New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-06-02

that are not required to be registered, en-.
rolled or licensed" and strikes out the pro-
viso in reference to vessels of less than
twelve tons burden"
The Moral Value of the Liberal Movement.
From the Golden Age.l
As revolutions never go backward, to
what goal does the present revolutionary
movement in our politics 90 forwards
Judge the future from the past. In 1856
the nomination of Frem0nt-which kindled
the country to a glowing heat-represented
merely the non -eXtensiOn of slavery, an ad-
vanced idea then, but a very small part Of
the greater idea which has o~utspanned it
since. In 1860 the election of Lincoln
meant mainly the right OF the government
to preserve itself against a threatened Sc
cession in behalf of slavery, or, in another
view, the right to defend the nations flag,
bv whOmsoever attacked. In 1864 LlncOln's
reelection during a civil war was the ma
TONS double testimony, first, that the war
should be prosecuted to victory, and next,
chat the emancipation of the slaves, which
had been decreed as a war measure, should
be fixed like amber or crystal in the cOnsti-
tuition by a perpetual prohibition of human
bondage. In 1868 the election of Grant car
ried with it as its highest moral significance
a popular demand for the fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments, albeit the latter OF
these Jagged and dragged. like an Alexan-
drine,. to a lOng-drawn fulhllment. But the
Cincinnati manifesto O~utsh1nes all these
preceding platforms, aud shoots an arrows
flight into the pure air above the level OF all
former campaigns.
The new political creed includes the
majestic doctrine OF the equality of ali men
before the law, which, of itself, shows a
whole century's civil growth beyond the
slave-holdlng type of liberty that our fore
fathers deemed consistent with the Declar-
alton of Independence. 1t includes the
humane establishment of universal am
nestv, which is the most sacred p~rerOgative
of secular government, and which, in a free
country, after a civil war, is the only posi-
BILE basis of a fraternal peace. 1t includes
a stipulated acquiescence in all the political
rights of the once lOwly but now uplitted
classes whom the war emancipated and
whom the reconstruction enfranchised. 1t
includes, in short, the long-deferred cul-
mination-the final and full-harvested fruit
age of the anti-slavery controversy of thirty
wears, carried out to it's remOtest logical
deductions of emancipation and entran.
chisement-of equality and fraternity.
Furthermore, during all the past PTesi-
Dental contests to which we have alluded,
from 1886 till now, a powerful party, con-
sisting of nearly all the South and nearly
half the North, was always arrayed against
the Republican issues of each campaign,
leaving every battle for freedom to be
fought by one geographical section of the
people against another. But the new Lib
eral party, widening its scope of human
brotherhood beyond all former precedent,
not only points out with pride to the great
principles embodied in its platform, tut
with an equal pride to a new, mOmentOus
and benefcent fact in our politics, namely,
that the Liberal movement has already,
and in advance and forever, conquered all
the remaining enemies of those principles;
changing these enemies into allies and
friends, and amounting these principles into
such undisputed and regal sway that there
now exists against them no longer any or
gained opposition in the republic.
1t is a thousand-ten thousand times bet
ter that the Democratic party should joy
fully acquiesce in these principles of its own
accord las it does by cooperation with the
Liberal movenlent) than that the Repub-
lican party should be compelled to main
tain them las |heretOforel by the power Of
superior hunters against a conquered but
still hostile and discoutented foe.
The Cincinnati platform, u~ttering as it
does the highest maxims thus far incor-
pOrated into our national politics, would be
of itself a noble contribution to civilization,
even if sustained merely by a struggling
minority of champions against halfa nation
of opponents; but Its moral significance IS
made still more illustrious by the fact that
those of our Acknowledged whom we
once regarded as the antagonists of human
rights nave now set their approving seal TO
doctrines even more advanced than the
Republic IN party itself has heretofore pro.
claimed.
The Liberal movement thus treads out
the remaining ashes of the war. and
quenches forever their dangerous fires,
There is no peace till there is no enemy
Tho GiuoinUoti ravDl7ASDD +r,,,r,r+.s the
enemies of liberty into its friends. Seven
years ago the bloody swords were sheathed,
yet the cOmbatants remained merely with
out their weapons, not without their enmr
ties. But in the present month of May the
South came up to Cincinnati, and, palm TO
palm with the North, said: ''The past is in
It's grave-there let it mOulder, never to
have resurrection. The questions that once
divided US shall divide us no more. The
hates that once intiamed us shall enkindle
US no more. North and South shall be one
country. Liberty shall reign throughout
the land. All men shall be equal citizens
Universal amnesty shall blot out past Of.
lenses, Old things shall pass away, and al
things shall become newW
Such is the offer which the SoUthe I'd
people, with a noble unanimity, have prae-
tlcally made to the North through the Gin
clnnati platform and nominations. The en-
thusiastic ratification of these Throughout
the Southern States-shaming Il slower
Northern blOod-shOws that the South has
in one respect, learned a higher moral les
son in its defeat than the North in its vic
tOry-the lesson Of warm-hearUed frateruiza-
ton with its former foes.
We are not ashamed, therefore, Of the
alliance which we made with our confreres
at ~Cincinnati-the North with the South
the Liberal Republican with the DemO1
cratic party. Not to have made it would
have been to fOregO the most Christian use
to which the craftsmanship Of this genera
ton has ever yet been put. This alliance
if it prove worthy of the good genius
which inspired it, must remain based on thu
oblivion Of hatreds, and the forgiveness
injuries; its object must be to maintain lib
erty and order among the people, and TO il
troduce integrity and purity into the gov
eminent; and its result will be the beatiu.
of the sworn into the plowshare, and
manifest progress toward "peace on cart
and good will among men"
These aspects of the new political revObE
ton have led us to give our whole heart
1t, IN the solemn conviction that the part
issues which it presents outrank in NOR
value any former Presidential platf0rCs
ever addressed to the American people.