The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1872-04-05
The New Party Movement.

WFitteu ictter aDDurlng haulcallsm
and favoring united movement for the
complete overthrow of the present cor.
rupt Administration. We give some
of the more prominent parts of the
letter:
DEAR SIR: Your note asking my
views Of the Cincinnati Convention has
been received.
understand that Convention to be a
mass meeting of all Republicans op.
posed to the existing policy and prsc.
tees OF the party, and | intend to CO.
operate with the movement, because /
believe the principles of our party have
been subverted, and its present policies
and practices injurious and demoraliz.
ing to the country.
At the close of the war the Govern
ment enfranchised the negroes, and by
attaching disabilities to men prominent
in the rebellion, practically disfran.
chised the property holding and intelli-
gent classes OF the South. The next
step was to empower the army quar-.
tered there to override civil authority.
The negroes and poor whites thus hold
ing control, and the country thus sub
ordinated, political power became
question of muscle and enterprise. Ad-
venturers without character at home
swarmed there, and encouraged by the
Government because they were Repub.
licans, "corraled" the negroes in the
name of Liberty, and appropriated to
themselves all the positions of profit
and trust. Thus, under forms of law,
property has been pillaged, intelligence
enslaved, and every State, city, county,
parish and town has been saddled with
debts generations cannot pay, and for
which the people have literally nothing
to show. These leeches are still at their
work, feasting upon all that it is valua.
BILE and vital; and, if the truth may be
spoken, our party is aiding and encour.
aging them. The people, thus Grip.
pied, cannot shake them off; and they
will gorge themselves until the rights
Of citizenship are restored to those
whom they are depicting.
Seven years have elapsed since the
war, and looking over the scene of the
conflict, we find the white man loaded
with political disabilities, the control he
used to exercise given to his former
every scallawag who wishes to plumber
him.
To fix permanent disabilities upon
the body Of the Southern people, is to
make slavery the consequence of rebel.
lion. In doing this we violate the laws
of civilized warfare, subvert throughout
the South the spirit of our institutions,
and stand before the world confirming
their fears, and false to our professions.
The Cincinnati Convention in my
opinion meets an urgent public want.
1t proposes to break loose and organize
a party upon the principles of univer.
sal liberty and amnesty. 1t proposes
to carry out and apply those principles
and precepts which their great leader
taught and practiced. 1t proposes to
adopt as cardinal feature to liberate
within our land the enslaved of all
colors and races, to enfranchise all the
people, and, remembering only the
virtues and heroism of the war, to en-.
courage a generous forgetfulness Of all
the narrowing memories it produced.
The Republicans in power excuse
and continue political disabilities on
the ground that whenever left free the
Southern people have been and will be
unruiy. Many answers to this position
are apparent. In the first place, it is
not true. No war so great was ever fol-
lowed by seven years of peace SD uni
versal and complete.
And, then, the excuse itself is nothing
but one of the worn-out false pretences
by which tyranny justifies its abuses.
England asserts this of Ireland Rus.
STA does Of Poland; Austria did OF Hun.
gary and Italy; the master did of the
slave, and we do of the master.
The fault with this policy is, that it
leads to no end of our troubles. On
the contrary, aside from the wrong it
involves, the longer it is pursued the
greater the injury, and the harder to
stop. Can we pin this country together
permanently with bayonets? Will four,
eight, or twelve years of misrule sweeten
the Southern disposition? On the con.
trary, are not enslaved peoples unruly
because they are slaves? Contentment
is not the fruit of tyranny and misrule,
but Liberty alone brings peace. If we
would ever have a Union worth the
blood and treasure it has cost, we must
lay its broad foundations, not in force,
but in those affections which good gov.
eminent only will develop. Delay not
only widens the breach, but corrupts,
and hardcns, and units us, year by
year, for concessions which ultimately
must be made.
Aside from the condition of the
South, there are other changes contcm.
plated by the Cincinnati movement,
which demands our especial considera.
ton. Prominent among these is the
Tariff question, and the release Of our
people from the expressions Of "Protec
ton" The situation of Chicago aptly
illustrates this necessity. From $780,.