National Republican., 1876-11-22
MERCY AND TRUTH

These, we are told in the book where ell
truth is recorded, have kissed each other,
and we are assured that the world is finally
to be filled with the fadeless sunshine of
this Heavenly salutation. We make the
quotation above at this time in order to
Illustrate and strengthen that political pol
icy Of true mercy and true justice which
the patton must now adopt in dealing with
the Southern problem in American affairs.
We say this because for the last eight years
We have been carried away by the impulse
of what we called mercy to the Coufede-
rates, and in doing SO turned our backs
upon the principle of justice in dealing
with the negro citizen of the South. We
have allowed the white msjorities of the
white majority States of the late slave
States of the Union to govern themselves,
and yet we have denied the same right of
local self government to the negro majority
States of Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida
and South Carolina. We have permitted
an organized, compact, powerful Confede-
rate representation Confederate as such)
to intrench itself in the American Con-
gress, and yet we have practically sided
with these same Confederates in excluding
negro representation from the same Con-
gress. We allowed Gordon of Georgia,
for instance, to take seat In the United
States Senate the claim to which rested on
the practical notification of the fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments to the Federal
Constitution in that State, and we allow
Lamar of Mississippi, whose election was
the result of assassination and revolution,
to take his seat side by side with Gordon,
and at the same time deny to Governor
Pinchback, the negro Senator from Louis
lana, his rightful claim to his seat in the
same body. We have stood by and wit
messed with that stoicsl calmness with
which men generally endure the misfor-
tunes of others the sufferings of the man
to whom we pledged the faith and honor of
the nation in his rights of citizenship, and
we have thus stood hand in hand with the
man who but recently did all in his power
to destroy the nation. And now, as if
Heaven itself had come forth to bear wit
ness against US, and point anew the way of
duty and safety, the one thing which stands
between America and national disgrace and
ruin is the man we have thus wronged
We would speak as from the dead lips
of the great Sumner when we declare for
''mercy to the Confederate; yes, but jus
tice to the negro citizen also." Mercy
cannot be separated from truth. They are
one in q bond of union which is innate,
divine, immortal. Mere justice without
mercy leads to cruelty. Mere mercy with
out justice kills mercy by changing its
essential quality into wrong. 1t is only in
'the mere balance" through wise combi-
nation of the quality of mercy with the
spirit of justice and truth, that we find the
true rule of "royal law" and the true rule
for the solution of our Southern problem.
Applying this rule to the South, we would
not undo what mercy has done for the
Confederate. We would, however, add
thereto what justice should long since
have done for the negro citizen.
The significance of Governor Hayes
election is found in the peculiar relation he
holds to this Southern question. He rep
resents the happy middle ground between
those extremes of political feeling which
necessarily resulted from such conflict as
the people of this country have had to pass
through during the last fifty years over the
settlement of the slavery question. Such
an agitation over such question, ending
finally in bloody war, could only end in
the creation of intense political feeling in
both sections of the Union. In the final
adjustment of this ong-drawn-out conflict
we need, therefore. just such a man as
Governor Hayes at the head of the nation.
He will represent on the one hand the con.
servative, peace-lovlng and mercy loving
sentiment Of the North, while on the
other he will owe his election to that faith
ful negro vote which was cast for the
nation in its hour Of direst need, in the
face of persecution, terrorism and death.
The white citizens of the South will find
in Governor Hayes true friend of the old
Clay and Webster school Of thought. On
the other hand, the citizenship rights of
the negro will be covered with the sure
guarantee of Federal protection. Thus
mercy and truth will be united, and our
land shall be blessed, and peace reign
throughout our borders from the lakes of
the north to the Gulf of Mexico, and from
ocean to ocean.