The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-03-05

justice to Cuba. Let us hope that the cheer
ing words of the Inaugural will be followed
by national policy that will directly benefit
the people of the neighboring island and ex-
ercise happy influence upon those European
nations which are already ripe for republican
government
But, while we favor freedom abroad, let us
guard jealousy against usurpation at home.
my efforts in the future" says President
Grant, twill be directed to the restoration of
good feeling between the different sections Of
our common country" We do not believe
that the President utters words without mean
ing and without sincerity, and hence we have
right TO expect from him such change of
policy towards the South as will restore
the good feeling between the sections,
lost through the illiberality and po-
litical intrigues of Congress in the work of
reconstruction. The civil rights of the
colored population of the Southern States, to
which the President pledges his support, can
be better secured through the action of the
States themselves than through the intermed-
ding of the scheming politicians in Congress,
whose object is to set race against race and to
strip the white men of the South Of all power
over their own political affairs. To-day
Louisiana stands bound in the letters of
usurpation and powerless to enforce those
rights guaranteed by the constitution to every
State in the Union. With her legitimate
government driven from power at the point of
the federal bayonet, with her legally elected
Legislature paralyzed, and with self-eected
men assuming the province of making her
laws and levying taxes on her people,
with her Courts packed with partisan
judges by bogus Legislature and q usurping
Governor, Louisiana is at this hour in a worse
state of bondage than when the letters still
hung about the limbs Of her slaves. It would
be a mockery to pretend that "good feeling
could be restored in Louisiana with these
outrages heaped upon her, and the words of
the President afford hope that the South will
no longer be subjected to the oppression
which, if continued, must destroy all con-
fdence between the sections. But the Presi-
dent also says:-''The States lately at war with
the general government are now happily re-
habilitated, and no Executive control is exer-
cised in any one of them that would not
be exercised in any other State under
like circumstances Surely President
Grant must have forgotten Louisiana when he
penned this sentence. Does he remember
that United States Judge, since branded by
Congress- distorted a law in order to issue an
order driving from power the regular govern
ment and placing the State ct the mercy of
band Of reckless conspirators; that these
illegal orders were enforced by partisan
United States Marshal, backed up by federal
troops; that the State House was seized
and surrounded with cannon, the con-
stitutional officers driven out, Governor,
Judges and Legislators, and the usurpers
installed in their places; that the
Senate of the United States, appealed to as ar
bitrator, feared to endorse the outrage, de-
nounced the Judge and left the State to get
out of the difficulty as best it might; that the
federal government is now asked by the usurp-
ers to stand at their backs and to enforce their
authority even at the cost of massacre of the
outraged people? And if the President has
not forgotten or overlooked Louisiana, does
he intend to say that the same Executive con-
troll" that has been exercised through Durell
and Packard and Kellogg in Louisiana would
be exercised in New York, provided the result
of an election did not suit the politicians of
the dominant party? We incline to the belief
that the President must have forgotten Loui-
siana!
In its other foreshadowings of policy the
Inaugural OF President Grant will meet with
general approval. The nation believes that
the President will do all in his power during
his second term to foster the commercial
interests of the country, to preserve peace, to
encourage the shipping interests, to aid manu-
features, to elevate labor, to do justice to the
grown up in the civil service of the country.
The people will sympathize with the Presi-
dent, too, in his naiue allusion to his own
untiring services to the country and to the
abuse to which he has been subjected by the
political ghouls. They trusted the Gen.
eral Of their armies during the war
and found no reason to regret their
confidence. They trusted the soldier
President in his first term of Office, and, while
he made some mistakes and was hampered
with the blunders of the politicians in Con-
gress and affected by the suspicious that at
tached to them, they saw no reason to with
draw their confidence from him last November.
They now trust him again for second term,
but they expect that he will be the President
of the nation and not the mere Executive of
corrupt Congress. The republican party to-
day is an offence in the nostrils of the nation;
but President Grant owes his election to him.
self and not to the republican party. His
Inaugural Address leads us to hope that he will
exercise the independence he has won and that
the new policy of his second administration
will be framed for the people and not for the