New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-05-17
sarily and inevitably the same enemies We

met upon the battlefield
The RenomiIatOnists have another
dodge. They pretend that there Is no need
for Amnesty, because nobody is deprived OF
suffrage at the South. No claim could be more
dishonest 1t is put forward for the purpose OF
concealing the fact that many of the men best
fitted for public trust at the South are legally
excluded from office that even the choice OF
States like North Carolina fof Representa-
tives in the United States Senate is de-
MED them; that the whole South
is ranking with sense of wrong IN beng
accorded perfect liberty to vote, and mochdngly
told that their votes for the men OF their choice
shall not count. Can men who attempt a paltry
deception like that in platform deserve or
receive the confidence of anybody
SO far as this State is concerned, it has
only two platforms before it-Elmira and Gin
cinnati The great National Convention at
| Cincinnati adopted twelve ringing resolutions.
| Each is cry Of victory in the great uprising.
The Grant assemblage at Elmira foundered
laborously through fifteen wordy c0nvolutions;
the last-a needless exandrine-containing
the denomination clause which might as well
have been issued in Custom-hOuse general
order. The Liberal Republicans recognize hui
man equality before the law; pledge themselves
to the maintenance Of the Union and the amended
Constitution, and demand Universal Amnesty,
| Decentralization, and genuine Civil Service
Reform. And necessary to the establish
ment of these, they demand and expect Public
Economy, One Presidential Term, Reduction
of the Debt, Protection of the Public Credit
perpetual Recognition of the Services of the
Defenders of the Union, Lands for the Land
| less and Honor in the Management OF For
| eign Affairs. These are 10 gllttering gener-
J alities; each not only strikes responsive
chord in the breast of every patriotic Amer-
can, but gives voice to q sense of something
deficient in the present management of affairs
| Is the feeble piping of Elmira any keynote
TO the organ music of the oflice-holders' cam
pagn7 1t protests that it is opposed to "a
"hurTied payment of the National Debt" but
is quite sure that Civil Service ought to be
reformed; as though any reformation were
possible so long as a President may use that
service to secure the denomination which they
have just given, or so long rs the phalanx OF
tho Presidents friends in Congress is solid
also against Civil Service aRefoTm. Its pal
| tering argument that Mr.. Summers Civil Rights
bill was defeated by Liberal Republican votes
in the Senate is equally false and silly. Hanging
out a signal that the back door is open for the
return of those whom dctatOrial self-sufii
cheney has driven forth, Elmira seeks to re-
infame the dying hates of a decade and revive
an ancient feud between sections Then we
are told that President Grant has paid so many
millions of the National Debt, as though the
People had not paid that Debt, despite official
extravaganza and long continued, long-secUre
frauds on the Treasury.
If anything were needed TO highten the sharp
contrast projected between the platform
adopted by the Grant Republicans at Ell
mira and that of the Liberal Repub-
leans SO cordially accepted by the Demo
Gratis at Rochester, it would be found in the
groveling terms of the former and the lofty
diction of tho other. The use Of threats,
mean epithets, and half-cOncealed abuse by
the Two-Term men bespeaks the politician
who has abiding faith in old-time party disci
pine and caucus dicta. The other is new
declaration of independence; it is new Pro-
clamation of ELECTROMAGNETIC from
the thraldom of party coercion and terrorism.
1t announces the freedom of the citizen to
think ard vote without dictatiOn and inter-
ference. 1t dissOlves useless political distinc-
tons, and relegates disputed questions to the
People. By this sign we conquer.