The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-12-18


ing Northern men who remained true to
constitutional liberty through the great
war and the reign of terror since the war
He is now prominently spoken of for Uni
ted States Senator. We have but little
choice between Judge Black and Andrew
G. Curtin, who two years ago left first
class appointment under Grant-rninister
to Russia-and came home and Joined
the Democratic party in its attempt to
overthrow Grantism and corruption. He
had the patriotism and bravery to do this
when the Democratic party was In an in
significant minority, and Grantism over
Swallowed the land. But we digress-we
desire to call attention to letter written
by Judge Black to a Democratic banquet
recently given in Philadelphia:
81 am honored by your invitation to the
dinner of Democrats to morrow evening at
the Continental Hotel, and beg you to
believe that nothing prevents me from
attending but an imperative duty which
calls me elsewhere.
81 think | can understand how sincere
ly you all rejoice over the great political
events of the last two months. If you
wish to know what my feelings are must
decline to tell, simply because | can not
do justice to the subject. Democracy
which is the common sense and common
honesty of the nation organized for con-
mon purposes-was supposed by its enc
misFto re, effectually killed. 1t was but
nara mat the heart of every patriot
shoulthggftntlu within him when he saw it
rising aEAin, facing the oppressor with
front as determined as ever, and denOunc-
ing corruption in high places with the
same mighty voice which in former times
went over the land like the tones of
trumpet.
But let us not merely congratulate
ourselves upon the recent past. Think
nothing done until the work is finished.
The victories of this year will put only
one house of the Federal Congress into
ourI hands, and we must wait year
to realize even that. Our perfect indie
peudence must be achieved in 1876 by
struggle which will prove that we are
worthy to be descended from the men
who proclaimed the rights of the States
and the liberties of the people hundred
years earlier. If we fail we must sink
into a servitude even more degrading
than that which we have endured for the
last dozen of years. If we succeed, then
will this puissant nation, like the awaklng
Samson, Shake her invincible locks,
and start the new century under the au-
spices so grand that nothing can arrest
her free career.
I'VE must always bear it in mind that the
try,,r,ph Of nap,Ooro nnIT0la
the restoration of constitutional govern
ment on basis which will give absolute
security to the right of men against the
nigh tof men. The broken walls of the
Constitution are to be built up anew and
made too strong to be thrown down again
by the rutfians of the higher law. Our
opponents themselves will become recon
ciled to the principles Americon liberty
when they pass into the minority and find
the magnanimOus Democracy taking eve
ry possible precaution to guard against
the oppression which they inflicted upon
us in the days of their power. Peace will
come, too; sectional strife will be ended,
and the public robbers who now swarm
over the Southern States will cease their
nefarious occupation when we revoke the
license which the appropriate legisla-
tiun" of the last nine years has given
them.
"But we cannot reasonably hope to &C
complish the object of our mission with
out much labor and faithful exertion af-
ter the machinery of the government shall
be put into our hands. Fifteen
years of domination by an anti
constitutional party has utterly de-
moralized every branch of the public ser
vice. These cOrruptiors have become
SO numerous and so diversified, have sent
down their tap roots so deeply, have been
practced so openly, and have become in
a certain sense so respectable, that for
many OF them a mere change of admins
tratiOn will not speedily furnish remedy.
But the abuses may be ended by the i'm
pulSlOn of the same moral force which
carries their authors out of public life.
When Hercules undertook the task of
cleansing the Augean stable he did not
use the fork or the shovel, but turned the
current of river upon it and so swept
all It's filth into the sea. The stream OF
public opinion, if rightly directed, will in
like manner aid Democratic Admins
tration. This hydraulic method of re-
form being necessary, the freedom of the
press and the untrammeled right of the
thing that lets the water On-shOuld be
seduously encouraged and securely
guarded. So may it come to pass in
due time that we will remember the days
of the gag law, the practice of kidnapping
freemen, and the murder of innocent
people by military commission, as We
remember the years of mildew and potato
rot and cholera, to only shudder at them
and try to prevent their recurrence,
"If 8hould close here you might mis-
understand me. | have not the least
idea that we ought to unsette anything
which has been fixed and determined,
or take from any human being a right
vested in him by existing laws. We
propose no countag revolution. While
we mean to be lust, we are determined
also to be liberal in the broadcast sense of
the word, The faith of the Government,
no matter 10y Whom pledged, is irrevOca
ole. The whole civilized world knows
that the public credit is safer with US than
with our opponents, and this is shown by
the fact that since the November cleo
tons American securities have risen in
every market. We submit TO the amend
ments of the Constitution though they
were carried by fraud and force, and the
two last wert inteAded to take away our
inheritance of selfsgOvernment and give
it to another race of men without right
and without ability to n0lG or use it.
But we VIII execute the whole instrument,
amendments and all, in a way that will
save the rights of the honest white man,
as we'll as those Of the aboltionist and
the negro.
Another thing: A large and most
lilo bO1y- Of mon vbo until LOT
ly acted with the Republican party
voted for our candidates last month.
Ne arc not to forget how much we owe
them. The debt can be paid by showing
that we deserve their confidence in our
moderation and fairness to all classes of
the people. ! am faithfully yours, &c,
81. S. BLACK"