New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-05-07
nErAMINa THE REPUBLIC.

the present Official 1ncumDentS. we ooA
= slider it legitimate argument that tn
Republicans are to man dishonest, cor
rupt and incompetent, that the Democrat
are peculiar breed of people, endowed
with the highest attributes of intellec
and knowledge, and exempt from a.
- human trailty. 1t may be ever
i. claimed for them, as for the othel
Bourbons, that though temporarily de
prived of the government by intrusion o.
revolutionary principles, their divine and
hereditary right to rule entities them te
i reoccupy the power and patronage which
can righttully belong to no other. These
9 are all legitimate political arguments.
Upon proof satisfactory to the American
mind, that these several propositions are
true, the Democratic Bourbons should
and will be recalled and recrowned in the
full enjoyment of all and singular the
rights, privileges and franchises of which
the Republicans have deprived them.
While, however, we concede the right
to use such argument as will prove the
Democracy the best guides and governors
of the people under tie constitution, it
does not follow that we should approve
of an argument or an exposure going to
prove republican government failure.
This is precisely the tone and tenor Of
much Southern defamation against the
Republican party. For, if a majority of the
American people persist in choosing gov
errors who Cypress one-half of the people
| and corrupt the other, if the English
and French people, under different form
of government, neither suffer from OPP
preston nor taxation, the inevitable infer
ence is that the republican government is
failure, and the monarchical or papa1
government success
Why, however, can not our Democratic !
contemporaries com mend and defend the |
republican principles of government?
Why can they not praise this principle
and contend that they alone can give it its
best effect? History shows, it is true, that
the Democratic administration Of Mr.
Jefferson Davis was partisan and monarch.
ical; that it disregarded every doctrine Of
representative government; that it an
nulledi its contract of military service with
the soldiers, and Of currency with the
people; put the cities under the most rigid
military rule; fixed the valuation of all
property and produce useful IL the prose-
cution Of the war; assumed control of all
in fact governed entirely
by martial law. 1t will be found that
such genuine Confederates as Governor
Joe Brown of Georgia, General Robert
Toombs and Hon. Alexander Stephens de- ,,
the tavoritism and despotism OF :,
the Davis administration, and their writ
ngs and speeches will be found more con-
Of that administration than the ~.
most virulent States rights editorial in the
New York World against the administra-
ion of President Grant. But all this does
lot prove republican government to be
wrong or defective; it would only show .
and disregard of this AZ
principle, which ought to be corrected by
he removal of one administration and the -
election Of q better.
Let our contemporaries abrse the Re- -
but let them cease to testify
gainst the republic. The Republican !,
'arty will shield the constitution, and re- -
GIVE on its own body the poisoned mis- ~
lies directed against that sacred instru- :"
aent. =
Already have the sad effects of these :,
intense sectional conflicts raised hopes in =,
he partisans Of monarchy and hierarchy .,
me chief effect of this violence was the .,
ar. Assigning to each section whatever nj
We may, still it is not right a,
, seize on the accumulated debt of the -,
ar and charge it on republicanism. 1t n
lust be remembered that the blessed 10
lonarchy of England owes a larger y,
ebt than we do with even less to g.,
low for it. 1t should never be forgotten an
y an American of revolutionary descent III
lat the chief foundation of this British ,r
bit acas Incurred IN the endear0r to suJju- h,
tie our ancestors. TIE rest of it repre- ~,
nts chiefly the blood and gunpowder -.
continental wars for preserving the an
lance of power in Europe. That is, in ~,
such an equilibrium of po- g.
ical forces that the crown should neither -,
shaken from the brow of Britain nor -:
q sceptre made to tremble in her hand.
nd of Malplaquet, Blenheim, Families, ~,
ldenarde; of Bunker's Hill and York -,
wn; Of Copenhagen, Vimiera, Bajados,
lamanca and New Orleans These are IL
e treasury receipts of the English mon ~,
,hy for the British debt e..
Before our Democratic contemporaries 49,
ye up the republican and representative Oct
nciple, and invite the restoration of w;
,narchy or hierarchy, it would be better 81,
them to consider the evils Of other &c
ms of governments, as shown by that 90
which We fear they have little re- tho
ence-history. ~
f upon contest as to which party can cla
st carry out the principles Of Washing sci,
| and Jefferson and Adams, the Demo- pul
tic party shall be found the most COM De
ent, we shall be with the Roman patriot, thr
'ud that Rome has better soldiers than voc
rselyes." If the Republicans shall be one
Gated upon the argument that Repub- pirt
m government is failure, then mel