National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-01-22

mentality through which the Democratic
party is reasserting its power in the South
ern States Wherever it is established the
civil and political rights of the colcred
people sink into allegiance, and they will be
RENTED to what some of their editors call
"their normal condition in the field"
Thus driven by necessity and oppressive
laws made by those opposed to them in
interest and infamed against them by pre-
judice; deprived of the protection and care
of the master which provided for them in
infancy and age and sickness, when they
were slaves, they will soon reach a condi-
ton worse than slavery itself. This con-
troll of the Southern States once attained,
and the lawlessness which accomplished it
acquiesced in by the Federal Government,
and Democratic ascendancy becomes per-
petual in the South. In other words, by
the violent suppression of free suffrage in
seven or eight Southern States the will of
the people of those States will be trampled
under foot, and the governments usurped
by the Democracy in defiance of the Con-
stitution and laws both of the Federal and
State governments. When this much is
attained, the spirit which has prompted
and the success which has crowned career
so audacious will then, in conjunction with
their Northern sympathiEers and allies,
strike with equal boldness for the control
of the Federal Government
If they are successful in this, then the
theory of States Rights will have tri-
umphed, and it will be proclaimed as the
theory of the Government and people of
the United States that the General Govern
ment has no constitutional power to coerce
a State. 1t follows from this that the war
for the Union was illegal and unconstitu-
tional. More than this, that it was tyran-
nical, and that the lives that were lost were
hecatombs upon the altar of injustice and
wrong; that the slaves who were emanci-
pated to save the imperiled life of the
nation were taken in violation of the Con-
stitution of the United States without COM
pensation and without due process of law,
and that compensation must be made to
those who have been thus illegally de-
spoiled. That debt contracted TO carry on
an illegal war cannot be binding upon the
people of those States against whom that
illegal war was waged.
These are some of the certain results of
the establishment Of the ascendancy of
the States Rights Democracy in this Gov
eminent.
In view of these and other scarcely less
serious, we repeat the inquiry suggested
in the beginning of this article. Has the
war any accomplished or assured results?
Whether it has, will depend to a very large
extent upon the action of the proposed
caucus.
No hating, temporizing, dimly outlined
policy-no halfway measures-will be of
avail in this emergency. A clear, honest
manly recognition of the condition, disagree
able and lamentable though it may be, and
decided pungent measures can alone save
the country.
In the heart and mind of every Republi-
can let the politician be sunk in the patriot
and self subordination to the public good,
and the party that saved the nation in war
will save it now in peace in an emergency
not less critical than war, and will merit
and win the applause of a grateful people,