The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-02-17
THE OLD TUNE.

In reply to speech of Senator Morton's
the other day, Senator Thurman, of Ohio,
who is the ablest of the Democratic leaders
in the Senate, said that it had become the
custom for Mr.. Morton to sound the key
note of the Republican campaign. He
added that Mr.. Morton's speech against
universal amnesty was the beginning OF
the campaign of 1872. cit is the same
old note again." said Mr.. Thurman; sit
is the same old tune again: it is the same
old horrors of the Rebellion; it is the same
old wickedness of the instigators of that
Rebellion; it is the same old terrible suffer-
ing that that Rebellion entailed upon the
country; and it is the same frightful array
of ghosts, found nowhere except in the
Senator's imagination. of what is to result
to this country should the Democratic par
ty ever get into power" Yet at the mo-
ment in which Senator Thurman spoke
there was a practical "terror' in very
many of the States lately in rebellion; an
organized and far-reaching conspiracy, the
object of which is to menace and topunish
white men who would not join the Rebel
lion, and colored men who are the perpet-
ual symbols of its failure.
The old note is therefore inevitable, for
it is the old danger. What was the sub
iect upon which the Senators were speak
ing? 1t was the Amnesty bill as amended
by Mr.. Summers Civil Rights bill. 1t was
a bill which released the late Rebels from
certain disabilities, and which also secured
the protection of the late slaves. And
Senator Thurman and his party friends,
loud for amnesty, opposed the protection.
They demanded the utmost generosity for
the late slave-holding class which, to per-
petuate slavery, had attempted without
cause to destroy the Union in blood, and
they refused justice to the late slaves,
whom the nation had freed. Senator
VickerS, indeed, colleague and party
friend of Senator Thurman, had the week
before virtually reasserted the dogma of
State sovereignty and had painted in glow
ing words the delights of slavery. Senator
Blair, another party friend and colleague,
had justified the forcible dispersion of
Southern Legislatures, and was Immediate
ly, at the last election, nominated for the
Vice Presidency by his party.
The revolving crimes of the ku-klux,
which make loyalty to the Union and Gov
eminent perpetual cross TO the thousands
of American citizens in Southern States,
are denied or extenuated by Senator Thur
mans party. 1t has never yet acknowl-
edged the conclusive validity of the new
amendments. It's last national declaration
is that the reconstruction of the Union is
revolutionary and void. 1t declared for
is o-day passive, hoping to fluid in the dis
sessions of the Republicans a breach
through which it can press to the citadel
of national power. But it does not heart
lily pronounce for justice and equal rights.
1t still mumbles the refrain of State sove-
reignty. His party is the hope of every
man in the country who hates the Union,
and who prayed and strove for the success
of the Rebellion. The tune of the party is
still the old tune. Its professions and
practice are substantially unchanged, and,
of course, the attitude Of its opponents and
their declarations can not but be the same
as before.
The denunciation of the Republican pol
icy in the Southern States, like that of
England in Ireland, is unfounded There
is in some quarters strange slowness and
apparent reluctance to understand the &C
tual situation, and the evidence and the
report of Senator Scott's committee will
doubtless do much to give truer view of
the facts. While there is no confiscation,
no disfranchisement, no penalty of any kind
visited upon the late Rebels, the colored
and white Union citizens are in great peril.
We do not say that all are so, and at every
but it is not to be denied that
whole sections and large communities are
subject to that terror. The only excuse is
that certain leaders OF rebellion are iueligi- |
BILE to office. Does that fact make an Ire |
land of the Southern States? Far from it. |
AS Mr.. Shellabarger truly said in the
House, when the Republicans began to
it was not by resting the
pyramid upon the apex of a privileged
class, but by planting it upon the equal
rights of all the people.
And if, as Senator Thurman and his
party friends now claim, there is no rem,
edy for the outrages practiced upon por-
ton of the citizens in the Southern States
but appeals to courts which will not pro-
tect, and to juries drawn from the Ku-
klux, then it is time that the United States
FASTENED to provide a remedy. The tune
Of the campaign is an old tune, because
this protection is still necessary. 1t is idle
to say that the laws against the ku-Klux
produced the Ku-klux. 1t is equally Idle
20 say that citizens of the United States
must submit to the Ku-Kux until it disap-
pears in returning peace and assured pros
oerity. There have been Republican mis-
,akes in reconstruction. The situation in
Louisiana, and the financial crisis in other
southern States, are not defended by any
sincere Republican. But whatever may be
he perplexities of the situation arising
rom Republican mismanagement and cor
nption, the tap-root of Southern disorders
s tho sympathy with the doctrines and the
eaders Of the Rebellion which is still con-
family manifest in the Democratic party.
From HGrper's Weekly. II