New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-03-04
Tho Proposed Impeachme1ts In lhl
Houih-Let Us Make Haste Slowly.

of great empire. In another generation
this war need be more OF q memory than IL 9
| disease of Infancy to the strenuous, lusty
man. The South can never be great until it
accents fully the lessons Of the war. Weio
not mean degradation and humiliation, for
no one would impose these conditions upon
q eingle citizen. We mean common sense.
This the South lacks. There are no war is
cues at stake. That awful arbitrament
was decisive. War made the negro
free. Freedom means political equality.
Common sense would teach the South
sion Of political equality they can win
the negroes. Common sense would also
teach tha, v here there is large negro pop
ulation-in South Carolina, l. ,uisiana, Mis-
| sissippi, where the negro is in the maj0ri-
! ty-the part of wisdom is to recognize the
negro as an element in representative gov
ernment, to teach him as We teach our
myriads of aliens-that government means
! the election Of good men to Office The one
| point which the Southern white man has
never conc >ded is political equality. The
negro has not been asked TO unite with the
white man. The Northern man is stamped
| upon as an alien, u "carpet-bagger." And
vet the complaint comes up from every
| Southern State that there is no "good gov
ernmeit" possible, because the white mAu
eau have no aid from the negro or the
Northerner.
This policy Of ostracism now bears fruit
| in impeachment. Impeachment la a po-
l,tical expedient in Louisiana. The fact
| that conservative men oppose it conviDces
| US that this is 30. In Mississippi the same
state Of things exists. Even as severe a
critic as Mr.. Nordhoft, in censuriug Gov
! err OF Anes, entirely exOnerates him from
corruption. Two Democrats voted against
| the preseu cation OF the articles against him.
Now let US conCede, for the sake OF argu-
ment, that in Louisiana and Mississippi The
government is partisan and oppressive.
| Mississippi, however (it is due to some one
| to sayt, has only trifing State debt There
have been no great railroad sWlnd!es, aud
| there will be no such opportunity for whole
sale reputation as WAS seen in Georgia and
| North Carolina when the Democrats came
! in to power. IL Mississippi the Legislature,
! the other day Overw helmingly Republican,
| is low overwhelmingly Democratic. The
| removal of Ames seems to be assured.
! Kellogg hangs in the balance. but ii the in-
| tiueuces which dominate Mississippi can
reach Louisiana we shall have Democratic
| Governors in both States within thirty
| days.
| l. there no danger that impeachrner will
| become revolution: Do We not find in the
| South, wherever the Democrats have gained
| power, tendency to revolution! The logic
| which leads that way is clear: "The recon.
| struction acts are Unconstitutional aud
| yud' Everything done under them is 'un-
constitutions! and void The amendments
about the debt and slavery are like the
| edicts of Germany annexing Alsacs and
Lorraine-the edicts OF conQuerOr. We
accept them only as France signed the
| Frankfort treaty, because the sword was at
her tho It aud the Nandal was on her coil.
| The sword wss at our throat, the Nandai
| was on our soil. What the sword makes
l Il ,nt t.vy
| anything dCEe under the reconstruction
| acts" This is logical, but it is not the
logic of q sound reconstruction. 1t will
| be disastrous to every interest dear to
+! the South. The country will say, If
this logic is good in Louisiana and Mlssis-
| sippi, why Will 1t not apply to Washington
| and the general government If the first
duty of Democratic State governments in
| the Sou h is to overthrow Republican gov
ernors and dismiss Republican judges; il
every Republican in office is to be expelled
| by the force o. . Democratic maj ajurity: if
tie debts incurred by Republicans are to
be repudiated, what is to become of our
national debt and those who remain in
| ,ffice! 1t may be said that the reason why
Governors like Holden, Kellogg and Ames
| are removed is that they have been untrue
to their oaths of Office. Upon the same
theory jackson could have been removed
by /. Wing ,msjority, Grant wolld be re-
moved tomorrow. Grant is arraigned oy
his opponents for offenste as grave as
those charged against Holden, Kellogg
and Anes. John Quincy Adams in Llt
diary shows that he, enlightened as he was
believed jackson to be guilty of impeach
able offenses. But Adams wrote like par
tisan. SO far as the debts are concerned
the reasons that lead to their repudlatlou
would repuGiate millions Of our New York
eht. Tue money raised by the repudiated
bonds in the Southern States was stolen
So was the money raised by the Tweed
regime and u large part OF the money given
to tue Pacific railway. If impeachment is &
remedy for Southern misrule and repudia
ton the remedy for Southern corruption
then why will not the same remedy apply
70 inissOvernment in Washington, the
Tweed bonds OF New York city and the
loans euare Ted for the Pacific railway
and the District of Colum bia.
The leaders OF the Democratic party and
Southern men like Hunter and Lamar mus,
eee that this whole business is dangerous
In I'LL republican governments there is q
remedy for Mi.gOvernmt Mt in tho ballot
The will OF the people is sacred. Once
that this will is expressed, and sanctioned
by the forms Of law, only an extreme ne
cesei should overthrow it, When John
T. Hoffman wss elected Governor of New
York il 1870, men as eminent as Horace
Greeley avowed their belief that he had
been elected by fraud. Nor is it hard fol
US 10 dissent from that conclusion. knowing
as We now do the lnfamles in stealing and
repeating which marked the reign OF
Tweed. Suppose that the Republicans
who followed Mr.. Greeley had begun a
campaign to impeacn Hoffman as illegally
elected, as guilty of ''high crimes aud mis-
demeanors" in signing the Tweed charter,
the Erie acts and the tax ievies, and to re-
pudiate the bonds issued by Connolly. II
would have been shock to every conserva-
tive mind 10 the State. 1t would have been
q revolution. All that would have been
| gained, even from the Republican point Of
| view, would have been nothing compared
| with the disasters that would have fol-
lowed. 1t would have been disintegratiOn,
the beginning Of what We have seen in the
republics OF South America-the pronuncia-
mento superseding the ballot The people
was far better to bear the ills they had than
to fly to others they knew not of-the evils
| of reputation and revolution.
| So we say to our friends In the South,
| and more especially to those 10 Mississippi
| and Louisiana, if it can be proved that
Ames and Kellogg are guilty of "high
| crimes and misdemeaEors." let them be re-
moved. But be sure Of the proof. Let i,
be something more than passion. 1t is not
| enough that Ames and Kellogg are "carpet
baggers" and ''scalawags;" that they have
used their cfiices to help their party; that
they are partieans; thar they have dealt
harshly with political enemies. Every act
! of the white men in ths South will be scru-
| tinized by the grand inquest of the nation.
| We shal1 have ''repudialion" and ''revolu
tion" ringing from every husting. AIMEE
| and Kellogg will become martyrs. The
| war feeling will be invoked. There may be
! outbreaks that will call from the President
military interference. The Southern
| States are rood tor l27 electoral votes with.