The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-01-15
Is There No Middle Ground

exaggerated views Of public affairs leads very
often to passionate, unreasoning discussion
! and imperfect conclusions There is scarcely
question before Congress that is not made to
assume o party aspect Take this Southern
question, for instance. The republican has
one view, the democrat another. We read the
republicans speech, and we find on one
side brutality, tyranny, the secession senti-
ment desire to revive the Confederacy and
destroy the Union. We read the democrats
speech only to discover that our liberties have
passed away forever; that we are under the
iron heel of despotism; that the South is con-
trolled by the refuse of the Northern peniten-
tiaries, by devils inearnate; that the negroes
are plotting insurrection, and that the Pres-
dent is endeavoring to foment another ST.
Domingo instruction. Republicans talk OF
remanding the Southern States to military
governments; democrats wag their heads over
another civil war to be forced by their oppo-
nents Amid all this uproar of inyective, this
tempest of denunciation, 1t is impossible to
find the truth, that middle ground which all
honest opinions must finally assume and the
patriot is only too anxious to discover
We saw this before the rebellion. Take
the journals of the North and the South for
the ten years preceding the fall OF Fort Sum-
ter. They burn with hatred and passion.
The English language was exhausted for
terms of political reproach. The Southerners
were "tyrants," the Northerners were "mud-
sills.' Southern men actually believed that
IL
with broomstick. to dispense an army of
Yankees. The Northern men read "Uncle
Toms Cabin as true picture of Southern
morals and society. The ferocity which
marked the debates between Sumner and
Douglas, between Toombs and Wade, the
whole tone Of the discussions-in the press,
in Congress, and even in the Church twenty
years ago-showed this extreme, bitter parti-
sanship 1t blazed higher and higher until it
famed into devastating civil war. 1t was
because there was no serious attempt to find
that middle ground upon which Northern
and Southern men could have met, discussed
their differences and decided them without
wars fearful sacrifice. We are now drifting
into a similar dstempered condition. The
honest citizen anxious to know the truth
about the Southern States, and who for that
purpose reads the telegraphic dispatches and
speeches and press reports of the last fveyears,
will be utterly unable to arrive at a sound,
impartial judgment Yet there is no ques-
ton that ever concerned the American people
about which there should be so little passion.
We have no interest higher than the prosperity
and harmony of the South, just as the South
ern States can have no interest higher than
their own advancement and peace, the integ
rity and splendor of the Union. Louisiana is
as dear to us as Massachusetts, We take as
much pride in her prosperity and renown.
Why, therefore, can we not seek out the
causes which distract Louisiana and patiently
remove them? Why can not we give this State
an honest republican government?
If Congress would approach the Louisiana
question animated by this purpose there might
be some hope of q result. The tone of the
debate in the Senate is disheartening Re
publican after republican rises in his seat and
denounces the Southern people as bandits, as
enemies of true union, as conspirators against
the lives and properties of the negroes, as
anxious for war Of determination, as resolved
to revive the Confederacy, as men doing daily
deeds of assassination and plumber. Not one
word from them about the misgovernment of
South Carolina (; reputation, as We have seen
it in Arkansas the shameless jobberies and
corruptions in Georgia; the manifest usurpa-
tons of Warmotb and Kellogg in Louisiana
the burlesque government that we have in
Florida not one word in denuncation of the
evils of "carpet-bag" and ''scalawag" domi-
nation. Democrat after democrat RISES de-
nounces the administration and its interference
in local rights, complains of the overthrow
of the sovereign Commemorative. pictures
In graphic tints the misery and shame of the
Southern people, tells us that they have fallen
under the heel Of negro government and
that for their liberty there is no further hope.
Not one word from them of the riots in New
Orleans in 1885, the massacres in Colfax, La,
the Ku Klux outrages through the Southern
States generally, the terrorism over large
sections of country by the remnants OF Con-
federate sentiment. There is middle ground
between these two opinions, and if the Senate
of the United States was composed of patriots
anxious to solve the Louisiana question with
out regard to the success Of party or the
wishes OF President we should have such a
debate as would end it forever, by conveying
to the country the whole TRUTH and by ena-
bling us to sustain what is right and punish
what is wrong.
The only action that recommends itself to
us as looking toward solution is the resolu-
ton of MIR. Hale, OF Maine. This Representa-
tive proposes that Congress shall declare that
there is no longer republican form of gov.
eminent in Louisiana, order a new election
and surround the franchise by such safe
guards that there can be no doubt Of its legal