The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-11-30
VOL. vi.
KELLOGG AND COaTINA.


from Mexico. Whether Lerdo or Iglesias
or DIaz be most potent and conspicuous
1t Is impossible TO learn. Pronunciamien-
tos are numberless, and every leader Of
every little band of robbers sets up for
himself and declares against some rival
robber. The condition of the unhappy
country prefgures the possible fate OF our
own. When the great body of the intelli-
gent citizens OF the United States, by
majority OF more than three hundred thou
sand votes, may be divested of their rights
| by body of confessed knaves appointed
! to perpetuate the supremacy of knaves in
Louisiana, we are brought to the very verge
of that pitiable condition to which Mexico
Is reduced by just such besotted ignorance
and lawless villainy as this developed in
shameless outrages. practiced under the
forms of law, In South Carolina and Louis
lana. Cortina is neither a better nor worse
man than the country would deem Wheeler
if he accept the vice-presidency at the
hands of body of men whom he pro-
nounced, not long ago, in an official paper,
unworthy of the respect or confidence of
the country. And yet there are few who
doubt the investiture of Hayes and Wheeler
with the highest offices at the disposal of
the American people by this board at
whose head stands one Wells, declared
to be a malicious liar even by Phil
Sheridan. OF course Wells is knave.
None but trusted scoundrel would be as.
signed to the place Wells fills, and if the
lagunes and marshes of Florida could have
produced another such devil-fsh, Cover
nor Stearns would not be reduced to the
painful necessity of discharging himself
duty to Grantism safely conf led to Wells
in Louisiana. With such agents In savage
ly-ruled States to do the foul work of men
as selfshly ambitious and greedy of power
and gain as the Cortinas of Mexico, it is not
certain that we may not read our own in
the fate of the unhappy country beyond the
Rio Grande. 1t is ghastly representation
of ourselves which we would behold in the
distorted mirror held up before US by party
leaders struggling for the mastery of prov
inces and towns, but Grant is gathering lis
r-iegfons IN W Washington to overawe Congress.
He has provided for the execution of
Wells's DEGREES at the point of the bayonet
in New Orleans. His armed bands give
nerve to the nerveless scoundrel who shapes
the course of events IN Florida, and a more
dangerous army than Escobedo or Diaz or
n L. Id h.. 49,,
board of supervisors to defy the Supreme
Court of South Carolina and, in accordance
with instructions from Washington, to eject
the Legislature and Governor chosen by the
people and substitute others preferred by
Grant and Chamberlain. If the Mexican
programme of lawless force and usurpation
and of knavery practiced by Kellogg,
another Cortina in another Tamaulipas, be
triumphant, and the people have presi-
dent set over them whom they condemned
by majority of 800, 900 votes, there is per-
haps better than Mexican remedy for the
confessed palpable outrage. The majority
condemning the wrong will grow with the
lapse of days and weeks and months.
Hayes and Wheeler will speedily find them
selves at the head of a government having
not friend in any elective office in the
country. The next Federal election would
fill the House with enemies of the admins
tration. The Senate, remote as it is from
popular influences, would be instructed by
State Legislatures and compelled at length
10 yield to the demands of the country, and
Hayes and Wheeler would be driven
from power peacefully but none the
less certainly than if we adopted
the runious Mexican system of pronuncia-
mientos and desolated States from New
York to Galveston.
There is q surer, more trustworthy aEd
benefcent agency than the bayonet to be
employed by intelligent populations in de-
fining the fortunes and character of govern
ments. 1t is not violent in its remedies for
insufferable wrong. 1t does not adopt the
ferocity of a prize fighter or murderer or
bully of the village green. Its methods of
effecting revolutions are those which have
changed the masters and fortunes of the
Dllllsu UAOOuouCu vi
can degradation, for many generations.
There have been men unworthy of high
trust, even as Hayes would be if crowned
by Grant and returning boards, but weak
mes, and unworthiness are impotent for en-.
during mischief, and soon shorn of power
by the steady, remorseless, resistless force
of that mighty Opinion that uplifts or de-
thrones Beaconsfield, a Russell or Bright
or Palmerston. Hayes and Wheeler and
Grant may seek to enact the role of Iglesias,
Diaz or Cortina, but the sturdy, good sense
of that great body of the American people
who pronounced" as Americans ''pro-
nounce" at the ballot-box alone, for Tilden
and Hendricks will find means to wrest the
weapon which brute force wields so deftly
from the grasp of Grant, and Hayes, if un-
justly crowned, will be crowned in vain.
His reign will be brief as its end must be
ignominious. There can and must be but
one Mexico on this continent. There may
be many Cortinas, but only one kellogg
and never another.
OUR NEW GOVERNOR.