The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1872-10-16
THE CHOICE BETWEEN THE
PARTIES.
BY LEONARD BACON, LID.

The parties between which the in.
dividual citizen must choose, unless he
chooses to throw away his vote, are
those two well-known parties, each
having its character written in its his
tory, the Democratic and the Repub-
lican. What gives Importance to the
choice between the parties in this cleo
tlon is the pendency of certain ques.
tlons between contending parties.
First and most urgent is the question
of pGc5fcdtion. "Let us have peace"
said Gen. Grant, four years ago and
the heart Of the nation responded, and
still responds, "Let US have peace" 1t
was an arduous task which was de-
volved on the present Administration
at its bginning. The Confederate
Government had been abolished the
armies under its flag had been dis.
banded the governments in the re-
volted states had been reconstructed
or were in process of reconstruction !;
but peace had not been established
Not only we're there at the south those
resentments which, after such q con-
fict, cannot be Immediately extin-
guished, but there was stubborn un-
willingness to admit that the lost cause
was really lost. The condition in that
part of the country was war suppress
ed, without being ended--chronic war,
smouldering like a buried fire and
ready to break OFT at any orp ,rtuni.
ty. There was the burning of school
houses by "mean whites" the meanest
of negro-haters; there was the mur.
der of peaceable citizens by trained
banditti; there was a wide and power
tul organization of sworn assassins. to
perpetuate, with added atrocity, the
terrorism BY which the South had
been ruled in the time of slavery and
against that organization courts and
sheriffs, with all the apparatus of JUS
tlce, were powerless. Something of
all this-alas too much of it remains
to-day. A "bloody chasam" remains
not only between the conquering ma
tion and the conquered yet unchanged
secessionists, but wider and more
bloody between the emancipated race
and their oppressors. The Constant
readers" of the New York Tribune
know how it ras in 1869, and how it
is now; for the recent tergiversation
of that journal connot have effaced its
former testimony from the memory of
even its most obsequious worshipers.
1t need not be denied that in the
years since the murder of President
Lincoln the Republican majority in
Congress has made some grave mis-
takes IN It's recOnstrutive legislation.
What the mistakes have been | will
not undertake to say. Certainly they
have not been so disastrous as the mis-
takes which Andrew johnson was
making, or those which the Democats
were anxious to make if they could OBJ
tain the power in 1865 or in 1869. They
may be ascribed largely to the caucus
system. The wisesL and safest legisla-
ton can hardly be expected if the
most important measures, intsead of
being freely considered in the House
and shaped by honest discussion be-
tween one side aud the other, are de-
termlned in a caucus, where the most
radical and violent predominate over
the more calm and conservative por-
tion of the party. But, Notwithstanding
such mistakes, and notwithstanding
the outrageous abuses of power by
carpet bag" governments in some of
the states, much progress toward peace
and order has been achieved. The
Southern people everywhere are begin
ming to understand that those who
were once slaves are now citizens,
whose citizenship must and will be
protected; that every citizen invested
with the right Of suffrage by laws
which recognize no difference of color
must be allowed to vote, without coer-
clon or intimidation; that the. region
OF lawlessness, violence must yield to
the region Of law; that the banded
assassins, with their secret lodges, their
oaths, and their disguises, are respon.
sible to the courts, and not the courts
to them. What ever may have been,
in the last four years, the mistakes or
the failures of the Republican party
in its policy for the pacifcation of the
South, the success of that policy, on
the whole, is a substap tial fact. Can
there be any reasonable doubt that a
Democratic success in the pending elec.
ton would be disastrous in every
Southern state? Wonld not "the
bloody chssam," now partly closed,
open again? Mr.. Greeley and his
new friends in the North propose
to clasp hands over "the bloody
chasm," instead of closing it forever. |
cannot understand this as anything
else than an offer Of the right hand of !
70 the numbering bandtti
heretofore so vigorously denounced by |
the New York Tribune; nor can / |
doubt that it is so understood by the |
banditti themselves. A Democratic |
in November means not |
paciiieation at the South, but renew.