New-York tribune., 1876-11-25
THE LESSON OF FLORIDA.

The Republican party emanclnateu ana en-
franchised the negro. The Democratic party
has hunted him, before the war with blood
hounds, and since the war with rifles and re-
yolyers. His hour OF redress has come, and
each party receives, at the hands OF the col
ored citizen whom so many have despised,
equal and exact justice. For the first time III
history, the world has waited to hear the decision
of coloPed voters who nhabit that little tongue
of land which pierces the Gulf of Mexico and
forms the extreme southern portion of the
national territory. To that region of tropical
heat and abounding swamps colorcd men have
fed from Democratic disfranchisement in
Georgia, Democratic violence in Alabama, and
Democratic rifles in South Carolina, and
from that retreat they send back their
answer. The peaceful ballots of the
colored men of Florida smite the Dem
ocratic party, even in its hour OF
Joy and pride. From that little far-oii
State, which was hardly thought worth the
trouble of cOnquering by coercion or intimida-
ton, comes the crushing blow which may
prove the death-strOke of the Democratic
party, and reward with four years more Of
power the party which dared to make the doc
trines of the Declaration of independence
a living reality i'll America.
Justice triumphs. Never before has IL tri-
umphed more strangely and sgnally. Self
government trembled; more than once free
white citizens of Northern States have al
lowed it to be stolen from them by fraud, or
sold it for some real or fancied selfish inter
est. But it is rescued by those to whom that
boon was granted last. The prosperity of all
our great commercial and manufacturing cities
seemed in peril, and reckless or ignorant voters
of those very cities had done what they could
to endanger it. The colored voter of distant
Florida may also be ignorant, but his
sure instinct gives the victory to those
who had been wise enough to base
the national prosperity upon the free
participation of all citizens in the govern
ment. The nations honor was at stake; mil
lions of reckless men were about to place 1t
in the keeping of those who had sought to
destroy the Union. The cOlored man knows
little of theories of finance; but he knows that
those who made war upon the Union are not
the men to rule it or to pay its war-dcbt. In
his uDtaught head there is after all wisdom
from which even statesmen like Adams and
fnanciers like Belmont have something to
learn. Though they blundered, the voters of
Florida did not.
The strange result of this election brings
back to each of the great parties its greatest
achievement or its meanest crime, with fitting
reward OF punishment. lncomparably the
grandest deed of the Republican party was
the enfranchisement of race in spite of the
prejudices of centuries. 1t was brave act,
for it risked the loss of power. 1t was a just
act, for emancipation without enfranchsement
would have been a mockerY. 1t was wise
act for otherwise, until the generation which
participated in the war had wholly passed
away, absolute and unvarying unity at
the North would have been necessary
to protect the Union against the dan
gerous tendencies of those who had
rebelled For this great achievement the
Republican party has been savagely assailed,
and many of the immediate consequences have
been such that thoughtful men were some
times tempted to doubt its wisdom. But in
this hour statesmen may realize more
fully than ever before that the integrity,