The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-10-23
RitI1n,o,ld 1ispat|fll,
,roSn !, OCTOBER %, 1875.
The Public Judgment.

ON the 7thof November the people OF the
/ United States are TO pronounce lndgmen
lpon the men who have for some years adj
m;nistercti public affairs. This Judgment
must be either to condemn or approve the
whole course OF administration, its manner
md ;ts measures. This act OF she people is
,he highest which they can perform. 1t is
an act involving their own sense Of honor,
virtue, ,nd wisdom, and their very liber-
ties. 1t should not be performed under
any excitement that may impair the delibe-
ration with which it is committed. 1t
should be unbiased by passion and I'M
awed by power.
It is impossible that the Judgment thus
rendered can fail to be against the public
Administration. The amount OF corrup-
ton and dishonesty that has grown up
under it is enormous-past all precedent.
Everybody knows this and nobody denies
I it. We could not expect the Administra-
ton producing such fruits to conduct pub
lie affairs with respect to the general well
fare. There has been degree OF sordid-
ness ana blind partisanship in the ruling
party that rendered it incapable Of looking
to the public welfare in their measures.
The national interests have been subordi-
mated to party and personal motives. The
nation has been oppressed and injured oy
the logical consequences Of policies pursued
only for personal and party advantage.
We have seen this party-created at q
time of war--animated chiefly by the pas
sions and rancors that gave it birth. 1t has
inflamed the sectional preiudices and at
tempted to widen the alienation OF the diff.
ferent divisions OF the country. 1t has
sought to detain in the relation OF sublec-
ton those southern States which gave evil
dence OF aversion towards itself, while it
has endeayored to win the northern sup
port by the display OF a partially ostenSibly
as beneficial to the North as it was really H.
tended to be oppressive to the South. But
this vicious poiicy-contrary to Justice and
at war with the Constitution Of our COM
mon country-has only led to national con-
fusion and injury. Forgetting that the
political injury inflicted upon one section
must as inevitably be visited upon all others
rs that the blood in the human system that
is poisoned ut the eXtremties must flow to
the centre and poison that too, the Radicals
have stupidity disseminated the po!sons they
intended for section through all the land,
and have brought the country into general
embarrassment and a1t1iction.
What do we see? Confidence gone. None
in the Government, while it is ruinously di'
minished in the transactions amongst the
people. We sec the authors OF the national
evils seeking to hold on to power by the
continuation of the war OF the sections and
the cruel oppression OF the people OF the
South. They seek to rule by increasing
public ruin-by widening public discord-
and infiaming sectional hates. In time OF
peace the apparel Of. war, the Slistening
bayonets, the rolling drum and ear-piercing
fife, increase the public apprehension and
put to flight Liberty, who has been for so
many years lowering over the land, anxious
again to rest in her once happy home.
II the people Of the United States can APP
prove this party which has so afflicted the
nation, it will be a new argument to ty-
rants, showing, as they allcge, that the pco-
Pile are incapable OF seli-government. We
cannot believe that they will-we cannot
believe that people who have suffered as
we all have can be brought to approve the
Administration dishonesty, usurpations,a and
malignity which have brought upon lis the
discord and injury which now a1llict the
land.
If the Judgment OF November be free
and deliberate, Radicalism must be over
whelmed with retrbution.