New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-09-17
Cur First Dmfy is to Keep Down tsac
Democracy.

am asked by one and another whether /
am in favor of a third term for General Grant.
My nvariable answer is that am IN favor OF
anything and everything that will keep the
Democratic party out of power If his re-
nomination is essential to this end, then by
all means let it cOme-yes, and come as often
as there shall be the like occasion for it.
Better anything, better everything than the
ruin that would befall our country from the
ascendency of the party which sympathized
with the rebels in the late rebellion and with
their malignant purpose to perpetuate slavery;
and which still cherishes its traditional
hatred Of the black man. The slaughter of
the innocent still going on at the South is
due to this hatred as was all ku-kluXism,
as was the negro numbering mob of 1863 i'll
New York, and as was every one OF the pro-
slavery mobs that disgraCed the North.
Whether the outbreak against our colored
brethren be at the North or at the South the
Democratic party is is inspiration, lis, soul
and sustenancc. I 70 not forget that the
Democratic press, in its pictures of the pres
ent, outrages at the South, presents the pa
tent and long-sufiering negro as the agrees
sor. Nor do | forget that the wolf held the
innocent lamb to be guilty Of rolling the
stream.
In my eye Democracy is all one with dew
ilism. OF course, l mean not that genuine
Democracy, which Thomas Jefferson taught
in his lessons for equal human rights.
mean the Democracy of these degenerate
days-the bastard Democracy-which tram
plies upon these holy rights. Of course, too,
| do not include in my denunciation Of the
Democratic party all who are in it. There
are persons in it and yet not ofit-persons
whose pure principles are at the widest con-
trast from the base policies of the party. |
do not, however, hold that these exceptional
gentlemen are entirely blameless. Their
| good names, which uphold the bad party,
| they should withdraw from it. Instead of
allowing their influence to keep the loath-
some thing above ground, they should be at
work to bury it. Moreover, the good men
in the Democratic party are needed in other
parties. They are needed in the Republican
party, which is still far short of what it should
be. Called into being to play a conspicuous
part in the lifting up of humanity, and with
every providental advantage to that end,
this party has not yet fully learned that "a
mans man. Alas, that this lesson, which
should ever be the first to be learned by every
party both in church and state, should so
seldom be learned, either early or late, by
any party! We go laundering through life,
because ignorant that every man is our
brother. 1t is from such ignorance that the
Republican party failed to pass the civil rights
bill. AS matter of course, the bill had to
encounter every Democratic vote in Congress.
Nevertheless, the Republican party was re-
sponsible for its failure. 1t is from such
ignorance that Congress and courts pry into
constitutions and statutes for excuses to deny
equal rights to the black man. No laws are
to be studied to learn human rights. They
are written on the brow and in the heart OF
every man, as he comes from the hand OF his
Maker. 1 did hope that the Republican party
would signalize itself above all political par.
ties by boldly taking the ground that we are
to accept as of equal rights all the men whom
God presents to us, and to scout as trash ant
atheism all acts of legislatures and all iudg
ments of courts, that are contrary to sucl
equality. Every man is an atheist, who
whatever his pleas of human laws for it, ant
E whether he be legislator or a judge, goe
into the Remembering work Of distinguish
ing the rights of one race of men from thu
> rights of another. He is traitor to human
1ty and Heaven, who does not insist ON tn
, same terms of citizenship for all on the sam
laws for all !; and on the same respect for al
the rights of all.
/ notice that the chief objection to Til
f civil rights bill is that it provides for bringn
into the same school black and white chill
G dren. The bill, though it provides for thi
intermingling, does not require it. 1t doe
u not require the State to establish commo
: school. 1t only requires that where it doe
e establish one, none shall be shut out from il
! Now, in this state of things there is an ADM
- rable opportunity for the play of the principl
of voluntariness-a principle which, in m
# humble judgment, is infinitely preferable t
# State authority in the matter of education
n Hence, in the States in question, let thos
whites, who are ashamed Of God (for to b
ashamed of His children is to be ashamed
;. Himsel) be left to educate their children
r and the blacks be left to do likewise. TIL
S blacks, aided by the benevolence of the Mort
: and by the benevolence of not few nobl
white men at the South, and above all by tn
;. impartial God, would not fall behind tn
e whites in this race of education. On tn
S contrary, but few years would pass ava,
; ere the whites, ashamed of their mean an
" wicked exclusiveness, and made sensible ths
the blacks are their equals, would open til