The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-06-28

slowly but constantly decreasing
Friend AFTER friend departs;
VINO hath rot lost lrlendf
II begins to be generally suspected that IN
spite Of democratic foolishness the country IS
turning its face toward that party and Its
back upon the republicans. The shrewdest
men in the republican party are making up
their minds to democratic interregnum;
and good many of them are not sorry. III
the democratic leaders North aud South had
only managed to inspire the country with
little confidence in their conservative wis
dom in the last four or five years they would
carry of with them next year large and the
best part Of the republican party. This is .
disagreeable state of things tor the republican
| leaders but they have themselves alone to
blame for it, and they have the remedy in
their own hands if they have bat the courage
and wisdom to apply it. They are not yet
ruined, and they need not be; on the contrary,
they have it in their power now to confer
q great benefit on the country, and at the
same time, as we believe, rescue their party
from threatening defeat Il It should be
known to-day that the leading republicans OF
4 the different Statesmen OF the stamp OF
\ Blaine and Wilson, OF Wheeler, Ellis II. Rob
berts and Woodford, in New York; Of Hayes
and Foster, in Ohio; Of Willard, Poland and
Edmunds, in Vermont; Phelps, in New Jersey;
Willard, in Michigan; Ferry in Connecticut;
Kasson and James I. Wilson, in Iowa;
McYeagh, in Pennsylvania, and others whom
we might name-had met together for con-
sultation, and that they had called to them
such honest Southern republicans as Sheldon
and Judge Steele, in Louisiana; Judge Tar
bell in Mississippi, and Buckley and others,
in Alabama, as well as a number of Southern
wings; and If tomorrow the result Of this
consultation should be made public in On adj
dress pledging the signers, on behalf Of the
republican party, to repeal, at the earliest
moment the enforcement acts and put stop
to all federal interference in the local affairs
Of the Southern States, there is very little
doubt that the republican party would have
removed the only really formidable obstacle
70 its success in 1876.
| No sensible person in the North any longer
doubts that this interference, however proper
and necessary it may have been during some
years after the war, has, during the last two or
three years, and even longer, been the means
OF keeping in power in the South set of un-
scrupulous politicians, who have misgoyerned
and robbed and used the federal power to
sustain themselves. Even those who believe
that violence and lawlessness are still the
rule in the Southland their number decreases
daily-acknowledge that the republican
rulers there are bad men, who are guilty Of
grave and dangerous maladIninistration;
and II is evident 10 all who have
paid attention 10 the subject that the
federal power, under the enforcement acts
is used now in the South only to bolster up
set Of corrupt and incapable men who injure
the republican name and crush out every at
tempt by honest republicans al reform of the
\ party there. Now. the republican party is re-
Y sponsible for this federal interference and its
results. 1t had the courage to adopt the en-
forcement acts of q time when Southern soci-
ETY. was still disdrganized by the results Of the
war. Has It the courage to demand and
promise their repeal now that circumstances
have changed, and these laws are not safe
guard but q curse to the country? If the re-
publican leaders have the courage to do this
they viii relieve themselves from the respon-
sibility for the evils and oppression suffered
BY the Southern people but they cannot
avoid this issue, which, do what they may,
viii be the predominant one in the next can
vnss, as il ought 70 be, unless they now take
ii out For, not only cannot the country 90
on longer 10 the extra-constitutional path in
which it has been drifting, but il is impossi-
be for the intelligent people Of the Southern
States, no matter what their party prefer
ences or their political principles may be, to
allow the attention Of the people to be d.
verted from the one evil and danger which
afIlicts them, and BY sympathy -. Unless the
republican party this year repudiates the fed
eral interference, and with il the class OF cor
rupt men Who have thriven BY il, this ques-
ton must and ought e BE- the most prominent
one in the canvass Of 1876.
There are o number 81 reasons Why the
conservative part Of the people, South as we'll a.
North, would prefer 70 see . conservative,
honest and liberal republican statesman al the
head Of the federal administration during the
next term, If the enforcement acts are repealed.
IT is not difficult to find in all the Southern
States democrats who think thus Probably
the great body Of liberal republicans have the
same desire, as well as not a few thoughtful
Northern democrats But there Is no doubt
that this whole mass Of honest and thought
ful citizens will welcome and support demo-
crat for the Presidency rather than run the
risk OF continuance Of the federal inter
ference, and Of such extre-constitutionaI
government o. has oppressed, irritated and
robted the Southern States for some years
Nor would such declaration a. We suggest
made ~ convention Of leading republicans
merely relieve their party 81 an odium from