New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-05-01
On the TbreshOId.

| we are not SurpElSeu 10 uuu OUT remarks
upon the relations OF the sections and the
reciprocal duty of the people thoroughly
mis- .Onreived and distorted by the extrem-
lists We are not surprised, because we
were prepared in advance for just that, and
we take the criticism to which we are sub
jected as so many tributes to the honesty,
power and truth of the ideas which we have
the hOnOr-very inadequatelY but very ex-
clusively-tO represent. A. H. Stephens
thinks that we might have looked for
nothing else than ''rebels" and TRAITORS"
from Mr.. Trumbull. He considers our OBJ
jectiOns to the use of those terms as so
many concessions to his provincial notions.
On the other hand the 'insensate" Chicago
| Post lin this connection we use "insensate"
advisedly) regards our mild invocation to
the better nature, to the genial common
sense of the North, as ian Out-CrOpping of
the old rebel spirit" Each of these has an
AK to grind. Mr.. Stephens is the slave of
his own arrogance and vanity. The Chi
cago Post is owned, body and pantalettes,
by the President.
| Let us consider the matter impartially, as
best realizes theindependsn of our people
Are the people fools or are they not That
is the question. Are they slaves or are they
not That is the question. If they are
fools, they are the dupes of knaves, who
| profess to be professional politicians, but are
in reality mere political mOuntebanks, tor
no professional politician land, seriously,
we consider politics most creditabe pro.
! tessiOn where it is pursued with honesty,
honor and worthy purpOse) would could or
should make the mistakes which have-fOr
| ten years-marked the career of the file
leaders of both parties in this country. If
| they are slaves, why, they belong to mere
rings, cliques and factions, and they might
as well-nay better-belOng to a monarch
| at once. For our part. we believe them to
! be neither the crazy followers of shams nor
! the miserable serts of organization. The
folly of our civil war did, like Grants ex-
| perience with his friend Porter, somewhat
| shake our faith in human nature But,
| like Grant, we resolved to pick our
| flint and try it again, and subsequent
| encouragement has considerably lnOdi-
| fed our apprehensIOns and strengthened
our faith. Not until the fires which
still-in spite of the politicians-blaze
upon the affairs Of our free system go out
not until a tree ballot shall, by force of
arms, make way for a mOdernized ple6is-
cite-shal we give up our hold upon that
principle Of free government which we I'M
derstand to embOdy and to shape the
genius of real liberty. If they are INSULT
cient, then all is insufficient. Universal
suffrage being-very much against our
tears-the bent of our time and country, we
bow to it and appeal to it, and thus relying
nOrance, and we truly believe, that if it rule
at all, it must rule through its intelligence.
Therefore, having the people, the politicians
and the bayOnet to choose from, we stick to
the people. We trust political organism
only so far as it is mechanically useful We
denounCe bayOnets as the instruments of
every possible pOlical evil. We go to the
people, directly, with this feeling, that
whether we are right or wrong, our inter
est is their interest, and, as our cOunsels in
the past have not been wholly cOntradicted
by events, we have a certain faith in our
convictions and certain belief in our read
ers which makes us little careless about
consequences.
There is a chance and that now, to make
the Union whole and even on the old &C
count of slavery secession and civil war;
and, in Selling this chance, there is a Ger
tainty of securing TO our people the blessings
of real restoration, of assuring to our chill
dren the inestimable privilege of a free bal
lot, OF preserving to the States their local
governments, of checking the flow of bad
blood and progress of materializing ten
dency toward imperialism, which the
money power is steaIthily injecting into the
body polite through the back entry of stag
nation, which seldom opens an avenue to
lasting and valuable peace. Order is
merely an agent-never a principle of pO-
litical action.
We have, at this moment, standing on
the threshold of a movement as at the
dawning of a season, an interstice of quiet,
moment of cOmpesure wherein we may
collect our faculties. Every man knows
that simple propositions, like natural in
gradients, form lie underlying strength of
really ethcaclOus compounds, not less in
politics than in medicine. The Cincinnati
convention is at hand What does it
mean What does it propose What
m
are its simple ingredients
These truths are self-evident: The Demo
cratic party, as an organized bOdy-by
reason Of the Ku-Klax act, which gives the.
Radical candidate for President power to,
suspend the writ of habeas corpus and de
clare martial law wherever he will, and by
reason of the bayOnet election law, which
makes the Radical candidate for President !
substantially master of the ballOt-bOx-can
not get a fair election.
The candidates of the Democratic party, |
if they should be actually elected, could !
not get a fair count of the electoral vote, |
by reason of the ku-klux act and the bay |
Onet election law, which furnish the exist |
ing Radical House of Representatives |
abundant pretexts for casting out the votes |
of entire States, and otherwise arbitrarily |
ruling its own nominees President and Vice |
President of the United States.
This is, briefly, the situation.
Now we, not less than Mr.. Stephens. are |
capable, on sufficient grounds, to do, in the !
interest of a sentiment of personal honor, |
some very ruinOus things For example |
many and great as are the hopes which we |
set upon the Liberal movement as an OPP |
portunity, we should not be willing to |
touch it with fOrty-fOOt pole if it should |
set out on its pilgrimage of peace and union |
by so much as the implication that one~half |
of the people committed treason against |
the other half Hence our very candid OBJ
servatiOns Oh mere chance word of Mr. J
Trumbull. Beyond this, the Liberal move
ment embraces no proposition that a wise, !
sagaciOus and upright craftsmanship can
not cordially indOrse and fight for and, if |
it places itself sQuarely upon the Declare
ton of Independence, that "all men
are, and Of right ought to be, free and indie
pendent" it should not, and it will not, be
impeded by any national Democratic en-
barrassments whatever. A gang CT pre-
tended BOurbOns indeed, organized, drilled, |
and paid out of the peoples pockets by the
Grant party, may make noisy show. But,
II the Cincinnati convention be really wise |
IN its liberalism and liberal in its wisdom,
It's nominees may safely count on the sup
port OF all the real lovers of civil liberty in
the North and South.
In our articles relating TO the dutv owed /
by the people of the sections, each to the
other, we gave cOuntenance neither to Mr..
Stephens, vagaries, which events have
completely exposed, nor to the stupid,
partisan cant that the South is more rebel
liOus than ever Mr.. Stephens declared,
and tried to induce the people of the South
to build their faith on his declaration. that
the last three amendments to the constitu-
ton are mere utilities. Because we refused
to credit his wild notions, he denounced us
as unsOund, if not treacherOus. The people
now see clearly enough which was right,
he or the Courier-Jol1nal, in that matter.