The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-10-03

prospectus rs. q record.

=. : sncech which he made ihss wee ~
,ssa ax.postmaster General JEWELL. askea /
, g ] confident manner what claim the
democratic party had upon tne cou ts NY
a,nswvered his OWE question Dy say /
y n.hav have nothing but q prospect we
have 4 record. There Is nothing solls 'nal
i, tbis reply, nor is 1t marked. by any exces-
Give regard for policy; for il there ever was
= , 80 which ought to wish to have Its re- /
cord : b,otted out, itsis the so-cailcd Repnblt-
can narty. Let us glance at its record.
grhe FIRST idea that strikes every patriot In
thinking Of the Republican party is that It
has always been sectional party There
has never. been q Gay from the hour Of its |
birth until now when it did not depend for
success upon some Of the basest passions OF
human nature. It was organized to rob
the southern people OF their rights. u
flourished for years only in those sec
tons oil the northern half OF the Union
in which there existed a. deep-rooted
haired or I: the southern people. Its
oripinators fed the flames of sectional ex-I
element until they succeeded in securing,
not majority Of the voters OF the whole
country, but merely majority OF the voters
in the larger section. This majority OF the
stronger section was Of course a minority
OF the voters OF the Union; but under the
system of electing Presidents provided for
by the Federal Constitution they succeeded
i'll placing their first President In the Exec
utiye mansion at Washington. ABRAHAM
LISc0LS, q man too. good to lead such o
party, was elected President, though
he received bus eighteen hundred
thousand votes rs against the twenty
eight hundred thousand received by
his opponents. Good man though he was,
he was nevertheless a sectional President;
and he felt that nc was such and such only.
One OF the reasons given for his reelection
was that he had never been President Of
the entire county. Unfortunately for the
South. he was never allowed to fill the nea.
sure OF his ambition. He died q sectional
President.
Another feature OF the record OF the Re-
publican party is that it has always been not
only sectional party but minority party.
1t has kept itself in power, as it elected Dir.
LINCOLN, by securing the support OF a ma
iority Of the voters in the dominant section.
II the people of the whole country, North
and South, could have voted together-that
is, If their votes could have been aggre.
gated, and the party receiving majority
under that method Of determining the re-
suit, could have been placed in power, the
Republican party would have ended its ca
reer ten years ago. Itwas no doubt because
the Republican leaders discovered this fact
that they made voters OF the negroes. The
vote of the southern States added to the
Democratic vote OF the northern States con
stituted rs early as 1865 majority OF the
votes in the Union; and yet so unscrupu
lous were the Republicans that in country
professedly free they, the minority, did not
hesitate to pass laws for the oppression Of
the majority. But they were cunning
enough to try to remedy the state OF things
to which we refer. They called in large
mass OF ignorant, debased negroes, having
no property of any sort, and not qualified in
any respect to exercise the right OF suffrage,
and thus attempted to make up too literally
by brute force what they lacked in numbers.
And this brings us to another feature OF
the record Of the Republican party. They
could not rule the majority Of the people OF
the Union without paralyzing the political
power OF the South, and SO they delibe-
rately legislated the "rebel" States out OF
the Union-denied them representation in
Congress. No single-tyrant ever.adopted q
90 Jrcr, no cl1n-
cess OF diabolical scheme. The rebel
States out Of the Union (?, the Republicans
constituted a majority in the States left.
On behalf Of this majority, they provided
that the southern States should be kept out
Of the Union until they agreed to allow the
negroes to be counted as voters. This was
necessary to the perpetuation of their
power. The fact that they were in the
minority without the negro vote could not
have remained before the public long with.
ont producing inevitably the downfall Of the
Republican party. The scheme was success.
real southern people were apparently over.
slaughed and outvoted, and the southern
States were ge-admitted into the Union
re-admltted to representation in Con
gress. The exclusion and the re-admissior
were both done in violation OF the Con
stitution OF the United States. There is no.
the OF a phrase, much less an alti
Gle or section, in that instrument which
would Justify such acts. These are openly
grossly, Enthusiastically opposed to every par
Of both the letter and the spirit Of it. /
we were to follow the example OF our per
secutors, we should pronounce every con
gresham who voted for those laws q per
iured scoundrel. And we confess that iron
our point of view, every man Of them up
pears to have been either that or a fool
This is another item in that beautiful recori
OF which Mr.. JEWELL boasts.
But we must cut short this review al
though we have only begun to trace the his
tory Of the worst party which this countr.
has ever produced-a party not only cor
rupt and corruDting, not only sectional ant
unpatriotic, but q disgrace to the age, ant
one which has destroyed more good than i
wouldeYer ableto atone for were ittospi
out its existence for q thousand years. Lei
this, however, serge as a specimen g brick,
The whole Republican house is constructed
OF such.
Attorney. General TAFT is terribly afrait
Of the s'rebels." He can't sleep O night: