American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-04-19
Twelve Years Adrift.

DeO0table task. We have been twelv'
yosrs adrift from Democratic landmarks
Twelve years under the guidance and dis
cipline of party of high moral ideas
and it is good for us to look about us ;
little, see where we are, and take stock o
our bearings and belongings, in order t.
make up intelligently the account of prof
and loss in the national balance-sheet.
IL confidently asserted by the Republican
press and leaders that we have been enor
nous gamers by their departures from an
cient party faith and principles, both il
material, social, and moral respects. The
chimes have proclaimed it in triple bob
majors that the lofty, generous, and wise
principles of the new-light party, thu
9Feat and benefcent measures that have
marked our progress under their auspices
and the harmony which this party has
shown with the genius and character OF
our institutiOns-we quote the words OF an
eminent mouthpiece of advanced Radical
ism, in order that there may be no mis-
take about it-are much more than enough
to compensate us for the trifiing little
notes Just now floating in our sunbeams
and the few accommodates which people
seem to suffer in consequence of these de
partures. This may all be SO, but if SO the
statement viii assuredly stand the test OF
comparison and fact.
The party of high moral ideas has gen
orally proceeded towards the achievement
Of its supposed reforms by processes pc
culiar to itself, and processes not OF uni.
versal acceptance with that school oil
craftsmanship which is founded on science
and experience. 1t has reasoned like its
favorite poet and philosopher when he said
that ~Beauty il its own excuse for being
Reforms, the new-light doctrinaires have
invarisbiy argued, justify the methods en-
ployed to bring them about. The con.
seftutional limitation must not stand in the
way Of progress. There is always higher
Law than the statute, and when these two
conflict we must yield obedience to the
ler non seripeo, and give the merely human
ordinance, founded upon the merely
human experience, the go-by. In illustra-
ton of the operation of this principle we
have seen Vice-President Colfax lately
trying to oppose his mind, conscious OF
It's own rectitude, to the universal law OF
evidence, and the partisans of his sect
stoutIy condoning his solemn and re-
peated perjuries upon the ground that he
had done service to the cause of liberty
and union. This is somewhat different
from the practice of the fathers of the
Republic, who, when the case of Benedict
Arnold was brought before them, and they
II captured, answered at once: Bury the
leg that was wounded at Saratoga with the
honors Of war, and hang the rest of him
upoa . gibbetr'
Under the operation of its system of ma
tionAl reformation thus methodized, the
party Of high moral ideas has succeeded
in consigning all formerly current princi-
Pies Of Legislative expediency, national
policy, statecraf, constitutional Limitation
and individual unobstructedness to de-
cent oblivion or . harmless subordination
L.. 49, - <~f<I
IL substituted . vague sentimentality or a
stout usurpation. The substitution cannot
be defended by any rules of authority but
that Of Rob Roy, that they are privileged
to take who have the power; nor does the
party of high moral ideas advance any de-
tense except that which we have stated
that the end justifies the means. The Re-
publican party, therefore, elects to be
Judged strictly by what it has done during
the past twelve years, and by the fruits Of
those performances.
The system of interference with the
States and with individuals has grown up
out of . series of separate acts, each of
which was done under pretext of military
and political necessity in the period of
civil war. One result has been the abOli-
ton Of slavery. That result naturally
grew out Of the war, and is great and I'M
Questionable boon, the moral and material
benefits of which could scarcely be esti-
mated. But on the high moral idea pro-
4ramme that result could not be accom-
plished by legitimate processes, but must
be effected through q fragrant violation of
the sanctity of the Constitution. This vio-
lation led to others, the pretext of which
was still reform, still that the end justified
the means, until, in necessary and logical
sequence, came negro suffrage and the
Wretched enforcement bills which are
spreading anarchy, the reward of tyranny,
over the land.
The system of interference again manip-
u1ated in the interest of high moral ideas
gave Us the protective tariff and its con-
geners of subsidy and Government partner
ship. When the cloak of public necessity
was torn away from this comprehensive
scheme of plumber it renewed its claim to
the shield Of high moral ideas by profess
ing 10 advance national industries, create
home markets, aud elevate the working
man. So long as it could prove itself to
be . high moral idea the tariff cared not
. jot for the simple truths of arithmetic,
NOR gave &self the least concern when it
was irrefragably demonstrated to be SIM
ply . scandalous and swindling device to
draw subsistence from some classes in order
TO maintain other classes in false state of
prosperity. From the invidious distinct
Ions thus inaugurated resulted frantic
competition Of harrassed industries and
decaying interests to get themselves on the
grOund-hOOr and in the position of favored
parties. This was the great source of
powerful combinations, of rings, of legis-
lative corruption, finally eliminating in
the sublime art of governing forty millions
Of people by ingenious bribery applied to
Q couple of hundred persons. Thus was
Tarquin's idea of government reversed,
for, while he proposed to rule by decapi-
tating the tall peoples, the protectionists
chose to reach the same end by watering
and manuring the tall peoples till they
grew sleek, and placid, and tractable, like
Stalled oxen.
Under this system the fertile prairies OF
the West and the brown tilths OF the South
arc regularly skinned and scraped in
order to feed the great monopolists and
add coin to the plethoric stores of the
great capitalists. Under this system our
commerce has dwindled away, we have
lost the carrying trade of the world, and
our merchant seamen, who numbered
100000 in 1880, are now only 100000 all
told. Under this system the sources OF
law and the fountains ofjustice are equally
corrupt The statute is fitted to the par
tisan purpose, and the partisan judge adj
justed to the invidiOus statute, so that the
party or the individual gets the service OF
the ordinance and the person, both natur
ally without function except as servants Of
the state. 1t is inseparable from a regime
Of high moral ideas land to do it justice
the Republican party seems quite content
to recognize the concatenatiOn) that judges
like Durell and Sherman should be the
corollaries of judges like Bradley and
Strong. For when men have such lofty
ideas about humanity, progress, social re
generation, and all that sort of rot as to be
willing to give up to party what was