The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1872-06-08
The M0rll Value of the Lib
il eIll Movement.
iFrom the Golden Age.1

I ward, TO! what goal does the present
revolutionary movement in our poll
I tics go forward
! Judge tile future from the past. In
1856 the nomination of Fremont
which kindled the country to heat
!-reprGsented merely the nOn-exten-
| sion of slavery, an advanced idea
then, bslt q very small part of the
I greater islen which has outspanned it
since. iii 1860 the election of Lincoln
meant mainly the right of the govern
iment tD:: preserve itself against a
{threateaeal secession in behalf of
! slavery1 or in another view, the right
! to defcsd the nations flag, by whom
soever ATTACKED. In 1864 Lincoln's
reelection during a civil war was the
tnation'e tloalble testimony, first, that
1.-THE war should be prosecuted to vic
tory, and next, that the emancipation
of the slaves, which had been decreed
as q waf of measure, should be fixed
like amber IOr crystal in the constitu-
stion by.aperpetlual prohibition of hui
man bondage. In 1868 the election of
Grant Carried with it us it's highest
amoral significance q popular demand
sfor the fourteenth and fifteenth amend
sments, ,lkeit the latter of these Jagged
tand Dragged, like an Alexandrine, to
la lOng@dIiawn ftllfillment. But the
Cincinnati manifesto outshines all
fthese preceding platforms, and shoots
fan arr.Awisi flight into the pure air
kabove flR level of all former cam
paigns.?
: The rev political creed includes the
1majestif dOftrine of the equality of all
fmen befoleIthe law, which, of itself,
I shows Il whole century's civil growth
sbeyond;tlEeI aveholding type of lib
erty that our fore-father's deemed
consistent with the Declaration of
YlndepeFdellee. 1t includes the hui
fmane establishment of universal am
nesty, which is the most sacred prero-
.gative of secular government, and
which, IN a free country, after civil
war, is the only possible basis of
ffraternal peace. 1t include II stipu-
Hated acqlliescence in all the political
rights Of the once lowly but now up
| lifted CLASSES whom the war emanci-
pated and whom the reconstruction
| enfrancslisfd. 1t includes, in short,
the loagfdefelred culnlination-the
!. final aiHl full harvested fruitage of the
antislagery controversy of thirty
years, Carried ont to its remotest logi-
Zeal deductions of emancipation and
entlanclisement-Of equality and
fraternity,
Furthermore, during all the past
Presidential contests to which we have
salluded, from 1856 till now, a power
ful party, consisting of nearly all the
South and nearly half the North, was
always arrayed against the Republi-
can issues Df each campaign, leaving
every battle for freedom to he fought
by one geographical section of the
people hShfnst another. But the new
Liberal party, widening its scope of
human Brotherhood beyond all former
precedent, not only points out with
pride to the great principles embodied
sin its platform, but with an equal
pride to u new, momentous and bene-
ticent fact in orpolitics, namely, that
the Liberal movement has already,
and in ;tdv;lnce 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
lagainsgthem no longer any organized
Opposition in the republic.
1t il: n thOusand-ten thousand
times better that the Democratic par
ty shoul ,ibyfully acquiesce in these
principles Of its own accord (as it does
by co&olidration with the Liberal
|movembntl than that the Republican
party shoill ID be compelled to MAIN
tain them (as heretofore) by the pow
er of superior numbers against con-
.quered but still hostile and discon-
tented foe,
The cincinnati platform, uttering
as it does the highest maxims thus far
incorporated into our national politics,
would be of itself noble contribu-
|tion to civilization, even if sustained
merely hy q struggling minority of
champibhs against half a nation of
Opponehtss but its moral significance
lis made still more illustrious by the
men wkGTu We once regarded as the
antagonists of human rights have now
set their approving seal to doctrines
even more advanced than the Repub-
lican party itself has heretofore pro-
clailne6.
The Libfral movement thus treads |
out thegramaining ashes of the war,
and quelifhes forever their dangerous
fires. f'llere is no peace till there is
no enehJY. The Cincinnati revolu- |
ton transmutes the enemies of llber-
ty into Its friends. Seven years ago
the bloody swords were sheathed, yet |
the c0nilyat atslnts remained merely with |
out their weapons, not without their
enmities. But in the present month t
of May THE South came up to Cincin- /
natl, aad, palm to palm with the
North, said: 1.-The past is in its grave
-thereslet it moulder, never to have
resurrection. The questions that once