Litchfield enquirer., 1872-07-18

Democracy of their opposition to Impar. tial Suffrage and Reconstruction is in any case 2 great step gained towards the real pacifeation of the differences that have grown out of the abolition of slavery. The adhesion of the Democracy to Liberal Republican principles, though an unex- pected and uncommon political maneuvre needs no reference to corrupt arrange ment" for it's explanation. It is simply another phase of the New Departure, un- successfully attempted hitherto; reiter- ated confession of the fact admitted long since that further opposition to Impartial Suffrage, secured as it now is by constitu1 tional amendment, is no longer expedient. It simply says to Messrs. Greeley, Schurz, Trumbull, Sumner and other dissatisfied Republicans, s'We abandon our opposi- ton to Republican principles; but we want to overthrow the Republican party. So do you. We are willing to do this un- der your leadership, and to leave our chances of place and profit to the future " Nor need the Democratic majority require security of the Republican minority in the new organization, for they are the masters of that organization whenever they choose to exercise the power their numbers give them. It is for the Repub- lican minority to require security of the Democratic majority. and this they have not got except in the adoption of the Cincinnati platform and candidates. Com ing into power as the new organization would, if successful, with Republican president, and with Republican Senate holding over. the next four years would probably be occupied in the consolidation of their organization for 1876. Then, and not till then, would the real preponderance of the Democracy in the new party be felt. Then, unless they had been guilty of misconduct in the meantime, this or ganization would become in effect Dem ocratic Restoration, hostile at heart to the Republican principles byprofession of which it had attained power.
 To judge correctly of the possible dan- ger of such Restoration we must review the conditions which have occasioned the present Democratic surrender of principle at Baltimore. The first impetus towards Democratic endorsement of Greeley arose in the South. To the Confederate whose defeat in the field was the all i'm portant event, the subsequent political overthrow seemed natural and inevita7 ble consequence. To him Reconstruc- ton has been not mere theme for polit- ical discussion but terrible fact South ern States have been robbed by Republi- can rings as corrupt as Tammany and more oppressive because that section, al- ready nearly bled to death by the war, could very i'll bear any further depletion. Hence the Confederate, who never cared much for Democracy except to use it, whose party, attachment had long since been supplanted by the intenser senti- ment in favor of Southern independence, was ready enough to catch at any chance that promised relief from the Carpet-Bag- ger. It was the stampede of this element of the Democratic party over to the new Cincinnati standard that has drawn the rest of the Democratic party after it. Having within less than ten years been led from one surrender to another, having given up in, succession, the Confederacy, Slavery, and Negro Disfranchisement, the surrender to Horace Greeley and Cincin. natl seemed small comparative conces- sion to secure the present check and the probable overthrow of Radicalism. To expect that in so short time, in the midst of such real hardships as have fallen on the Southern whites since the war, they have ceased to regret their Lost Cause
 Slavery, and the loss of political power
 is to expect too much of human nature
 With their restoration to power will cer
 taiuly come some sort of reaction, not SC dangerous we freely admit under Presi
 dent like Horace Greeley as under { straight Democrat, butstiu serious enougl we fear to check the progress the South
 ern negro is now making towards self-hell | and self-respect..
 1 We are far from complaining of the whites in many Southern States for seiz
 ing. every opportunity that promises re
 lief from their present oppressive loca
 governments. We have seen without re
 gret the so-called Republican govern
 ments under which nearly every Southerl
 State was reorganized, voted out of pow
 CT in many instances, and the restoration
 of the so-called Democracy to power again
 We have regretted the apparent indiffer
 ence of the Northern Repnblicanpress an,
 of the national administration to the fright
 fnl extortions that have been practicet
 under the name of Republicanism, supol the taxpayers of South Carolina, Mis- sissippi and Louisiana, where the negr, yoteexceeds the white. But for all that we believe that the overthrow of the Re publican party would be, in the end, loss to the South. We believe that be
 fore long every Southern State will reform itself, as the city of New York has done l without outside interference. But tn
 real elevation of the South can only b effected by the education of the negr
 soter and by the abolition of laws an,
 cnstoms that degrade him in his own eye and m the eyes of others Nor ldOwe be
 aeve that this can ever be effected with
 -. help to the State from the Nation With the continuance of the .Reunbl;oa : party m powsr, the passage of i1,dic;ou - Civil Rights and Education ,aw. ra ..
 hsss taas things would take the only tru