New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-06-03
Especial Correspondence Of the Republican,
NORTHERN POLITICS.
Flint and Steel.

NORTHERN POLITICS.
Flint and Steel.
BOSTON, May 25, 1876
The recent open declaration of war By
President Grant with the Confederate Dem
ocrs.ic coalition has produced as profound
an impression in New England as in other
parts of the country. The late Cabinet
changes mean fight" and fight for ''prin-
cip!e" along given line of operations. It
develops the opposition and forces the
Confederate Democracy to change its front,
or rather it meets the enemy on the Issues
formed last winter in the organization of
the present House Of Representatives of the
national Congress. These Issues were fully
considered in the correspondence written to
the REPUBLICAN at the time from Washing
ton City. They amounted in brief to:
l. A Southern and Western sectional al
lance against New England, New England
interests, ideas and irfluence.
g A white mans government based en-
race caste.
3, Opposition to contraction and specie
resumption.
4. The sentiment of reconciliation be-
tween the long estranged sections of our
common country.
This embraced strong issues, and the re-
turn to these issues shows the sagacity Of
ths Confederate Democratic leaders. The
attempt to make the Confederate Demo-
cracy 'hard money party" 'reform
party" party of respectability." or q
party of moral ideas," failed simply be
cause on these issues the opposition accept
ed Republican principles as well as Reput-
Lean ideas. The only hope of success for
the Confederate Democracy existed, there
fore, in its hold on the "solid" South ON
the one hand, and its ability on the other
to divide the West, and on no Issues can
the West be better divided than on the
greenback issue, race prejudice, and jeal-
ousy Of and animosity to New England and
the things for which she stands. Recon
ciiiat;Oa comes in as Q tremendous make
weight in favor of this sectional coalition.
This condition of things will make the
presidential contest one mainly of those
'ideas," and of principles which underlie
the superstructure of the government itself.
Reform, with the question of finance
tariff regulations, ETC., will enter as subor-
dinate questions into the contest. The
questions, consequently, to be determined,
are:
Shall the ideas for which Republican
New England stande, prevaile or,
Shall the ideas for which the Confederate
monarchical South stands, prevail9
This conflict of irrepressibls principles
forms the "hint and steel' of American
politics in 1876. The contact between these
antagonistic and ever opposing principles
will produce heat and friction, out of
which will come finally blaze OF excite
ment all over the North. 1t is simply use
less tor peace loving conservative people to
arrest the tendency while certain currents
Of public feeling have to flow in given
direction under the influence of wide
spread popular excitement or agitation.
Stimulated by such popular excitement
these currents of public feeling will con.
verge more and more, and finally unite
under the infu fence of that law of affinity
OF dttI6CJkOn W uACU 40 90 PVVOAs AZ CAo RV-
litical as it is in the moral or material
world. Under this law the lovers of
civil equality, of free public schools
for the children of all the people,
the uphclders of American nationality
against all forms of sectionalism, the sup
porters Of national authority against State
sovereignty, and of the cause of the poll
tical brotherhood of man against caste, will
unite. To this union of political and civil
forces the Protestant sentiment of the ma
ton will add its volume Of ir fac nee under
the operation of the same law of attraction
which controls the other issues above
named We may deprecate the tendency
of things. Our regrets do not and can not
alter the facts. The facts are as above
stated. New England stands for every
thing which makes free Protestant America
what she is. The Confederate South is now
as she has ever been, the sntipodes of New
England. Any compromise of the issues
which have go long divided the slave South
from the free North therefore is utterly i'm.
possible, as it is most undesirable. The
time, therefore, for settlement" has come.
The West must determine by its vote on
what issues Southern reconstruction shall
be mads final, and under what auspices and
consideration the era Of moral reconstruc-
ton shall be inaugurated. Before the con-
test is over the ''mind of the North" will be
forced to take cognizance Of the conse-
quences Of transferring the government to
the control of the Confederate Democratic
coalition, and of placing the rights of the
emanc:pated race and the cause Of human
ity at the mercy of those who favor negro
subordination as the cornerstone not only
of Southern reconstruction, but of Q recon
strucsed Union. If this is to be indeed q
white mans government, then this "recon-
struction" will not end with subordinating
the negro to the dominant race. Caste in
this case will do its perfect work. Race
caste is but the first step to social caste.
Race aristocracy at the South must pro-
duce social arlstocracy at the North. The
end of all this must be monarchy, sooner
or later. The cause of the negro is there
fore the cause of New England now, as it
ever has been, and the cause of New
England is the cause of American national
i.y. and for all these the Republican party
stands.
For these reasons no earnest Republican
sLo,,J ,o,.~k %t,.< <ho fin al ho ft1o in hah a1f