The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-12-02

The assembling Of Congress will enable
the country to see the influence and pow
er of what is called tine South" in legls-
larion and the Democratic arty. The
South" is term very familiar and well
understood in cur politics. 1t formerly
mean, the slave power 1t now means,
only = little less absolutely, the body
which formerly constituted that power.
1t has notyet- come to mean politically
lac whole mass Of the population. In
most Of the Southern States the Demo
cratic party is in the ascendant, rs be-
fore the war, and under that influence
the ante Jellum feeling is necessarily
some Ehat stimulated. Yet after the pre-
mature determination of the old South"
to resume control of the Democratic
party. which vas made at the National
Convention of 1858 in Tammany Hall,
and which vas shown in the speeches Of
some of the most noted of the old South
ern leaders and in the platform-since
this display, which aroused and startled
the whole country, "the South" has been
politically qu:escent.
Meanwhile, of course, a real change of
feeling in that part of the country has
been taking place. This has not been
unaccompanicd with hatred and malice
and uncharitable ezs Of every kind, but
the letters of Mr.. Nordhoff and Of other
intelligent observers leave no doubt Of
the fact. The mistakes Of the Republic
cans in many of those States have also
tended to the a~scendenCy of the Demo-
cratic party, and as that has recovered
bower, the Impotence of ''tle South" has
been curbed by the expectation Of the
party control of the national government
in 1876. Moreover, the cessation OF the
Ku-Klux and White League outbreaks,
and the Warsaw quiet that reigns in the
States which the Democratic party CON
trolls, have disposed the country to a
Kindly conviction that by-gones must be
by-go1es, and that the year Of the Cen
tennial must be also Il year OF fraterna!
reconciliation. And ii is in this spirit
and under these circumstances that q
Democratic House meets for the first
time since the war, and with an immense
proportion of its party members from
'-the South"
The influence of this old element will
therefore, be paramount, aud il is slgni1-
cant that in the present House, as in the
last that the Democrats controlled, the
South" is the leader. The policy of the
House, therefore, will be, as is customary
with the Democratic party, dictated by
its old master. The party has had no
policy since the great slave lords left
Congress and began the rebellion, and 1t
will now gait to receive its poiicy from
thgir heirs. The conduct Of the party
will be mainly influenced by the llnpc5Ed-
l,e election. The leaders will not aban-
don the friendly and conciliaiory posi-
lion for they have learned the real tenn
per of the county. They viii propose
nothing suspicious or startling, not only
because it could not prevail against
the Senate and the President, hut because
il would excite AMI alarm the Union. We
incline to the belief that they will not OPP ,
pose legislation for carrying out the re-
sumption bill, and,that their positive and
aggressive action will lie. confined to in
,c,lirltions of the Administration. Ii
will be well towatch carefully the name
and careers of the members who are
ri;n.ed at the head Of the important com
inittees, who secures the clerksilip with
is large patronage, and into whose hands
che determination of appropriations for
pensions and for the general expenses OF
the government fails. The spectacl; is
sxtraordinnry-that of a party whose
leaders undertook the forcibe overthrow
of the government fourteen yeas ago
now returning to the control of its legis-
iatnre. -Huppsr's We.Gy,