New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-07-18
The Double Surrender.

The Double Surrender.
II would be task more difficult than hair
splitting, and quite as useless to decide,
which of the two factions whose fusion into
one party has just been accomplished, at
reached lower depth of depravity and
shame. Never yet in our Republic greed for
power and money has resulted in so disgust
ing sight as that offered last week in Bal
timore. Some thousands Of hungry polti-
clans and journalists, heretofore arrayed
against each other in deadly enmity, not on
side issues, hut on the vital principles on
which our Government is based, on their con-
ceptions of right and wrong, justice and in
justice, villainy and virtue, have sold out to
each other and concluded bargain such as
for knavery has not before been concluded
BY men considered as standard-bearers and
representatives. For many long years they
had been fighting with bitter animosity,
dealing stunning blows to each other, and
denouncing each other for treason, corrup-
ton, bribery, robbery in short, Of every
crime and rascality imaginable, and nothing
has occurred since to modify the favorable
opinions they entertained of each other. The
Democrats know full we'll how large share
in the brilliant successes achieved by the
Republican party is due to the faithful labOrs
of Horace Greeley, and how closely and in
separately he has identified himself with all
the great measures in the interest of liberty
and equality, thanks to which republican
government has become a reality among us,
after having been a sham and mockery be-
fore, and MIR. Greeley in turn knows quite as
we'll that the loudest howlers about Repub-
lican misrule, corruption, and Federal usur-
patton are not only the very same men who
fought liberty and justice step by step, but
likewise those who introduced and until quite
lately firmly supported the whole system of
fraud, corruption, stealing, and swindling,
illustrated most glaringly by the Tamnany
and Erie Rings that to them of all others
we are indebted for the noble expedient of
stuffing the ballot box and for the false natu-
ralization papers issued by Democratic city
Judges, through which New York was car
ried BY the Democracy in 1868. He knows
quite as we'll that to the same men who now
are loudest in their denunciations of the force
bill, formerly advocated by Mr.. Greeley as
wise and necessary measure, the honor is
due of having defeated General Grant in
Louisiana and Georgia at the Presidential
election BY all means Of intimidation, Ku-
Kluxism included, and that from such ante
cedents he cannot entertain any illusions
about the kind of reform they mean to intro
duce.
Painful and sickening as the sight of hui
man depravity is at all times, we cannot be
particularly surprised to see mprincipled
men all at once give up lifelong hatred and
animosity and combine together, when, by
so doing, they can promote their own per-
sonal interests, and, indeed, it is one of the
distinctive features of higher human nature
to be proof against such temptation, espe-
cially when the hoped for prize is as high as
in this instance. In this case, however,
venality and corruption are aggravated by
the unexampled hypocrisy and falsehood
which have been the most characteristic fea-
ture Of this whole movement from its origin
to its elimination in Baltimore. We do not
mean to dwell Oh the edifying sight of all
those men-mOrtal foes on the most vital
questions only yesterday, outdoing each
other in protestations of affection and es-
teen, Horace Greeley and Henry A. Wise
sweetly grinning at and embracing each other,
Carl Schurz shaking hands and exchanging
courtesies with Fernando Wood. All this is
only the inevitable consequence of the bar
gain that has been effected, and is compare
lively HARMLESS, though ne cannot suppress
the suspicion that they themselves must feel
somewhat like the Roman Augurs, who in
the last days of Pagan worship could hardly
exchange glance without laughing; but the
revolving falsehood manifests itself in the
high-sounding words, the display of noble
feeling which are to cover up the vilest sur
render. Forbearancc," magnanimity,"
and similar catchwords are abundar.ly used
to win the masses, transparent as the in
genuity is. Men may forgive personal inju-
ries, and bestow benefits on former enemies,
but when, for a manifest object they form
alliances with those whom they always de-
nounced as the very essence Of all that is
odious, and have been denounced so in turn,
they will find it uphill work to persuade the
world of their disinterestedness and purity of
their motives.
Thus far, the work has been in the hands