The semi-weekly Republican. (St. Francisville, La.) 1872-1872, 1872-04-30

arc appointed UIautlllS5 tllilb Ii1o
or that measure is mistake, is the
general course Of the administration
erroneous and perilous? These, and
such as these, are the questions
which every voter should ask. 1t is,
of course, the business of papers and
orators in the opposition to magnify
single acts and to represent excep-
tons as the rule. But that is not
the desire nor the conduct Of indie
pendent and patriotic men.
Those, therefore, who wish to see
the accomplishment Of certain spocif
ic reforms will ask whether they arc
more probable from q new party,
constituted rs it must now be, or
from the Republican party. And
the first thing that will be observed
is that the success of such party
implies the defeat and destruction OF
the Republican organization. In the
present condition of the country is
such a result desirable. In regard
to the Cincinnati Republicans and
others we wish to utter no indiyious
comparisons, Or expressions, OF srs
picions.
It is true that parties change, and
that q man is not to be forever con-
demncd Or avoided because he has
been supporter Of false principles
and a fatal policy. But if this is
urgued as an argument for a new
party, the reply is very obvious and
conclusive. It is not four years since
those with whom the new alliance
must be made, and who will furnish
its working force to administer the
laws of reconstruction and of 1ecog-
milton Of equal rights, declared the
whole Republican policy upon the
subject to be revolutionary, uncon-
stitutional, and void. Did they be-
lievc what they said? If they did
not, are they, the same men, to be
trusted now? If they did believe it,
but have now acquiesced in what
they opposed, are they safer men to
administer those laws than the men
who made them, and who believe in
them? We speak of what those men
said four years ago. But in this
very session Of Congress, Republi-
cans have seen the steady disinclina-
ton of the Democratic Senators to
} concede theprotcction ofcqual rights;
and every day it is plainly to be
seen that in the House the repre-
sentatives of those who are to form
an alliance with the new party sue
cessfully battle by flibustering every
effort to secure complete equality OF
rights to all citizens.
II, then, it were true that the Re
} publican party could not be turned
into reform party, arc the prospects
Of reform any more promising from
the practical union of II few social
ed Republicans with the Democrat
ic party? This is not to say that
there can never be a reconstruction
of parties, but only that the time fol
it has not come. Not only would
every specific "reform" be endanger-
ed, but the general cofidence, which
is the basis of the present activity
and sense of stability in every indus
trial interest in the country, would
! be periously shaken by the restora-
ton of Democratic ascendency il
/: the government. The popular vote
indeed, has for dozen years steadi
l ly condemned the Democratic party
The people Of the United States dc
:. not forget the unspeakable shame O.
slavery, nor the precious blood in
8 which it was washed away from the
nation. Thank God for that instinct
$ for it can be trusted to the end. But
: those people know that the deep ant
, real results of that long thraldom o
: the national mind and conscience
can not safely be disregarded be
cause Of a theory that old issues arr
: settled ; and they see that the Dem
T. ocratic party, sorely smitten as it is
= and, as we believe, unto death, still