Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1875-08-18

ibcse States were created by acts o
Congress, and but for those acts wDult
to-day be dependent territories. The
are the offspring of Congressional leg
islation, and their rights, duties, all.
prerogstives are prescribed and define,
by the Constitution Of tho Unitet
Statea, aud yet, according to this Dem
Ocratic theory, as soon as they becam
States by acts OF Congress they wer
vested with original and inherent sov
ereignty, portion of which they hav,
delegated to the government of thu
United States, which is their mere or
gan and creature--which is just a
reasonable az tor q man to claim to b,
his own father.
THE DEMOCRATIC SECTIONAL PARTY
By ITS OWN CONFESSION.
The Democratic party is not nation
al because it denies the nation. 1t il
sectional, because it asserts that thu
country is composed of Independent
sections connected together only by {
written agreement. We are sometimes
told that the doctrine of State SOW.
ereignty is dead, but whether dead OF
alive the Democratic party is chained
to its carcass, and must 1.-Two or be
buried with it. But this doctrine
most unfortunately is not dead, al.
though it undoubtedly stinks and sur.
wives a political leprosy to taint the
air, and fear, to corrupt tho blood oi
future generations. No party that
profess it, no man that believes in il
should ever be placed in the admins
tration of the national government,
because he and they are the enemies oi
the nation. The Republican party is
the national party, because it alone
believes in the existence of the nation.
1t is the only friend of the States, be-
cause it believes they are sister States,
and not independent powers, bound
together indissolubly in one national
bond and family, each possessing her
sacred rights guaranteed by the bond,
the honor, and the natural ties and af-
fection of the whole family.
is RECONSTRUCTION A FAILURE?
We are told by Democratic speakers
and papers that the system of recon-
struction adopted for the States lately
in rebellion is failure and q blunder,
but in the next breath we are assured
that all is peace and quiet in the
South ;that the people have accepted
the situation, and there is no longer
any distur biDg element but the pres
ence of the Republican politician. If
this politician is a native Of the South
he is described as scalawag, q rene
gade, and low character, and visited
with all the opprobrium society can
heap upon him, IT he 10 from the
North he is denounced as o carpet-
bagger, come down to plunder and eat
out their substance. In either case
he gives tho colored people bad ad-
vice-that is, he advises them TO vote
the Republican ticket and stand up for
their own rights, and but for him, we
are told, the colored people would do
well enough-that is, submit them
selves to their old masters and keep
their places. There is vast and sys.
tenatic effort to mislead and defraud
the Northern mind in regard to the
sentiments and policy of the Demo.
cratic party in the South. And here
let me say that in speaking of the un.
rcconciled, hostile, and disturbing
people of the South am speaking OF
the Democratic party, for into that
party are gathered every disloyal cle-
mont, the White Leaguera tho ISukluN,
the last-ditchers, tho unreconstructed,
aud negro haters of high and low
degree.
WHO CONTROL THE SOUTHERN DEM
oCRACY?
And when it is thrown into our
faces that we have not reconstructed
tho South, it means simply that we
have not reconstructed and regenerat-
ed the Democratic party. Nor do I
mean 10 say that there is not in :he
South large body of honest, we'll
meaning, wcll.disposed people, acting
with the Democratic party. But I do
mean to say that they do not control
and direct the party ; but are control
led and swept on by tine classes Of peo-
pie have just mentioned, just as at
the beginning of tho rebellion there
were throughout the South a great
body Of people opposed to secession,
in some of the States q majority, in
Guiding the best and most intelligent; ;
but they were overruled, bullied and
silenced by the same classes who now
control the Democratic party. 1t is of
the last Importance that we should un-
derstand Southern sentiment and pol
icy correctly, in order that we may
not do injustice on the one hand, nor
be swindled and overreached on the
other
do not propose to cheat or be
cheated, if can help it, have studied
the situation well, and believe / un.
derstand it. The system of recon-
struction is based upon the principles
of equality, justice, and humanity,
and, in The hands of its friends, has
made progress and will triumph; but
in the hands ofits enemies will be de-
fested. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth
amendments to the Constitution, for
years after their enactment, were de-
nounced by the Democracy North and
South as void, not having been legally
ratified, and have not been recognized
yet, except in the slightest and most
indirect manner, and If the Democrats
had control of the national govern
ment would, in the Southern States,
bo ignored and run over.
TRUE CONDITION OF THE SOUTH.
The condition of the South, I doub,
not is improving politically, as we
know 1t is rapidly in material wealth
and prosperity but this political i'm
provement is slow, and has not made
such progress as to change the action
or purpose of the Democratic masses
of the South, should the Democratic
party come into possession of the ma
tional government.
While the white people are becom-
ing somewhat accustomed to the exer-
else by the colored people of civil and
political rights, and the tendency to
violence on that account has to some
extent abated. yet it would be great
and fatal mistake to suppose that they
are reconciled to their new relations
to the colored race, or have, in the
language of the day, accepted the sit
uation. Although it is often said by
Southern politicians they would not
restore slavery If they could, yet do
not believe it ia true in regard to the
great mass OF former Shareholders,
while l do believe that they look upon
such restoration as impossible under
the circumstances and hence do not
live In hope of it. But there 10 no
doubt that the members of the Demo-