New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-01-07
Especial Correspondence of the Republican,
THE CONFEDERATE.CAT CON-
BINATlON.

BINATlON.
Boston, December 30, 1875.
The Southern Republicans lay before
the American people the following propo-
sitions:
First-That the objective point of the po-
litical diplomacy of the Confederate is to
detach the negro as an independent poll
teal power from the North.
Second-That the objective point of the
diplomacy of the Roman hierarchy in the
New World is to detach the negro power
from the Protestant faith.
Third-That the Confederate and Roman
list are one in every essential issue which
separates the Confederate from the Amer
lean idea of popular self government.
Can the North permit this political sup
preston of the negro as an independent
political force within the Union! Can the
Protestant party Of North America afford
to have the negro power become the ally OF
the Roman hierarchy of the New World! Is
it safe to transfer the control of the PrOtes-
tant republic Of the United States to the
Confederate Democratic party, represent
ing, as that party does, the fixed sectional
purpose of the pro-slsvery party of the
South, and the equally fixed purpose of the
Roman hierarchy!
1t may be said tina; all this amounts to
nothing Thousands of Intelligent people
at the North, calling themselves "conserva-
tives," believe that the proper plan for alb
sorbing the Confederate element into the
nation is to first Southernizs the South;
and that the proper plan for thoroughly
Southernizing the South consists in giving
to the prc-slavery party the absolute and
uudisturbed control of the negro. People
who believe this and calling themselves
conservatives will tell you that "time' will
reconcile the Confederate to the American
Union; and that time will obliteIate
all Confederate love tor the Con
fsderate cause. The same people who tell
you that slime" will reconcile the
negro to serfdom, and that then
through the slow but sure etfert OF
"time," Southern sectionalism will cure
itself and the negro will. Here these wise
What the negro really is, what he will final
" become. what is to be his future, what
he will do as a eerf (having, according to
these so-called conservatives, failed as
citizen), are things also to be left to time.
As to the driving power of the forces repre-
sented by the spirit of caste, by the spirit
of aristocracy and by the religious fervor
of devoted and self-sacrifcing priesthood,
these are also set at naught as things which
time will cure as time has cured them in
monarchial Europe and in Catholic Spain,
Austria, Italy, France. Belgium, Mexico,
South America, Maryland, Florida. Louis
lana and Portugal. In disposing of this
..time'' argument it is sufficient to inquire
how time has cured these things in the Old
World and in the empire of Brazil and in
Catholic America.
The tendency Of these socailed corser-
natives to self glorifcation is one OF the
most alarming features of the times. The
average American, under this spirit Of self
| gloriticaton, is very apt to regard Europe
| as something dead and buried. The phil
osophy of history, as we'll as the philosophy
| of civilization, are studies taught in our
| schools, more because OF the mental discip
! line involved in mastering them than be-
cause of their real or practical value. And
| vet all of the culture or civilization which
! the 'white mans party Of America can
| boast is borrowed from Europe. And
| if the cause OF the political broth
| erbood of man is abandoned by the
| United States we become simply an
imitation, a very lame imitation of the
dead and buried republic of the United
| States of the Netherlands; Of the detunct
English republic under the Puritans, and OF
! that close a1istocratic, autocratic political
burrough called the republic" of Switzer-
| land. If ever a nation, therefore, needed q
| recurrence to first principles" America
does. If there is ever to be such re-
| currence, surely the celebration Of the
| centennial of our immortal declara-
| ton offers the occasion. If there Is
| anv one sentiment in that declara-
ton which rises distinct in deathless
| and isolated immortality above all of its
other sentiments and language it is the SEN
timent that "all men are born free and
| equal, and that among the inalienable
rights of man are life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness" For this sentiment the
imam" whom it has pleased God to make
black stands among US. To crown this man
with the right of American citizenship,
therefore, is to fulfill the promise of the
| declaration; it is to 60 to the very
foundation of first principles; it is
| to clear away, once for all, the
rubbish which caste and prejudice and the
monarchical spirit has piled around the
corner" stone Of the American republic.
Side by side with this idea of liberty will
be found the toundational life-principle of
the Protestant faith. Allied to both OF
these in the interest of American national
ity is the negro power of the Union. Can
any Republican or Protestant, in the
flaming, blazing light of such facts as
these, be so blind as to remand the ne
gro to serfdom, and place his neck I'M
der the heel of his former master-that
master but lately the armed foe of the
nation, and the close political ally to-day Of
the Roman hierarchy in the New Worlds
Or should not rather ask the question
whether it is possible fol-. the Protestant Re-
publican instinct and intelligence of the
nation to remain blind to the fact that the
cause of the negro is the cause OF the
Union. and that they must stand or fall to-