National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-01-26

sons as we are are sometimes mistaken.
The defeat of the attempt to suspend, judy
ing from the character and class of names
found voting with the Democracy, in all
probability grows out of the fear that the
civil rights bill would be brought forward
and pressed upon the attention of the
House. There are matters of more impor-
lance than the civil rights bill to the Re.
publican party that will find their final rest
ing place unless the rule is suspended.
- While we insist that the civil rights bill
shall be disposed of one way or another
very soon, we think the friends of the
measure should not press 1t to such an ex-
tent as to nightmare our buttermilk senti-
mental Republicans. Responsibility and
indigestion in this country usually go hand
in hand, and it would not be amiss for the
friends of the bill to bear this in mind. To
one troubled with indigestion there is moth
ing that so startles him as feast. Nor is
there anything that so startles the respect
able Goldfish of this day and generation as
to make him sit in the same car with a ne
gro, or inform him that when he dies they
will have to be buried in the same Gods
acre lot.
The exigency of the times does not de-
mand the passage of a civil-rights bill with
anything like the zeal it did two years ago.
We have talked with Southern white men
and Southern black men on this subject. and
they all agree in saying, that in the present
temper of the Democratic White Leaguers
of the South. instead of being a benefit
to the colored man, it would be a cause Of
irritation and one that would lead to vio-
lence and intimidation, that does not now
exist in any one of the Southern States.
What the colored people of the South, and
what the Republicans ofthe South need now,
is not SO much the right to ride in the cars, or
to be buried in the same grave-yards, but
is the right to liUe, and around this right
they want the protection of the law thrown,
and not only this but the enforcement
of the law as terror to evil doors.
There was a time in the history of
the South when colored men and
white Republicans talked of certain civil
rights, which they regarded as essential to
the proper enjoyment of life, but that day
has passed for the present, and they want
some policy perfected and enforced that
will protect life After this has been &C.
complished, it will then be time enough to
think of those matters which pertain to its
enjoyment.
We know of but one way by which the
Gordian knot can be cut, and that is for the
Speaker, who is chairman of the Commit
tee on Rules, to call his committee together
and report a substitute for the present two
third rule. This done, and the decks are
cleared for action, and the Democracy and
their doughfaced allies can then go on with
their Irritation without iG any manner jeep-
ardizing the interests of the party or those
of the nation. The vote of yesterday, and
the unanimity of Republicans in support of
the suspension of the rule, must clearly
have indicated to Speaker Blaine what a
majority of the Republicans in Congress
want and it is believed to be certain he will
not lend himself to defeat the will of three
fourths of the Republicans in the House.