National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-03-16

planned that the contest in the South is
maintained on the one side by Republicans
who yield first allegiance to the General
Government, and on the other by Demo-
Gratis, who are as ready to Ego with my
State" now as they were in 1861. Every
prediction we made at the time regarding
this feature oil the situation has been real
lied. Arkansas already has a State rights
constitution, and North Carolina is threat
ened with one. But aside from this State
rights view of the case there were other
obligations resting upon the party, not the
least of which was its solemn duty to pro-
tect men in the enjoyment of the rights
of citizens who had been citizenized, so to
speak, by the act of that party. We knew
that it was only necessary to afford and
guarantee this protection to secure the de-
feat of the White Leaguers, and we knew
that the enactment, as a law, of the bill to
Protect Electors was required for this pur-
pose. So far as it served to aid the Repub-
lican party in holding its own, that bill
was entitled to be considered a partisan
measure, but it was intended to do more
1t was intended to restore peace and quiet,
to suppress violence and provide for the
punishment of the most atrocious social and
political crimes ever committed in any CIV
ilized community. The clause in it pro-
viding for the suspension of the writ of
Ad6eaS corpus had been tried, and the ex-
perience of that trial demonstrated its wis
dom. The suppression and punishment
of Ku-Klux criminals under its oper-
alton gave us peaceable elections in
the South in 1872, and would have
given them to US again if the bill had
passed. But as soon as its passage was
mooted, the wavering clique of Republican
members of the House began to show evil
dence of fright, of jealousy and what-not.
No true man in the Senate, where it is fair
to presume the First Term ambition also
finds an uneasy resting place, betrayed any
such emotion; but in the House it became
necessary to amend the rules to deprive a
vicious minority of its power to impede
legislation before the bill could be passed
in support of an effort to take those States
out of the Union.
The struggle, the long night sessions, the
fillibustering and the wearisome proceedings
attendant upon the effort to change the rule
in question will long be remembered as one
of the most remarkable incidents in our
parliamentary history. But the close stu
dent of those proceedings will not fail to
discover that the weak-k need clique who
either failed to vote or were absent from
their seats, could not have rendered such
effective aid to the Democracy as they did
if they themselves had not been aided by
the Speaker. There were several oppor-
tunities during that particular session when,
by bold stroke, he could have reached a
solution of the trouble to the discontinue
of the common enemy of both his party
and the Government; but he failed to take
advantage of them. By this failure much
valuable time was wasted, and the tactics
which delayed the completion of the bill to
Protect Electors in the caucus were sup
plemented by more effective work in the
open House. In this way the bill was
killed and the Southern States were DELHI
erately handed over to the tender u mer-
cies of men who for years sacrificed their
blood and treasure to take them out of the
Union.
We insist that both from a truly patri-
otto, as well as from partisan standpoint,
the man or men responsible for this result
deserve severe cersure. They knew of
the incrcachments being made by the
State Rights party upon the sacred, su-
perior power of the General Government,
and failed to do anything with design to
check them. Of course, many arguments
may be advanced to sustain the position
they have thus voluntarily assumed at vari-
ance with the party, but none of them are
strong enough and loud enough to drown
the cries of the hundreds and thousands of
loyal men whose lives have been sacrificed
in the Southern States to the relentless
hatred of the natural enemies of this bill,
or the cries of those who in the future will
fall victims to the same insatiate appetite
for the blood of Republicans. Nor will
those arguments serve to reinstate Mr..
Blaine and his associates IN the exalted
favor which they enjoyed among Southern
Republicans previous to their recreancy.