New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-12-18
Special Correspondence of tho Rspubl. can.
NATIONAL POLITICS.

Powcr-Neither the Protestant Party
nor the Republican Party Can Afford
to Army the Negro Power Against 1t
The Rejection Of MIR. Pinchback n Re-
publican Blunder.
WAsHINGToN. December l3, 1873.
Notwithstanding the efforts of go called
conservative stat ssmen, .he two great rad
ical forces of American politics continue to
| assert their influence here and throughout
the country. These forces are repre- sented
in the religious convictions of the people
and in the cause of humanity as repre-
sented in the life.aspirations and human
rights of the liberated Southern negro
slave 1t matters little whether the re.
ligious conviction of which speak is Cath
olio or Proestant-it lie equally powerful
over those who en- tel tain these convictions.
The true Catholic believes that the family
| uniting with the church forms the proper
educational institution for the education
of the children of the church. So long as
parents love their children and regard
their moral training as matter
of supreme concern, SO long will
this question of education continue to
agitate society. The Protestant, discard
ing the Catholic idea, and earnestly alive to
the moral welfare of his children, will strive
for the common school system, either with
or without religious instruction, as the best
means in education of youth. The Pro
testant will do this, believing that "creed
education" is an evil. As home is after all,
the one sweetest place on earth; as the
domestic affections are, after all. the most
sacred of earshly things; as the family is
the one divine primeval institution from
which springs both Church and State, it is
clear that this school question can not be
suppressed as potential force in American
civilization. Constitutional procedure will
not suppress it. The resolutions of political
conventions can not suppress it.
The question arises on which side of poll
tics will this religious influence fall in the
next presidential election The answer TO
this question is self evident. The Protes-
tint idea in regard to the education of the
children of the repnblic will ally itself to
the Republican party. The Catholic idea
of the Church will ally itself to the Demo
cratic party. The Consederates, whether
Catholic or Protest mt, will Join the Catho-
lic-Democratio alliance for reasons which
will be readily Understood by all intelli-
gent people. Consequently the issue raised
by the Roman Jesuits in New Jersey last
summer, coupled with personal attack on
the President, remains and must continue
to remain powerful force in the politics of
the country, notwithstanding the etflrts of
Mr.. Blaine Protestant Republican,, Senator
Herman (koman Catholic and Senator Cor
don (Confederatcl to eliminate it from poll
tics. General Grant met the attack OF the
New Jersey priests by his celebrated speech
at the army reunion at pes Moines, last
fall. He has followed that speech VI by a
formal declaration, as chief magistrate OF
the nation, of bis convictions on the school
question, in his recent message to the Amer
lean Congress. Ia that speech, and in his
message, the President takes the Protestant
side in this ISSUE The full meaning and
scope of this attitude of the President may
be taken in, when assert that if President
Grant were to stand upon his Des Mones
speech and the school clause of his message
Alone and signify his willingness to become
the presidential candidate of the Protestant
sentiment of the nation il 1876, that this
sentiment would rail- around him: that it
would form the new or third party, of
which 40 many people have written, and
that he would be elected President by the
American people over all other parties, and
over all other candidates. So much for the
strength of the Protestant sentiment, and
for the Presidents personal relation to it,
The next question which arises, equal in
impol tance to the other, is, Gould rnis Pro
testant party hold it's ground permanently
against the Confederate power and the Ca
tholic power thus united against tl' The
nswer to this question lies with the negro
power. If the Protestant party forms sn
alliance with the negro power and protects
that power in it's just civil and political
rights then the political future of the re
public for fifty years to come can be clearly
foreseen. If on the other hand this negro
power is aienated from the government of
the Union and cast of to struggle for itself
without recognition-dened the right of
representation in Congress-and abandoned
to the mercy Tor torbearapce, if you please
of the Confederate power; then, the
balance of power needed to secure the as
tendency of the Protestant party will be
lost.
What is true of the Protestant party is
equally true of the present Republican
party. The Republican party can not aban-
don the negro and live. When it does SO it
will at once lose it's hold upon a million
voters at the North, who Will Immediately
leave the party. With the loss of this anti.
slavery vote at the North and the loss of
the negro power at the South, what will
there be left of the Republican party as a
Protestant party OF as anything else9
1t will be seen from all this, that the ad-
mission OF the negro Senator from Louisi-
ana forms, as stated before in this CORE
spondence, the turning point in the present
conflict of parties. Is the negro power to
be recognized side by side with the Confed
crate power in the American Congress or
not Is the negro power TO be welded to
the Republican cause-to the cause of
Professionalism and to the American Union,
or not Let the political leaders of the
Republican party beware; there are break
ers ahead. Tie angry roar of these break
ers may be distinctly heard above the petty