at the north:
"some of you, like driyeling, sneakiug hypocrtes,
talk of new departure as if it were good for
something; now hear me, and learn in what
style supreme southern gentlemen can talk
about departure of another kindl" And he
proceeds to talk treason and secession very much
as it was talked in South Carolina, in the first
days of the southern rebellion. This pamphlet
has been attributed to Alexander II. Stephens,
but he denies having written it. 1t has been
published by the Southern Association" and is
circulated from New York throughout the south.
In our view, it would be useful TO have it circn-
lated among those who have felt the influence of
that demoralized aud crazy good nature, which
has talked so gushingly of universal amnesty
and sought 10 restore to the ballot and political
power all the disfranchised secession lunatics
left bowling by the crash of the southern con-
federacy." Itcoud hardly fail 10 do them good.
This writer's leading position is this: The
"lost cause" is not lost; it still aims to win,
and it is sure to win, by one method or another.
Southerners he maintains, are distinct people,
far super or TO the yankees" and they will
not submit to the measures introduced and en-
forced by the Yankee government" One way
is open to them, he believes, if no other can be
found; and he describes this way. 1t requires
a reorganization of the secession conspiracy.
The "high-strUng, whole-souled" chiyalry must
seize all the state governments at the south, put
in power men of their own stripe, call a cpnyen
ton, elect a president of southern confed-
eracy, and then send commissioners to Wash
ington to demand their independence. This de-
mand, he says, will be granted without much
ceremony, because the north will have no heart
to resist it. 1t does not occur to this lunatic
that grave difficulties might arise in the way Of
his scheme, in the south itself, where, at pres
ent, there are no slaves, and where the old
Bourbons of the wrecked slave power belong TO
the past and not TO the future, and are no longer
terrible, even TO women and children, when they
put on their terrors and utter menaces. He as
sumes, as matter of course, that slavery can
be restored by simple decree of his "warm-
hearted, whoe-soued, chivalric sons OF the
sunny south" and that the colored people will
hasten to become slaves again, as hungry men
hurry to afeast
This "chiyalric" southern departure" is
brought out against the "new departure" start
ed in Ohio. In that past age Of the slavehold-
ers' supremacy, which terminated ten years ago,
these southern democrats, so tremendous in
their own estimation, were accustomed to scare,
browbeat, and subdue their northern associates,
by such means They can go through the mo-
tions STILL with remarkable precision. They
can not bring themselves to believe that the old
condition OF things in the south has gone for
ever. They can not accept the new age which
will bring the Sunny south" in due time 10
nobler, brighter, and more prosperous condition,
such as her selEstyled "chvalry" have never
sought to realize, and were never capable of re-
aizing. These monomanacs of the "lost cause
have lost their occupation. Time and ideas have
demolished the old deu in which they hoped to
live secure and defy the advance of civilization.
The only people with whom they have anything
in common, are the blind tories and ultramon-
tanists Of Europe, who can not see how far the
world is away from the thirteenth and four
tenth centuries.
10 auNOCaie universal amnesty, or IN other
words restoration to the exercise of political
power, in behalf Of these men, is to disregard
the welfare of the republic. They have been
guilty Of ineXcusable and persistent treason
They are reasonable still, in their thopehts
feelings, and aims, and, therefore, unfit to he
entrusted with political power. 1t is forbear-
ance enough towards traitors to abstain from
hanging them. Having granted them amnesty
to this extent, nothing more should be demand
ed in their behalf. Let them be made to feel it
necessary to forego political ambition, live quiet.
ly, and be content with the occupations of pri.
vale life, under protection of the government
they have sought TO destroy.