The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1876-08-15


United States senator from Kentucky to
the next congress- p. Van Trump, A. M.
Waddell, j. g. Robinson and J. M. Hanks,
in which it is declared that whenever the
republican party goes down 'that will be
the end of the political power of the
negro among white men on this CONT
nent'; and that ''in the new state of
things which is TO come" we shall "see
either the exodus or extinction of this
disturbing element"-the negro-"in the
"social and political condition Of the more
powerful race"-that is of the whites.
But this was not reputation enough of
the pledge of the Baltimore convention,
and so William L. Niblack, a democratic
representative in congress from Indiana,
declared in the national house of represent
atives, February 4, 1875, when the civil
rights bill was under consideration, that
the platform there adopted did not bind
democrats, because it was adopted under
"duress" and Intimidation )" and that
the democracy accepted of his explanation
is shown by their unanimous vote against
that measure
But even this was not enough. The
democratic national convention assembled
at st. Louis in June last, nearly one.half
of that body being ex-rebels, and 80 they
commence their declaration of principles,
or "platform," with the following r, cital /:
" For the democracy of the whole country
" we do here reaflirm our faith in the per-
manency of the federal Union, our devo-
" lion to the constitution of the United
" States with its amendments universally
accepted as final settlement of the con-
" troversies that engendered civil war;"
| This certainly ought to be satisfactory to
| the south, and was manifestly intended to
| delude the north. The democracy ere
" affirm" that the constitutional amend
ments are universally accepted as a final
" settlement of tue controversies that en-
gendered civil war"-that is, of the right
OF congress to prohibit the extension of
slavery in the territories. That is all there
is of it. The Language is peculiar, and it
will be noticed that they do not, by impli-
cation or otherwise, accept of the constitu-
tional amendments as a final settlement OF
the controversies engcndered by civil war
that is of civil liberty, equal rights, i'm
partial suffrage, the payment of the ma
tional debt and the reputation of the rebel
debt, the only things which the constitu.
tional amendments undertook to settle.
This is significant when we remember
the party by whom the declaration was
made, and the candidates nominated; when
we recall the fact that Thomas A. Hen.
bricks and his fellow democrats voted
against every amendment; that they de.
clared that they were never passed by con.
stitutional majority of the senate; tina,
they held that the southern legislatures
were not such legislatures as could consti
tutionally ratify them; that the democratic
national convention of 1868 declared them
to be "unconstitutional, revolutionary, and
" void;" that every democratic legislature
voted against their ratification, and The
| iulihSd'iou VI lcpuDllCdu lSSlelaluTeb WE
subsequently withdrawn, or attempted to
be withdrawn, by democratic legislatures
and that there is not a line or word IN a
democratic platform showing that these
| men, the party. have changed their
! opinions, save only in the Baltimore plat
form of 1872, which, as we have shown
was subsequently repudiated.
With such a record, so explained and in
tcrpreted; a record in which there Ia but
one break, and for that they made haste tc
apologize TO the south; is it any wonder
that the loyal men still remember thai
there was a war sixteen years ago." ant
that, so remembering, they are unwilling tC
risk the loss of all that was gained by foul
years of war and four more of reconstruc
ton, by entrustiDg the administration o.
the government to the democratic party
even with Samuel j. Tilden and Thomn
A. Hendricks as figure heads