The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-03-12
EaZZARoHA.

.
occurs in the Democratic newspapers.
IL always means one thing When We
are told that "the South" j. suffering.
that 1.-THE South" il oppressed that tie
South is "A martyr, and patiently bears
its wrongs, only a certain part Uf the
people Of the Southern States is meant
the white population. Before the
Democratic slave Senators spoke Of ''the
people of the South, and attempted To
Justify secession as a unanimous act oi
''the people" What peoplel The slave
holding class and their white depend
ents. In Louisiana, Mississippi, and
South Carolina, ''the people" were not
half of the population, and in all the
other Southern States those who were
not included in that term were a very
large proportion of all. 1t is the spirit
shown in these phrases, with the mean
ing attached to them, which IS one Of
the reasons why the Democratic party
can not safely be trusted with the gov
ernment.
Mr. Cox is an amiable man, but a We
hement partisan, and in the late debate
upon the rules, sinarting under the sar-
casm of the Speaker that he had offered
his resignation from the Committee On
the Rules for dramatic effect, he ey-
claimed that the term was not applied TO
General Butler when he went into the
Clerks desk and spoke to the IaZzaroni
in the galleries. This is his honest feel
ing. 1t is the feeling of his party. The
colored people are iazzaroni; they are
beggars, idle, shiftless, indolent, igno-
rant, good for nothing. They need a
good master and a strong hand. How
ever this may be in fact, this contempt
uous generalization is the natural view
of those who have been bred to regard a
large class of human beings as cattle,
and yet suppose themselves to be demo
Gratis, or believers in the rights of man.
There is nothing at once more ludicrous
and revolving in history than the specta
Gle of the old slave aristocracy, with its
Northern lackeys, sitting in the Capitol,
calling itself a Democratic party, and
stretching and strainimg the power of
the Government to extend and perpetu
ate human slavery. That is what Mr..
Cox and Mr.. Randall and their party
associates were trying to do but yester.
day, shouting themselves hoarse about
freedom" and the Gland of liberty"
and "the home of the oppressed" And
to day they wish to administer gov
ernment in which the men whom they
dealt with as property, as swine, as
things without rights, are their equal
citizens. They struggle TO show that
they may be trusted. They ''acquiesce, "
and by-gones are to be by-gones. But
the cat transformed into a seeming lady
leaped for the mouse on the floor, and
to the democrat" as this country
knows him, ''the South" means class,
and the colored people are 'lazzaroni'
and niggers.
But the question of these people is
the most important of all before Us, and
its treatment will be confided to one of
the two parties at the next election. 1t
is alleged that the Republicans have
failed in dealing with it, and that the
Democrats should be allowed to try.
But the Southern situation, whatever it
is, is largely due to the Democrats, as
every man knows who seeks facts and
not forms And what is it that the Dem
ocrats propose tc do2 If the Republi-
cans have failed, what is the Democrat
ic policy? OF course echo answers,
What? The New Hampshire Democratic
Convention, the first of the year, says,
The people of each State to regulate
their own domestic affairs in their own
way, subject only to the Constitution of
the United States" Certainly: so say
we all; and that plank, therefore, in it
self foreshows no policy, inasmuch as
the essential question is, What does the
Constitution authorized The Democrat
ic policy is to be inferred from the char
acter and antecedents of the party and
from its leaders. These all forcshow
pasSivity. The party would grant jeff.
Davis's prayer at the beginning Of the
rebellion and leave "the South alone
These would mean the reduction of the
coIored population to a pIriah GLASS, and
then the question would be whether the
general Intelligence and good sense OF
the whites could be trusted to avoid
what in the changed condition of the
Southern States would threaten them, an
internecine war
There is another consideration. The
ruling political sentiment among the
whites of the Southern States is not, in
the American sense, republican. The
Southern orators always appealed to
Greece and Rome, because the democ-
racy of Athens rested upon slavery, and
the freemen were very inconsiderab!e
number of the population. But Ameri-
can republicanlsm asserts individual
equal rights, and demands the suffrage
as their guarantee. In this sense the
sentiments of the white class in those
States is anti-Republican. 1t is Il senti-
ment of caste 1t calls itself democrat
ic, as when it openly maintained slavery !;
but should it gain power in the Southern
States, they would be a unit of hostility
TO the American principle of equa, rights.
And this hostility would only be ccn-
firmed were the national government in
Democratic hands. In the worst sense,
therefore, Democratic restoration
would be a reaction 1t could not has
ten the settlement of questions that
cannot be evaded, and which are immi-
nent. If the negro, as an equal citizen,
in states where he is half the population,
suggests the important question of the
situation, ought the answer to be in
trusted to his friends or to his enemies?
1t is not a conclusive reason for taking it
from his friends that they have made
mistakes, unless it can be shown-and it
cannot be-that those mistakes must
necessarily be continued and maintain
ed.-Hdrper'S Weekly.
A VERY nice kind of a surprise party
was recently held in Upper st. Clair,
Pennsylvania. The good people of the
village made an unexpected descent up
ON the forge of one G. b. Scott, black
smith, who had piled his vocation to
their satisfaction for twenty five years,
and presented him with a new anvil and
his wife with purse full of mocey. The