Litchfield enquirer., 1874-12-03
The Duty of Con greSS.

The Congress which meets next week is the last Republican Congress we are to have befsre the next presidential election. With the next Congress the practical pow CT of legislation goes out of our hands not as yet into those of the Democracy but to remain in abeyance till the elec- ton of 1876 gives us either Democratic president, Democratic Senate, and Dem- ocratic House of Representatives, or re- stores the Republican party to it's old as- tendency. Whatever favor, therefore, Republicanism is to earn for that great contest by beneficial legislation, it must earn during the three months next com ing. Something it certainly can and ought to do for reform. With the great question of Finance it can hardly hope to grapple successfully. The time is too short and opinions are too discordant, for any really useful and important legisla- ton on that subject. One vital thing, however, must be done if we are to win in 1876: Republication must cut loose from Carpet-baggery.
 It is in the South, not the North. that our real danger lies. We do not consider New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the other Northern states which have gone againsts us, this fall, as hopelessly and permanently lost. The Republican party in those states is no more corrupt than their Democratic opponents, and compos- cd on the whole of better class of cit ixens. Financial depression, disgust with selRsh partisans, and that restless desire for change no matter in what direction, seem to have largely influenced the elections of the present year. On its state and local character and policy. Northern Republication might as readily win in 1876 as in 1872. At the South, however, the case is very different. Many of us who would have been glad to see Republication win, North. could not but wish to see it defeated, South. Whatev- CT might be the advantage to the party in having the Kellogg iniquity triumphant in Louisiana, or the Ohamberlin faction in South Carolina, we could not but feel that the true interests of state and nation required their defeat The other party may turn out no better; they can turn out no worse.
 The incompetency and knavery of Car pet-Baggery make us fear that Southern Republicanism must have long training in diversity before it can hope for res- toration to power if once defeated. At the South, therefore, defeat means de- struction. How, then, can we make Southern Republication decent enough to stand in states where it has real ma iOrityf Only, as we believe, by the inter- ference of Congress in behalf of honest voting, honest counting of votes, and hon. est government. Should Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida and Mississippi, con- tinue Republican after their present evil fashion till 1876, the corruption of the Republican party in the South would rum its chances of success in the North. The election of Democratic president would be followed by the forcible over throw of the Republican governments in these states; and Republicanism in the nation would be left to fight a South as thoroughly united as it was against Fremont in 1856. Let the present Congress. however, deal manfully with the corruptions of Carpet Baggery, and we might save four or five Southern states tO Republication, and remove the stain of complicity from the record of party, the Northern portion of which is still ca psble of doing the country excellent ser vice.