Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-11-29
The Lesson Of Florida.

The Lesson Of Florida.
The Republican party emancipated and
enfranchised the negro. The democratic
party has hunted him, before the war with
blood-hounds, and since the war with rifles
and reyoyers. His hour Of redress has
come, aud each party receives, at the hands
Of the colored citizen whom so many have
despised, equal and exact justice For
the first time in history, the world has
waited to hear the decision Of colored voters
who inhabit that little tongue of land which
pierces the Gulf Of Mexico aud forms the
extreme southern portion of the national
territory. To that region Of tropical heat
aud Astounding swamps colored men have
fed from democratic Acknowledgement in
Georgia. democratic violence in Alabama,
and democratic rifles in South Carolina, and
from that retreat they send back their an
swcr The peaceful ballots of the colored
men Of Florida smite the democratic party,
even in its hour Of joy and pride. From
that little far-off state, which was hardly
thought worth the trouble of conquering by
coercion or intimidation, comes the crushing
blow which may prove the death-stroke of
the democratic party and reward with four
years more of power the party which dared
to make the doctrines Of the Declaration Of
Independence a living reality in America.
Justice triumphs. Never before has it tri-
umphed more strangely and signaly. Self
government trembled more than once free
white citizens of Northern States have al
lowed it to be stolen from them by fraud, or
sold it for some real or fancied selfish inter
est But it is rescued by those to whom
that boon was granted last. The prosperity
of all our great commercial and manufactnT
ing cities seemed in peril, and reckless or ig
norant voters of those very cities had done
what they could TO endanger it. The col
ored voter Of distant Florida may also be ig-
norant, but his sure instinct gives the VIC
tory to those who had been wise enough to
base the national prosperity upon the free
participation OF all citizens in the govern
ment The nations honor was at stake,
millions of reckless men were about to place
It in the keeping of those who had sought
to destroy the Union. The colored man
knows little of theories OF finance, but he
knows that those who made war upon the
Union are not the men to rule it or TO pay
its war debt. In his untaught head there
is after all a wisdom from which even states
men like Adams and fnanciers like Bel
mont have something to learn. Though
they blundered, the voters Of Florida did not.
The strange result of this election brings
back to each of the great parties its greatest
achievement or its meanest crime, with
fitting reward or punishment Incompara-
bly, the grandest deed of the Republican
party was the Acknowledgement of a race, in
spite of the prejudices Of centuries. It was
brave act, for it risked the loss of power.
1t was just act, for emancipation without
enfranchisement would have been mockery.
1t was a wise act, for otherwise, until the
generation which participated in the war had
wholly passed away, absolute and unvarying
unity at the North would have been neces
sary to protect the Union against the dan
gerous tendencies of those who had rebeled
For this great achievement the Republican
party has been sayagely ass allied and many
of the immediate consequences have been
such that thoughtful men were sometimes
tempted to doubt its wisdom. But in this
hour statesmen may realize more fully than
ever before that the integrity, prosperity and
honor of the nation would not have been
safe il four millions of emancipated citizens
had been denied all share in the government
The result is reward and new lesson
Hereafter it should be the aim of the ruling
party to guard more sacredly than ever the
free participation of all citizens in that gov
eminent which all help to maintain.
The meanest crime of the democratic
party was not its defence Of slavery, for that
system came down to us from the founders
of the Republic. 1t was not the partial
sympathy with rebellion, for a half century
of devotion to democratic heresies had made
it hard for men of that faith to understand
that states had no right to snap the tx"
and to "repel invasion" 1t was the encour-
agement which that party has constantly
given to those who have tried to deprive
colored citizens Of their freedom of suffrage
by threats, by violence, assassination aud
massacre. 1t has its reward. Because col
ored men have been hunted by democrats
only, wherever they are free enough from
peril to vote as they please they vote against
democracy. Eighty thousand democratic
majority in Georgia is avenged. Fifty thou.
sand democratic majority in New York is
wiped out as one cleans a slate with a wet
sponge. Three millions Of democratic yot-
ers sit down in defeat, because some of their
leaders tolerated the assassination of fellow
citizens as a means of political SUCCESS
New York Tribune.