New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-02-18
A CONVERTED DEMOCRAT.

| CONVERTED DEMOCRAT.
To our infinite CONSERVATION Their
comes . letter from that sterling Stat
rights Democrat, Hon. B. NJ. T. Hunter
in which he says he would now vote for
Pacific railroad, whereas when he was IL
the Senate he had voted against simila'
work. he frankly states his reasons fo'
the change. They are sufficient justin
cation in one sense, but they show thu
metaphysical character of the school &C
which he has always belonged.
1t is borne in upon the mind OF Mr.
Hunter that the rights of the States de-
pend on the political ability of the States
to assert their own Interpretation of these
rights. This political ability consists in
popular numbers, not in political preten-
sions. This is new conviction with that
school which regarded the corporate
power Of one State equal to that of an
other, just as the Prince of Geroldstein
considered himself in theory the equal
of the Gar. Mr.. Hunter, therefore. to
maintain the doctrine of States rights,
accepts those material agencies to which
all States owe their powers. He has
seen that representation is as numbers;
that numbers are determined to
this or that State by inducements; and
that as there are laws, schools, churches,
roads, SO there is an attraction of popular
growers to particular States; that thus, un-
der our constitution, the right of State
depends upon its popular representation in
the common government. There was a
period when nobleman had but to plead
the privilege Of his order. He must now
vindicate his rights by the same evidence
with others. Mr.. Hun ter now recognizes
q truth which, if he had known thirty
years ago, might have prevented the war,
by rendering its result more doubtful. 1t
is true that Mr.. Hunter advocates the new
doctrine on sectional grounds, but it can
not be limited to sections. He thus ex-
plains:
To maintain and nurse the pol teal power
and influence of the South in the common
government 10 fair subject of aspiration
for her representatives. Rights, without
the political power to protect them, can
hardly be preserved, and the addition 70
the wealth and influence of the South which
Al IL d
trAnscOntinental route, and the settlement
of the vast territories through which it
would pass by kindred and sympathiziug
people, is an object too grand to be thrown |
away for Q scruple, if tho object can be at |
tanned without clear violation Of the con |
stitution.
Mr.. Hunter has not sufficiently studied |
national statistics to know that the South |
as he has known it is no more section. |
The power has passed into new commu-
mites which have no connection of in
terest with the South, and which have
never known the doctrine of States rights
At all. Mr.. Hunter does not appreciate
The force of the doctrines he has adopted.
BE deplores the concession Of Western
territory by Virginia as an ''ll-advised
He says:
If Virginia had retained even half that
;erritory tor kindred settlements affiliated
with herself, the great American expert |
nent might have had far different result
or her.
Still Mr.. Hunter imperfectly compre-
lends the great republican truth that rep
.esentation is not based-as Mr.. Toombs
would have had it the other day-either
n whole or in part upon territory" but
lpon numbers so that whether Virginia
night have left the new States open to
lavery, the people who went to inha bit
hose States would have established their
,wn institutions and fixed their own afii-
tions. The people are not affixed to the
oil as in the feudal ages, and SO long as
hose territories were open to access from
'ther States and countries, no mother
state could have bound them by any con-
lition of opinion. In this fact consisted the
efficient defense Of Mr.. Douglas against
/
lie reminded them that squatter SOW
reignty merely meant the right Of the peo-
lie inhabiting a territory to adopt such
Institutions as they liked, and adverted
o the known hostility of both foreign and
domestic immigration to slavery, to sat-
sly the Northern mind that they would
lever sanction any except free labor
,olicy. The occupation and institutions
# Kansas and Nebraska prove that he
vas right.
When Mr.. Hunter sat so long by the
ide of that Jefferson of his day, W. H.
seward, it is strange he did not learn
he doctrine he has just now protested.
The whole policy of Mr.. Seward was to
onduct the population upon these terri
Dries by Northern conduits and secured
heir commercial and social intercourse
or Northern cities. Here is fair repre-
entation of Mr.. Stewards policy:
The federal government commenced with
small majority in the North. which, care.
ully nursed BY that section, and reckless
, increased BY lavish concessions of terri
ory OF the part of the South, has grown
ITO the power and dimensions which We
ow behold.
Mr.. Hunter has only in part presented
be mode in which this was effected:
Carefully and eagerly did the North look
o this. and wisely, looking only to her own
ggrandizement, did she turn the fructify-