Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-07-18
WHAT THEY MEAN BIZ REFORM.


WHAT THIEF MEAN BIZ REFORM.
We call attention to the conclusion ar
rived at in the report Of the minority o
the committee appointed to investigate tn
Ku-Klux ontrages. This report was signe
by Frank P. Blair, T. F. Bayard,S.
Cox, James B. Beck, P. Van Trump, A
NJ. Waddell. J. c. Robinson, and J. N
Hanks. Let it be remembered that al
these gentlemen are warmly in favor o
Horace Greeley, and are to-day among
the active leaders in the Liberal move
ment.r From the minority report we
catch glimpse Of the "reforrn" which
the democratic party hope to inaugurate
after the 4th of March, 1873. After adj
hitting the existence Of the Ku-Klux
Klans, and the horrible outrages charged
against them, these Liberal statesmen
and devoted disciples of Horace Greeley
indirectly justify them by the following
language:
Gas we have just remarked, we do not pro.
pose to discuss At large the question Of negro
government in these pages; bnt we feel that
it would be dereliction of duty on our part
If, after what we have witnessed in South Car
DINA, we did not admonish the American peo-
pie that the present condition of things in the
South cannot last. Ii was an ott.quoted pc.
litical apothegm, long prior to the war, that
no government could exist half slave and
half free.' The paraphrase of that PROPOSE
ton i equally true, that no government can
long exist half black and half white
There can be neither sympathy nor harmo-
mony in any polity where such antagonism is
attempted to be overcome by law. Gods
Law 10 higher than mans law. Mans puny
statutes can not repeal or nullify the immuta-
BILE ordinances of the Almighty. Those whom
God has separated let no man join together.
There can be no permanent partition Of pow
ef, nor any peaceable joint exercise of power,
among such diseordant bodies Of men. One
or the other must have all or none. Il 10 the
very acme of folly and fanaticism to suppose,
in this day of enlightenment and its conse-
quent pride Of feeling among the superior
race, that there can be reproduction Of the
ancient liable of tying the living and the dead
together without causing death TO both. Who
would have dreamed, fifteen years ago, what
highest and most far-seeing intellect among
the great men who established this Govern
ment upon the basis Of homogenity of race
and color, could have imagined that In the
hrst century Of its existence, African freedom,
Of the lowest type Of ignorance and brutality,
would rule . sovereign State of the Union,
and be the arbiters Of the rights and property
Of srace who hare ruled the destinies Of ma
tons ever since government was known
among menf Such state of things may last
30 long rs the party shall last which had the
power and. audacity to inaugurate il, and no
longer. But whenever that party shall go
down, - 90 down it will at some time not
long in the future, that will be the end of the
political power OF the negro among white
men on this continent"
This is not our language. but the words
IL an earnest report; the honest convic-
tons OF every democratic member on the
committee. The policy foreshadowed in
this extract is the policy of the Liberal"
party. The eight liberalites who signed
this report are not extremists, but fair
representatives Of the party to which they
belong. We desire to be fair. to utter
nothing in malice against this desperate
combination TO defeat President G ant,
pdb WAC OgCa NSStRtot VI Jul cPPo-
nents force us TO believe that this liberal
movement. II successful, will inaugurate
reign Of terror throughout The South,
such as the world never before witnessed
When eight conservative men, who claim
to be loyal, and whom we know'to be in
telligent, come to the conclusion that the
right of citizenship, conferred by the Con-
stitution on the freedmen of the South. is
nothing more than party right, to be toll
Grated while certain party is in power,
and no longer, what can we expect of the
thousands of ignorant and dlsloyal mer
who live on violence, who believe tho
killing OF a negro to be divine right
who are restrained in their acts of cruel,,
by the strong arm of the law. and VIII,
see In the defeat of President Grant thei
opportunity to plumber, scourge, and mul
der the unoffending freedmen Of tn
South ? II the conclusions reached by tn
minority and published to the world, afte
a careful sinvestigation, after months (
delberation. is not an invitation to begi
the work OF determination or subjugatior
as soon as the democratic party comes in
topower. we are no judge Of language
1t is the latest echo of the old slavehold
ers' cry, "a negro has no rights which
white man Is bound to respect" The ma
ton can not be deceived by the figure