The Weekly Washington telegraph., 1872-02-07
j. L. BORDEN, ESQ.,,
Editor Washington Telegraph:

has heretofore utterly failed to afford
any relief to the South. Its sympathy
need not be doubted But il is wholly
frutless, and has been since the rupture
in 1861. II has always shrunk from
maintaining its principles by any con-
sistent responsible action: and in the
hour of trial has always, to use the
slang of the day, "gone back" upon the
Southern people. We have been,
since secession, too much in disgrace
with the Northern majority to make it
safe for'the Democracy" to maintain our
cause IN earnest The consequence has
been that we have been constantly
encouraged to courses of action which
have brought disaster and oppression;
and have been obliged to content our
selves with the presumed sympathy of
our Northern friends, they, meanwhile,
being very careful to keep an eye upon
northern sentiment also, and not daring
to touch one of our burdens so much as
with a finger. 1t is our paws that
have been always burnt after the ches>
nuts.
I Let us specify. If the mass Of the
Democrats had really believed that We
were right in our construction of the
constitution at the time Of secession, as
they professed to do; anu had acted
upon their belief, as they should have
done; they might easily have deferred
the administration from declaration
Of war by Withdrawing from all par,
ticipation. Instead cf that, they al
affected great patriotism in standing by
the administration to crush out the
rebellion The danger of losing
popularity at home was too great to
allow any such exalted exercise of vir-
tue, and "War Democrats affected a
somewhat easier virtue-thst of sup,
pressing their own sympathies, and
immolating their Southern friends for
Il season,
1t is a curious question for us to
determine which is best entitled TO our
respect. The thorough Freesoiler who
denied our right TO secede, and fought
us to prevent it, or the Democrat who
f professed to sympathise with us in our
, wrongs, and fought us to save his
: popularity at home. There is no ques-
, ton as to which did us the most harm.
+ After our surrender, we were much
t encouraged by the National Democracy
to insist upon our rights, as equals in
f the Union, and to oppose the arbitrary
constitutional amendments and recon-
: struction acts. We were urged to reg
ister, to make ourselves parties, for the
nonce, to the iuiquity, with the hope
and expectation that these arbitrary
measures, SO humiliating to us, would
bs resisted also by our friends at the
North, and the Union restored as il
was. Had the Radicals been defeated
in 1868, the game would have been
very brilliant one. The Democracy
would have claimed the gratitude of the
South, and would ever after have
carried it in a solid body. But it did
not succeed. The participation of
Southern whites in elections under the
reconstruction acts gave them respects
bilty, and riveted them upon our
government fast and forever. The
Northern. Democracy submits to the
fraud aud illegal violence by which it
was beaten, and in Difference to North>
ern sentiment takes "new departures.
But what has happened to us mean
while ? The participation of Southern
men in the election, under the lead Of
the Democracy, excited again all the
fierce passions of the war, and public
sentiment was inhamed against us
which has encouraged the administra'
ton in a system of oppression, unknown
to Poland or Ireland at the worst
eliminating in the ku,kluX bill, and
the present outrages in South Caro-
lima.
Upon all this our Northern allies
look quite coolly, and plan new schemes
eff party conquest. They dare not re-
sist what they pronounce unconstitu-