Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-03-04

Is There No Danger3
The substance OF letter from Masss.
chusetts Congressman which we recently
published, taxing serious view of the
dangers OF the present national situa.
ton, has elected some light criticism in
certain quarters, as if it were an attempt
to sound an utterly false alarm. We
know, however, that many of the best
and most thoughtful observers of the
times do not share this easy indifference,
such as had its most signal climax in
1860. We have lately recorded the i'm
preston of the true-hearted Republican
veteran of Ohio, Mr.. Wade, that the
country is In danger of seeing another
rebellion undertaken. A letter in the
Chicago inter Ocean, written, according
to that paper, by lone of the most
prominent men in public life at Wash
ington," declares that this very time in
which we are is pregnant with more
evil than any hour since March, 1861"
The writer states that the cause of APP
prehension lies in an "organized, and so
far successful, effort, by force of fraud,
to gain possession of the Southern States,
to substitute by violence and intimida
ton the will of minority of these
States for the will Of majority, and to
control by any means found necessary,
however criminal or violent, first the
State Government, and next the Con-
gressional representation and electoral
vote"
In other words, there is a conspiracy
on foot to neutralize and practically over
throw the last three amendments of the
Constitution in their grand object of be
slowing equal rights upon the freedmen
of the South. The Democracy in that
section, sustained by the party elsewhere,
have determined that the negro shall not
have the same rights as the white man.
The negro is to be substantially sup
pressed out of politics and remanded to
a subordinate, dependent, abject condi-
ton, socially and politically. That is the
scheme at the bottom of the Penn move
ment in Louisiana, of the bloOdshed at
Vicksburg, the high-handed change Of
the Constitutions in Arkansas, and of the
White League movement throughout the
South generally. 1t enrolls in its sup
port nearly all the wealth, intelligence,
organized energy, social influence and
what is equally important-the race
This combination, with its mighty rein.
forcement Of partisan allies at the North,
is, it will be seen, practically arrayed
against the laws of the land, as well as
against the security of the grand fruits
of the last supreme struggle for the Union
how, then, can it be otherwise than per
nicious and, in proportion to its extent,
dangerousy
1t is none the less so that it is engi-
neered with a skill and shrewdness
which have been learned fiom former
failures. 1t is well known that many of
of the secession leaders of 1851 have al.
ways deplored the madness which then
caused them to give up the Government
when they had complete control of the
Senate and the Supreme Court. With
such advantages they think they might
have thrown upon the Republicans the
ignominv of factious, if not of a re-
bellieus, stand. Now they propose to
take the Government and, while holding
it, practically nullify the Constitution.
One of the most bitter of the rcpentant
rebels-Mr. Hill, Of Georgia-recently
said: "Whcn we seeded we left the
Government in the hands of our enemies.
and we left our friends in the hands of
these enemies also" This mistake, he
insists must not be repeated. With an
atfectation which would be amusing but
for its terrible audacity, he continues:
+" Let all who love the Constitution unite
and save the country by ballot, if posi-
ble"-this being addressed to North
ern Democrats, who are then told:
\ And if force, under pretext of
any kind, shall attempt to de-
feat the will of the people let every
patriot be ready TO march under the old
stars and stripes to the grave or to vic
tory. Let us of the South go where we
ought to have gone at first, and where, if
we had gone, we should have crowded
out this sinister power" What precise
programme he is here outlining may not
be so clear, but there is no m istaking the
drift of his instigations. He means the
recovery so far as possible of what the
South lost by the rebellion in 186l-the
reversal Of what was secured by the tri-
umph Of the Union arms in 1865. So far
the conspiracy goes on swimming'y in the
eyes of its projectors. One branch OF
the Government has been secured, with
majority of the State Governments and
nearly solid South. All that is appsr-
emily wanted for remaining SUCCESS is
either blindness or else recreancy on the
part of The Republicans Of the country,
who saved it in the former trial. Shall
either fatality be recorded nowg We do
not believe it; the only ground of fear is
that the slowness of the people to real
ize their danger may increase it and
thus make the effort of averting it great
er and more costly than it ought to be-
Boston journal.
The Southern Democratic Address.