The New York herald., 1876-12-20
Dem. gogi.m and Reaction.

universal law, which governs the course OF
history equally with the movement of
pendulum y regulates the fashions of gov
ernment as vigorously as it rules the fashions
of garments. The dainty little hat. perched
on the crown of the head like trophy from
toy house, gives way to broad brimmed,
overshadowing Gainsborough. The wide
spreading crinoline is replaced by close
clinging skirts. Eras of plain dressing
alternate with eras of founces and fur
bellows. The long cut corsets, the stiff
brocades, the heavy costumes of Marie
Antoinette are succeeded by the baby
drapery of the women of the Republic and
the Consulate. Laxity of administration
leads up to severity, free thinking to
bigotry and demagogism to tyranny
In any era of excess it becomes men So
licitous for the liberties of their country to
beware Of the form which the reaction will
take on. Most of all is this true when
gogues and upsets it. The energies of the
moderates are exhausted in the struggle for
emancipation, and the nation submits to
despotism for the sake of stability. 1t is
easy to choose hundred illustrations Of
this truth from history, but none are more
complete than the two familiar examples of
Rome and France When Cassius, Brutus
and Casca murdered julius Cnsar they un-
consciously founded the Empire and invested
Octavius with the purple. The Roman
Republic did not perish at Philippi, but in
the bloody Senate chamber on the 10Th Of
March, two years and half before. The
assassination was o triumph Of demagogism,
which was doomed to an inevitable recoil.
When Danton and Marat and Robespierre
set up the guiliotine on the bank Of tho
Seine and put it to its bloody work they
also unconsciously founded the Empire and
crowned Napoleon. The French Republic
did not perish on the day when Bonaparte
returned from Egypt and abolished the
Directory, but five years earlier, on the 9th
of May, 1894, when Marat's Committee of
Public Safety usurped the executive power.
1t is also noticeable that the tyranny
which succeeds an epoch of demagogism
invariably is period of such national splen-
dor that the people are contented for the
time. Augustus found Rome brick and left
it marble. He enforced peace at home and
waged successful war upon the borders He
organized the system Of military colonies
He regulated taxation and revived COM
merce. The Empire of Napoleon united
the glories Of regal Fralce-the vivacity of
the reign of Francis, the craftsmanship of
the administration of Sully, the successful
subtlety of Richelieu and the grandeur of
the greatest Louis-with the fervor that in
spired all that was best in the Revolution.
His magnificent conceptions and achieve
ments reconciled his country to absolutism
by their contrast with the vague purposes
and uncertain administration of the dema-
gogues who paved his way to power
The revolutionary period in our own
country, which began just sixteen years ago,
on the Goth of December, 1860, when the
South Carolina Convention voted a secession
ordinance without dissenting voice, has at
last brought the executive government of
the United States under the control of DEM
agogues more incapable and unscrupulous
than those who provoked the creation Of the
French and Roman empires. Cassius and
Brutus and Casca, Danton and Marat and
Robespierre, have their American counter
parts in Cameron and Chandler and Logan.
President Grant is their willing or unresist-
ing tool. They manage him as they please
by exasperating his prejudices and flatter-
ing his ambition. The indomitable WILL
the answering patriotism on which the
Ia ta1 IN hovo foi1 1oA Tho
hero of 1865 is the puppet of 1876. tri-
umvirate of demagogues reigns in his place.
To what disastrous ends, by what dangerous
courses they will drive him is their own
secret. We have no fear of their permanent
success, but we confess to serious fear of
the reaction which is as sure to follow
their proceedings as it is certain that
the universe is regulated by law
and not by caprice. They are response
BILE for the prevalence of public anxiety
for it is they who are withholding the Presi-
dent from the noblest duty of his public
career it is they who are restraining him
from commanding union of moderate men
against the desperate radicals of both parties
in the electoral controversy, and it is they
who are responsible lot the growth OF SEN
timent among men of business throughout
the whole country in favor of any plan, right
or wrong, if it will only give speedy stability
to mercantile enterprises and calculations.
Now it will be great shock to our iber-
ties and a great discredit to our frame of
government if during the interval Of nearly
two months which precedes the counting of
the electoral votes the conscience of this
country cannot be satisfied which is the truly
elected President-Hayes or Tilden. In
tense partisanship, especially when it is the
partisanship of demagogues like those who
control President Grant, always infringes
nonnlar RIGHTS We condemn it alika in