The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-02-10
what Is il all About?

w lille the country Is ur1II1Dg INTO
an acrimonious political agitation. the
end Of which puzzles and confounds
wise statesmen-whow were hopeful all
through the compromise troubles of
1850. the fierce struggle between free
dom and slavery for the possession of
Kansas and Nebraska, as we'll as dur
ing our terrible war for the Union-it
is well to bear constantly in mind the
WHY and WHEREFORE of all this ter
rible commotion. 1t all turns on a
single point-that of an enforced legal
inequality of men All of the talk of
''the oppression of the noble people OF
the South, y military dcspotism and
interference, the denunciation of
carpet baggers-all of the riff-raff of
weak-kneed Republican and Demo
cratic speeches-is simply mass of
irrelevant slush--the merest froth
and scum on the great deep current
which moves ever on beneath the sur
face. Ii to-day there were In the
South a concession OF the equal legal
rights of men as men, the agitation
would be quleted lnstantaneously. No
man of the Republican part has ever
contended for the enforcement of
social equality of the blacks and
WHltCS, IOT tudt ID IL queStiOu WAiCh
every man regulates for himself But
and their Democratic abettors in the
North demand at this time-what a
limited number of place hunting Re-
publicans are willing to concede-is,
that the laws of the country shall con-
tinue to give to the white race
position of legal superiority-advan-
tage-over the colored race. That is
all that this great agitation-is about,
when you get at the kernel of the
whole business That is what the
Republican party contends for-that
is the issue which everybody thought
the war had settled for all time. The
question now before the American
people is simply this: Shall all the
fruits of the war be wiped out by
fraud, intimidation, and violence? Is
this the entertainment to which. the
country is invited, after all our strug-
giles to perpetuate the government.
and our more than paternal kindness
to the worse than prodigals who
sought to destroy it? The issue is
just as well defined to decay as 1t was
when Alexander IL. Stephens declared
in 1861 that human slavery was the
cornerstone of the new confederaey
There is fixed and clearly defined
determination on the part of repre-
sentative Democrats In the South to
break down and oyerturn the last YES
tige of the results of the war They
intend to win back on the floor of
Congress all that they lost from 1860
to 1865, and the great danger to the
country to-day is, that Northern dem
agogues, with their eyes fixed upon
the Presidency, will become as COM
pletely subseryient to the South as
that brood of reptiles was previous to
1851 There has been a gradual en-
croachment upon the enfranchised
race by 1.-The noble people of the
South ever since they commenced tax
ing part in politics after the war. In
some parts of the South colored men
have been sold into limited periods of
servitude for alleged crimes? What
is this, but tue first step in the dlrec-
ton of making that again their per
manent condition? Their intimida-
ton from the polls places them entire
ly at the mercy of their old masters,
in whom rankles a spirit of hate as
bitter and envenomed as hell itself.
Shall We give all an equal chance IN
the race of life, or shall We confer up
on the Southern white men any aids
save those of his own brains? In all
the Northern States, We ask that no
brand of legal inferiority shall be put
upon any race of men! We concede
to every man the chance to win all
that his mental powers enable aim to.
Shall we concede different right to
white men in the South? This is the
great question of the day, and the one
not to be lost sight of. We believe
the country will say, Mo- and with
more decided emphasis than ever be
fore. Nothing is settled which Is
not right "-Inter-Ocean.