New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-02-09
ruY 1p,fJNJSTR1TIOy PROGRAMME.

upon the Civil Rights bill disclosed the mo-
tive and purpose Of the recent proceedings in
Congress of the party in power. " The reason
d" why we desire to have this bill passed." said
Mr.. Butler, dis the fact which has been so
"often put before us. that we are about pass
"ing from power" 1t was for this reason
that, through night and day sessions for more
than week, the majority in the House pro-
longed the struggle to secure the adoption of
rule under which they could force to q
vote such measures as they chose,
and finish up the neglected work which
in their long hold Of Office they had allowed
to accumulate upon them. In other words
the party going out of power in one branch of
Congress puts all its strength into one ire
mendOus struggle to pass a law which either
from timidity or principle they have neglected
or postponed for years; because-whyl Be-
cause, as Mr.. Butler says, they are passing
out of power. Why have they not passed it
before if it was a just measure and was so
important to the rights of the cOlOred peo-
ple7 These same men have been elected
and reelected to Congress as Republican
year after year. they have had a Senate
and Executive of their own party; and
this We are told is o Republican meas
urea party measure in the stlictest
sense. Why have they not passed it before
this, when they might have done it in the
ordinary course Of business7 Why wait till
the very heel of the last session of the last
Congress in which they have tho power to put
forth this supreme effort, and by such ques-
tonable proceedings secure its passage7
i, 60; Tho manila
have passed judgment upon tie party in
power, and in the only branch of the Govern
ment where they could reach if, have ordered
it to stand aside. 1t is not honorable in the
gentlemen who arc shortly to become a
minority to use the last hours of their power
in Congress to pass a measure which
the people have already disapproved in their
general disapproval and rejection of the
party. But there is deeper purpose in the
whole proceeding than this. Mr.. Butler Is
very frank in saying that they want to pass
this bill because they are going out of power.
But the fact is, and we presume no one doubts
it, that there is hardly possibility of the bill
which has been the occasion for SO much dis
cussion and so prOtracted a contest. becoming
a law. No one of the gentlemen in the House
who are so urgent for its passage believes it
will pass tho Senate and receive the Presi-
dents signature. All the same, though, is Mr..
Butler correct, and all the same has the fight
over it answered the purpose of the
managers of the party passing ont
of power. Passing out of power !"
That Is the secret of the whole
business. And il is not because these gentle
men are filed with remOrse at their neglect
of so patent duty to tho wards of the
nation, nor that they are Fastening while
they may, to do Justice not anything of the
sort. Parties do not in such manner take
the warnings of physicians, and deliberately
settle up their own estates. This is not as
some OF the thoughtful statesmen would have
US think, finishing up of the work of the
Republican party. IL is the laying out Of q
new programme. When Mr.. Butler is apostrO-
phizing liberty, and rhapsodizing over equal
rights, and talking about his partys COM
pleting its work before turning over the gov
ernment or any part Of it to the opposition,
he is only looking good with one eye; the
other il searching for weapon to renew the
fight.
The events Of the past year, particularly the
Administration management of the Congress
sional campaign of 1874, in which the staple
of discussion was the oppressed Condition of
the negro and the outrages and intimidations
practiced at the South, are full of significance
for the political future. The Presidential cam
paign Of 1876 has been opened already, Mr..
Conkling SAYS and we do not doubt it. 1t is
the deliberate intention of the Administration
managers to make it a campaign of sectional
and race hate. In the campaign preceding the
Fall elections, men who ought not to
lend themselves to so unpatriOtic, 50 dew
ilish "a programme, filled their speeches
with nothing but bogus Outrages and as
sasSinatOns, the inventions of Charles
HAYS and others, in which there was no truth,
decency, or humanity. 1t was upon the
strength of these brutal SANDERS and con-
temptiblo Gctions that gentlemen who call
themselves respectable and honorable went
upon the stump and appealed to the worst pas
sions in the minds of men in order to inilame
the smoldering animosities of the war and
save their party from defeat. The whole &C.
ton Of the Administration party through the
session has been on the same line and in the
same direction. The effort to pass the Civil
Rights bill is part of the same programme.
1t puts the whites and blacks at variance in
the South; it promotes ill feeling instead Of
harmony and kindness; it gives the Admins
tration party new hold upon the negro as
his peculiar friend, and it goes far to renew
the bitterness and hatred Of the war.
The whole line of the debates in the House,
the temper of Republican leaders, the speeches
in the Senate and House on the Louisiana
question and the Civil Rights bill, indicate
this as the policy Of the Republican managers
to prop their failing party fortunes in 1876.
The war spirit is to be again appealed to, the
old jealousics renewed, and old passions
rekindled. A moro mischievous and wicked