The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-08-16


flint against all manner of financial dishon-
esty, purify the Administration of Justice
as much as in him lies, maintain the pub
lie credit by prompt discharge of all Just
obligations, economiZe the revenue and
tighten taxation, give to capital the right
which belongs to it, and at the same time
see that labor is not robbed of it's earnings.
He will certainly hold his power of appoint
ment as public trust, and not as part of
his personal possession, to be used for the
supDort of his family, or to encourage the
private liberty of his friends. He will, so
far as he can without transgressing the
limits of his legal authority, relieve the
Southern States from the gangs that are
now proving upon their vitals in open part
nership with the present Administration.
think he will do all this; and my faith
is founded on the testimony of his friends
and enemies, on the known facts of his his
tory, and on the moral influence which the
Democracy will necessarily exert upon his
conduct. The errors of his past life were
caused by certain evil communications from
which he has cleanly escaped. Heheads
great revolt against wickedness in high
places, and do not believe he will 90 back
upon us and be guilty of the same wicked
ness himself.
The contrast between the two candidates
being so very strong, no fair-minded Dem
ocrat can doubt what he ought to do. Yet.
the reluctance which many of us feel to
vote foreither of them is hard to overcome.
did, and do, most heartily sympathize
with that class which received Mr. Grecley's
nomination in much sorrow. | am sure
this feeling proceeded from no unworthy
passion or prejudice, but was the natural
result of sober thought on the condition of
the country and the fitness of things per-
tanning thereto.
In our view the controversy between the
parties was not all about men. and not
wholly on questions of mere administration.
The Liberal Republicans and some Demo-
Gratis think that we owe all our sufferings
to the corruption or incapacity of General
Grant and the rings that surround him.
But the prime cause lies farther back and
deeper down in wrongs for which the tri-
umph of Mr.. Greeley with all his reforms
offers no immediate atonement, and only IA
partial remedy.
In England, after every civil commotion
the victorious party vented its rage iand
gratified its rapacity by passing bills of at
tainder and bills of pains and penalties
against their fallen and helpless opponents.
The best and greatest men of their respec-
tive ages were the victims of these lepisla-
tive DEGREES. In all the most notable cases
subsequent Parliaments acknowledged the
wrong, reversed the attainders, and made
what reparatiOn they could. Our fathers
be done here, and so they put their solemn
interdict into plain words, and made it a
part of the fundamental law that neither
Congress nor any State Legislature should
ever pass a bill of attainder.
The reconstruction act of 1867 was 4 Bill
of Attainder more deliberately cruel, and
with pains and penalties more compendi-
ously unjust than any British bill that ever
was passed. But its authors were conscious
that it could not stand, and they must re-
place it with something else, for sooner or
later the courts would be sure to pronounce
1T void. Besides, the object being to put
the Southern people under the domination
of greedy Adventures from the North with
unlimited license to oppress and plumber
them, the officers of the army were not very
good agents in such nefariouS business
The negroes would be instruments of tyr
amy much more easily managed. But an
act of Congress DISTINGUISHING the white
people for offences real or imputed, and
handing over their State governments to
negroes to be run by them in the interests
OF carpets-baggers, would be merely an
other Bill of Attainder, or rather modifi-
cation of the first one making it much
worse, but equally within the reach of iu-
dlclal correction. In this strait they re-
sorted to the expedient of converting tie
Constitution itself into a BtH Of Attain
der.
The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend
mcnts were frauds, upon the spirit and let
ter of :he instrument, inasmuch as they eff
fectcd the worst outrage which it was made
to prevent. They were carried against the
known will of nearly every State i'll the
Union by shameless deception in the North,
and by brutal violence i'll the South
May this be washed in Lcthe and forgot
temp" Certainly not, as long as any portion
of our people are compelled to bear the in
tolcrable burden of the yoke thus fastened
upon them. | need not say how much they
have suffered already, nor try to conjecture
how much they will be called to endure
hereafter; but it is certain that any ordina-
ry despotism would have been visitation
of mercy in comparison. When we reflect
upon the number and rapacity of the thieves
that have been upheld in their pillage by
means OF the negro governments, we can
not help but regret the non-adoption of
Dir. Stevens proposition, atrocious as it
was, for universal confiscation. The per-
mclous consequences of this rule are felt
III the general as well as the local govern
ments. The Legislature of Congress is
largely controlled by fit representatives of
the carpet-bag interests, and the worst acts !
OF the Executive administration are done to |
please the power which corrdls the negroes |
at the meeting places of the leagues, and
drives them thence to the polls.
Mr.. Greeleys election will not do all that
we could wish to free us from these evils : |
1T will not even be a popular condemnation /
of the base means by which they were in
fiicted upon us but it will begin the pro-
cess of their gradual extinction. 1t will /
give the white people a reasonable hope /
that the heritable qualities of their fathers |
blood may some day be restored. In the |
meantime, if it does not reverse the attain
der, it will at least insure a merciful execu-
ton of it. Democrats who disliked Mr. !
Greeley's nomination have reflected well.
and l think will support him with almost |
perfect unanimity. The thought that a I
victory will not give us everything at once
may diminish in some degree 1.-THE rapture
of the strife,'' but it will not impair the eff |
ficiency of their support, for they are i'm
PEELED to their utmost exertions by pro-
found conviction that nothing but his cleo
ton will save the country from a long