National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-11-21
ENTHUSIASTICALLY WE SURREN-
MP TIE PEGJTTTS mn THE

DER THE RESULTS OF THE
WAR?
We have already insisted in these col
umns that the present Arkansas question is
entirely different from that which at one
time or another we have seen in other
Southern States-in Louisiana and Texas
and in Arkansas itself. Last spring We
supported Mr.. Baxter against Mr.. Brooks
because we believed Mr.. Baxter to be le-
gally and constitutionally the Governor of
that State. When the arguments in the
case were presented by the respective cOun-
sci on both sides, the Government so de-
cided, and the position we had assumed
was sustained. So far as the record of this
journal goes we are entirely consistent in
the matter, and with that record in view
we could not do anything except what we
are doing, viz: maintain that Mr.. Smith
Mr.. Baxter having resigned-is the lawful
Governor of the State.
For nearly the last twelve months the
country has been panied and TO great
extent angered at the condition Of certain
sections of the South. Day after day and
week after week we of the North
have been called upon to read stories Of
outrage and crime, of alleged misrule and
Encouragement in the Southern country.
There have been so many conflicting state
ments and charges and counter charges
that we really know not what to believe,
what to do Or whom to trust We have
long ago forgotten the war, its passion and
prejudice and bitterness and luminosity,
and we cannot bring ourselves to believe
that in nearly all the Southern country to-
day the same old conflict is still going on as
intensely as ever; the same old spirit Of
rebellion is still as strong as it was in 1861;
the same classes are still contending for the
mastery. This condition of affairs may not
be entirely true Of Virginia; but that it is
true of the more extreme Southern States,
and especially of Arkansas, is beyond all
question. In pursuance of this policy and
of these ends-which are nothing more nor
less than to bring the South back to where
it was in 1SG1-the Southern Democrats
have hesitated at no crime paused at
no violation of law, at no outrage
upon the State and the United States.
Take, for instance, this State OF
Arkansas. No South American chief-no
European despot-has ever dared to per-
petrate more fragrant crimes against law
and order and good government than this
man Baxter. In pursuance of his deter
mination to place the Democratic party in
power he has violated the organic laws
the State upon which she was admitted to
representation in Congress, and to all her
privileges in the Union which she had been
fighting for four years to destroy; and set
at defiance the law of the United States.
Laws set at naught, a constitution trampled
in the dust, a judiciary overthrown, Legls-
lature packed, elections conducted against
all precedent and law-such is the record Of
the Baxter party in this most unfortunate
Of Commonwealths in our country. The
so-called government in Arkansas to-day is
a mockeTy and delusion.
The present revolution in Arkansas is
nothing more nor less than an assault upon
the work and policy of the National Re
publican party. In that State to-day the
cause that Robert Z. Lee surrendered at
Appomattox is again triumphant. tits the
cause Of States rights, and if the Republ-
can party is ready to surrender all that it
has contended for during the last fourteen
years; if it is ready 10 give up the results of
the war, this is the time to do it. The
Baxter party in Arkansas throw back in
the face Of Congress the terms Congress
imposed when it admitted her Senators and
Representatives to seats in its body. They
have torn the compact in twain and pro-
claimed 10 the whole country that its pro-
visions are no longer binding upon them.
Mr.. Smith and MI Garland are of very
little consequence in this whole matter
There is great principal at stake; Arkan-
sas has taken a course which, if allowed to
go UNPUBLISHED, will be taken up as a pre-
ccdent by every State in the South, and we
shall be carried back to the point from
which we started, thirteen years ago, to
the treason of the Davises and the Toombes
in the Senate, to the Charleston harbor and
the long, long years Of blood and slaughter
and suffering. We believe to a certain
extent, in States rights; but not in those
States rights which justify secession,
which inaugurate revolution and anarchy,
as in Arkansas. This is the question for
the Government and for the Republican
party as the representative of the Govern
ment.