National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-03-29
L @. C. LAMAR-HIs VIEWS OF THE Po
LITICAL SITUATION.

nent leaders of the Southern Democracy.
Naturally a fire-eater of the fieriest kind,
trained in the extreme school of Southern
polite and breathing the Characteristic
aspirations of a knightly believer in the
idea of Southern chiValrY, his experience
during the war subdued him to some eX-
tent, and moderated the extreme radical
ism of his temperament. Underneath the
influence of this sadness, however, the
fires of his old belief smolder with I'M
quencRed force ready to break out again
whenever the tanning breeze of new re
bellion shall give them renewed life. To
Grop SMILES, he believes in State rights,
in the Lost Cause and in the absence of
ROVER in the General Government to coerce
seeding State as firmly as he did in 1860
q. He yields a sullen submission to the
reconstruction acts and TO the war amend
ments to the Constitution, but has no more
carrestness in his professions of loyalty to
the changed condition of affairs than any
other disappointed political and military
leader would have who eXemplities the
truth of the poet Buffers truism-
HE that complies against his will
Is Of his own opinion still.
Like other men of his kidney he teaches
lis followers, and they are numerous that
plant deneanor is shrewd diplomacy
Just now; that sugar will catch more flies
than vinegar, and that finally
UWho overcomes
BY force, hath half but overcome his fOe."
His recent experience as Democratic
stump orator in New Hampshire added to
his already extended reputation and has
subjected him, since his return to the South,
to the searching inquiries of friendly news
paper interviewers. According to report
OF one Of these interviews he saw nothing
in the New Hampshire result to discourage
the Democracy. As a matter Of course, in
all his remarks he made the Administration,
and not the Republican party, his text.
1.-THE election of two weeks ago." he
said, ''was an isolated election, occurring
Gin only one State, and that small one.
Hence the Administration was aDlu to
bring to bear upon it an elaborate and
"pervading attention, and to concentrate
"upon it all of its wonderful influences,
(Which it will not be able to do in a gen
"eral canvass" He seems to have for
gotten that the Democrats were equally
able TO concentrate upon that isolated cleo
ton, and that the contest was therefore
squarely fought with the olds, if there
were any, on the side of the Opposition,
which was encouraged by the prestige of
Democratic victories last fall. But his
concession is enough for our purpose, and
we infer from it that, in his own heart, he
finds but little encouragement for Demo
cratic success, in the next national cam
paign. This inference is sustained to
some extent by his subsequent remark
that "there is an overwhelming
q majority in the country against the
Administration. Here it is again; not
the party, but the Administration is the
burden of his thought. The opposition to
the Administration, lie continues, "eXistS
under different names, as separate ele-
"ments, and is controlled by distinct influ-
"enCes. On the one issue of opposition to
1.-The present Administration-its central
''.Izing tendencies, its corrupt practices and
its incompetent rule-this majority is
"agreed. On other issues it is divided into
elements, more or less antagonistic. If
"this loose and diverse majority can be
'harmonized if, in other words, the ele-
"ments can be brought to believe that the
points Of union are more essential than
the points Of difference, the Administra-
lion will be swept from power on the tide
"of a humiliating defeat" From this
standpoint he argues that the Democratic
successes last fall were ''won by co-opera-
ton, not by conversion" These successes,
he argues, ''were not strictly Democratic
victories. They were anti-Administra-
ton victories. They were not achieved
by the Democratic party as a party, but
"by Democrats, Conservatives, Liberal
Republicans and anti Administration men,
fighting for the time under the Demo
"cratic flag, just as the Democrats in the
Greeley campaign fought under the Lib
"eral Republican flag. They were allies
"of the Democratic party; not converts to
''its doctrines. 1t is all-important for US
"to realize that-that it was q triumph
"achieved by cooperation, not by CONVEX
'tsion. These allies, though friendly still
"to the Democratic party and hostile to
1.-THE present Administration, are not
bound indissolubly or even securely to
Tours. If they are content to fight
''the next fight with us, we will whip it.
If they are driven off we will lose it. "
He does not take rose colored view of
the possibility that these elements will con-
tinue to adhere, or will serve to aid the
Democracy in the future, and takes occa-
sion, while characterizing General Cock
crell as an able and patriotic man, who
will make good Senator, TO admonish the
Democracy that they made sad mistake
when they threw Schurz contemptuously
overheard, without giving him even a
complimentary vote. This sort of work, !"
he adds, eff persisted in by the Demo.
"crats, will, the Conservatives and Lib.
"ersls say, drive these party friends back
"into the Republican ranks. - He ne
elects to specify the kind of a platform
needed TO retain this slippery aid to the
Democracy, and, in answer to an inquiry
whether the Democrats, having secured
that aid, could carry the country, said:
RI think they can elect Charles Francis
adams or Judge Davis, of the Supreme
"Court; either of them with large de-
gree of certainty. Either of these men
"can consolidate the whole opposition
"Yote. They could carry the Liberal
Conservative element withoHt trouble,
''and the Democratic organization leading
@this, can carry the country, l think
"either one of these men could be elected
t'by an overwhelming majority. 1t is
stprobable that Blaine could be elected by
"fhe same influences, He is an immense
'"'power, and possibly the ablest man in
"tbe Republican party. 1 see that the
Democrats of Philadelphia gave him a
formal banquet the other day, His
blunder regarding the political belief of
Blr. Blaine's dinner givers is, perhaps, ex-
cusable, in view of the fact that some Of
them are ready to become Democrats on
very slight pro7ocation. 1t is evident,
however, that he is in favor of taking up
!