National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-09-17
IS THIS THE END OF WHITE LEAGUE TER
RORIsM In THE SOUTH.

The mystery which has surrounded the
attitude of the Government regarding the
application of Gov. Ames fer aid in sup
pressing the domestic violence which pre-
walls in Mississippi is at last cleared away.
The letter of Attorney General Pierrepont
TO Gov. Ames, which we print in another
column, not only discloses the fact, which
no one has doubted, that the earnest SYM
pathies of the President have been from
the first enlisted in behalf of the oppressed
Republicans of that State, but shows that
the entire Cabinet is in thorough accord
with him on this subject. 1t must be ad-
mitted that he could not consistently have
assumed any other position, for his course
regarding similar questions in the past has
proved it TO be his determined policy to do
everything in his power to protect and
support the new born voters of the South
ern States in the legitimate exercise of their
rights as citizens. That he so strictly ad-
heres TO this policy now, in the face of a
determined opposition to it. so determined
and so strong that he is compelled to
acknowledge its existence even in his sug-
gestions TO the Attorney General, will be
accepted as an additional demonstration of
his patriotic and tenacious devotion to true
Republicanism. The influences which nat
urally bore upon him to induce him to
abandon his former policy and to adopt one
of inactivity and indifference were mani.
fold. Not the least of them. however, was
the utter disregard of the condition of
affairs in the South, which is apparent
among Northern Republicans, and the mis-
conception which generally prevails re-
garding that condition. This disregard
and misconception, it must be under
stood, is the work of the Democracy,
aided by weak-hearted and Gushing Re-
publican leaders, whose personal ambi-
lions and personal likes and dislikes have
closed their eyes to the truth, and tied their
tongues except for the utterance of crimi-
nally deceptive declarations that the South
ern Democracy is cordially submissive to
the changes made by the war in the laws
regulating the rights of citizenship. For
tunately for the party and the country, the
number of Republican leaders Of this class
is limited; but unfortunately their infiu-
ence over the masses Of the people is aided,
to an alarming extent, by the efforts of the
Opposition press. The test votes on the
Southern question in the last Congress
proves this to be true. The bill to Protect
Electors, described by the Opposition as
the Force bill, would have passed both
Houses Of that body by the overwhelm-
ing vote of majority of the Republi-
can members if it had not been
for the virtual-w neither practically in
tended or no.-coalition Of the weak
kneed and jealousy ambitious element
of the party with the Democracy.
In short, the bulk of the party as repre-
scented by its intelligently-informed leaders
favored the bill, and the principles of the
bill are exactly those which were involved
in the appeal of Gov, Ames, viz: the pro-
lection of defenceless Republican voters in
the South against the tyraanical intimids.
ton and murderous assaults of the White
League. From this explanation, it is clear
that the President has not acted outside of
Tue pOuCy luulCotCu " buO 4CouOio Vi bnO
party to which he owes his election, and
that when the masses of that party are
freed from the thralldom of deception IN
der which they now exist, and become as
thoroughly conversant with the facts as
their leaders were last session, he will be
sustained by the unanimous approval of
Northern as well as Southern Republicans.
As 1t is, he stands very much in the atti-
tude of an official who knows his duty and
is trying to do it, but who is compelled to
explain to his Constituents what that duty
is, and the urgent necessity which exists
for its performance.
There are some features of this case,
however, which suggest the possibility
that the Administration has not been so
thoroughly independent Of the pernicious
influences to which we refer, or rather of
the effect of those influences, as it might