The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1872-07-06
lonalosonoille Gblef.
Something Worth Fighting For.
from the y. Y. Tribnne.]

eisiop of the Cincinnati Convention |
in rood faith, and have gone resoiute-
Nv to work for its nominees, few OF
them, who are unable to digest their
personal disappointments there, con-
tinue their sulky and pouting charges
of fraud and corruption, and refuse TO
support a ticket tainted, as they say,
with dishonesty in its very origin.
The discomfort of these gentlemen
arises from very simple cause. lnelr
minds have been so full for the last
few wears of the subject of Free Trade,
that they are unable to conceive that
any other question can be equally I'M
portant. they went to Cincinnati
thoroughly convinced that the saliva
ton of the country depended upon
the immediate. abolition OF the tariff
on pig iron. But they found they
were not alone in the Convention. A
large number of representative men
had come together i'll the hope OF some
effectual measures of reform. 1hey
had come not merely from Nassau
street, but from every State and every
district in the United States. The
evils of which they complained lntest-
ed every department of the public life.
But the most earnest in their assea-
lions of wrong, and the most Voclfer-
Gus in their claims for redress, We're
the people of the Southern States, who
hailed the Cincinnati movement as
their only chance for the recovery OF
the peace and the franchises which
had been forfeited by rebellion, and
which the party in power, induced by
selfish considerations of expectancy,
still refused to restore to them. 1t
was impossible to make these people
believe and feel that a mere economic
question, a question of detail for the
consideration of a Ways and Means
Committee, was as important to them
as the great issue, whether law should
he restored once more us a rule OF civic
life.
1t was with feeling of consterna-
ton that the gentlemen OF the Free
Trade League observed the manifes-
tation of this powerful tendency. The
most significant proof of it was the
storm of applause which followed the
introduction of the resolution which
remanded these questions of finance
to the consideration of the Congress
districts, and left the Convention and
the Liberal party free to address
themselves to the wider work of ma
tional reform. The Free Traders ac-
cepted this arrangement, hoping that
they might still obtain candidate to
AIo:. I:l-;n~ p,,4 fha Gopx-a,, tinr want
on in the way it had begun. There
was an instructive impression that the
vital need of the hour was to shape
this canvass with especial reference
to the Acknowledgement of the South,
the restoration of the Union, the re-
establishment of law, all of which are
necessary conditions precedent to the
beginning of genuine and lasting re-
forms in finance, in the civil service,
and in the administration of the Gov
eminent. As long as the rule of the
sword remains, as long as the power
of one man is permitted as a substi-
tute for the operations of law, it is
useless to strive for improved and
honest government. MOntesquieu, af-
ter recounting the causes of eorrup-
ton in republics and constitutional
governments, stops when he comes to
the rule of autocrats, for such govern
lnents, he says, are in themselves cor
rupt. 1t was felt, without being clear
ly expressed by the Convention at
Cincinnati, that the crying want of the
campaign was, first of all, the expul-
sion from power of the representative
of arbitrary rule. And to do this it
was necessary to adopt candidate
whose name was identified with the
demand for amnesty, for peace, fol
justice to the South, and yet whose
position in the great conflicts of the
generation had always been infexibly
on the side of freedom and progress
1t was this which nominated Mr.
Greeley; it was this which associated
Gov. brown with him on the ticket
and it is this, if anything, which is te
elect them. Already there are few
who do not recognize the importance
of the principle ut stake, and its vast
superiority to any mere question o.
administrative detail. Nearly all the
most prominent and intelligent advo.
Gates of revenue reform have heartily
pledged their support to the move
nent. At the Fifth Avenue Confer
ence the other day, the leading South
.erners spoke with great earnestnes1
of the pressing need of accomplishing
N genuine peace by this election, be
fore amy substantial progress in re
form could be expected. The New
York Free Traders who at Steinwa,
Hall, where they had the evening t.
themselves, had made quite respec
table demonstration, were completed,
swept out of sight by the strength ant
energy of conviction which pervadet
the delegates from all other quarters
The question of free trade vanished
from view before the overwhelmin.
interest in the vastly greater question
"Should the war now eease?" Gen
Grant won his election by an aspira
ton for peace which he has Done no
thing to fulfill. North and South ar.
to-day uniting to strive, and we hop,
q