New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-12-15
THE REPUBLICAN, MISSION.

We again charge upon the Republican
party failure to impress the great prin-
ciple Of human equality upon al the
forms and departments Of the govern
ment. II has left the constitution in the
inconcruous and contradictory condition
of basipg the executive and House Of
Representatives upon numbsrs alone
while an equipollent branch Of the legis-
lature, and possibly the ultimate choice
Of the executive, has been left with the
States in their separate and sover.
eign capacity. The Duchy Of Dela-
ware and the principally Of Ore
gon, may have in the choice of an
executive or the enactment Of . law .
power equal to that Of the Empire State
of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio or H.
linois. We ask, with Senator Morton,
whether this be q just and logical ap.
plication of the declaration that ''all
men are created equal" and the enact
ments which elevate to this equality Of
civil and political right every citizen of
the rspubfic2
1t was always said that the Union could
not exist with half slaveholding and half
free States. We affirm that it will not be
free from danger so long as this incon-
gruous, illogical and contradictory con-
flict between the national and confeder-
ate systems shall contin either in fact or
in theory. It is, then, the mission Of
modern Republicans, if they intend to ex-
ecute the programme which Jefferson, Sew
ard and Lincoln have bequeathed to them,
to SO reform the constitution as to make
it fulfill al the logic Of nationality.
We have long since seen tho Repub-
lican party finch from this consequence
of their established principle 1t has
liberated the slave and left him to defend
his life, with . printed ticket against
double-barreled shotgun. It has left
free labor to struggle for human liberty
without even as much 'sympathy as des-
potic Europe manifested toward the re-
publican colonies Of America. Il has
even supported Spanish despodsm by
Of "war duty" imposed On
American products, in the suppression Of
Cuban Independence. We can see the
same ainching from principle in the reso-
luton of Senator Edmunds, of Vermont
The principle Of direct popular vote. with
out the Intervention Of any intermediate
authority, is Q declaration of the national
principle. It sweeps away the
and returning board Of the
States It bases the avowal Of national |
will on the equality Of man. It shadows |
The overthrow of the Stats confederacy,
md the reduction of the senatorial repre-
to the same base with that Of |
he House of Representatives It leads
ogically and inevitably to the apportion-
nent of senatorial representation upon q
anger multiple Of numbers than of the
over house. It portends change of
ystem under which two hundred thou
and people shall have vote in one
louse, and seven hundred and fifty thou
and people vote in the other, the
erm of service being longer in one house
han the other. This may involve throw
ng some of the less populous States into
n election district of the Senate. It may
IMPAIR the self.consequence Of these less
'opulous States, but it is legitimate
consequence of Republican doctrine, and
% true Republican can finch from its
pplica ton for any such personal or
olitical consequence to himself or to the
of which he is an inhabitant
We repeat, therefore, that the mission of
be Republican party Is and will be in
omplete until it shall have confirmed
be principles established and embodied
4 the constitution by making every de-
of the constitution conform to
nose principles. taa-.s