New-York tribune., 1871-03-28
CONNECTICUT.


in smooth times, and needs occasionally like
Mrs. Dombey, to be requested to make an
effort. There is apt to be one man in every
remote district who has not heard who Is
running for Governor until the day after
elections and this mans vote is the one want
ing There are also hundreds of citizens
absent from the State on business on election
day, except in years of extreme excitement.
But when the State is really called on, and is
made TO feel the necessity of action, in her
business centers and on her farms, she has
never failed TO respond, to poll her last man,
to overrun her quota in the field. We beg
our friends over the border to consider seri-
ously whether this election, now close at hand,
is not one that demands, more than any since
the war, one of the efforts which is always
followed by victory.
If the question were simply whether Mr..
Jewell or Mr.. English should amass the mu-
nifcent salary of eleven hundred dollars, in
greenbacks, which Connecticut showers upon
her chief officer, it might be matter of the
preference of individuals. If the issue were
simply the support of the present National
Administration, the State might postpone her
final verdict for q year with no other INJURY
than loss of some reputation. III 1t were. IN
short possible in this election TO separate the
party issue from the broader one of the gene
raj welfare the present responsibility of the
State would be comparatively light, and her
action would be of small interest beyond her
own borders. 1t is indeed true that Connecti-
cut is bound to do what she can to make good
the loss in the Republican Congress ranks by
the New Hampshire detection; but the RESPONSE
bility is a thousand times graver than this
Let us put the aspect of the case in few
words: Since New Hampshire voted, since the
new Congress came in, the whole prospect of
has changed. The open at
tempt is made to arrest the peaceful growth
OF orderly freedom at the South, and to re-
verse the decision of the war. If it is not
settled that any citizen of the United States
may pursue his peaceful calling in any State
of the Union without molestatiOn, then the war
was failure-as completely failure after
AppomatOx as the Democratic party declared
it to be after Gettysburg. If we have only
swapped the Golden Circle for the Ku-Klux
Klan the gain is not apparent. Now the simple
fact is that to-day, in large portions of the
late Rebel States it is unsafe for Northern
man to execute Federal office, to teach a
school, to maintain the principles of the
Republican party. An organization, that
can hardly be called secret, assumes to
Judge men for no crime except adhesion to
the principles which triumphed in the war,
and to whip, Danish, or murder them. This
organization does not want the laws executed,
will not let the Federal taxes be collected, is
determined to close the schools. The wide
spread conspiracy is simply revival of the
old barbarism that held the South in its law
less grip before the war. In order to accom-
plish its reactiOnary purpose, it is necessary
to drive out by violence, not only Repub-
licans, but all the educating influences that
are opposed to the old order of things The
prevalence of Republicanism in the South
means the education of the negroes and of
the poor whites and the introduction of civil
ization generally. This Ku-Klux organization
is trying to carry out the Chicago platform of
1864.
In order to succeed in this, however, it will
not be sufficient to drive the Republican party
from the South and reduce the Blacks to sub
lection it is also necessary for the Democrats
to carry some of the Northern States that is,
to renew and to succeed in the attempt of
1864. And here comes in the immediate duty
of Connecticut. The first skirnsh in this new
fight is to be fought on her historic fields.
She can at this moment, if she will, do more
for the South, for its peace and tranquility,
than many troops. She can arrest an exultant
and rising tide Of rebellion and lawlessness.
She can say check to the game of a Democ-
racy, unscrupulous whether its wins by pow
der or by fraud She has a splendid chance
to do tho country signal service.
Men of Connecticut you have not forgot
ten how victories are won You cannot be
deceived about the present necessity, Show
that you are not insensblc to it.