National Republican., 1876-10-31
THE NATIONS HOPE.

THE NATIONS HOPE.
Itwas Beranger who said :: "Let he who
will make a nations laws, if may but
write its songs The leaders of the 'lost
cause" although whipped on The battle
field, never hesitated to perpetuate the
struggle in another shape. To them the
task of molding the Southern mind was
peculiarly agreeable one. As the satire
and invective of Belanger was found most
effective, 50 was the cry of 'fsocial equal
ity," "Cesarism'' and "centralism" sue
cessfully employed By Toombs, Gordon.
Lamar ct al, until the laws of the Repub-
lie, both written and constitutional, have
become as dead letters all over the South. !
These men found themselves heartily de-
spised at the close of the war. They had
led most seriously -estray an honestly in
clined people, to. whom they promised
wealth, but who were rewarded by
poverty. The Southern masses had
reminiscent horror of Confederate conscrip-
ton, unequal taxation, imprisonment for
debt, needless suspension of the writ OF
habeas corpus, and of the general tyranny
of the JEFF. Davis government, and they,
evinced their contempt for the rebel lead
ers by rejoicing when they fed to foreign
lands, and by permitting print shops to eH-
pose for sale Photographic illustrations as
he appeared in woman's attire while at
tempting to escape from Wilson's cavalry
in the piney woods of Georgia. Such con-
duct on the part of the Southern ''clod-
hoppers" and "mudsills' was as a nssBe
tekeI to the Southern chIvalry. They
must fain manufacture a public SEN
timent which would tolerate them
and restore them to the leadership
which they had so fearfully abused, or else
retire into obscurity. They at once went
to work with an energy worthy of better
cause. Race must be arrayed against race,
and their orators and divines painted the
bugbear ''social equality" in all Of its
imaginary horrors. Having succeeded in
making the ignorant masses believe that the
Republican party designed placing them
under the domination of the negro, it was
no hard task to incite them to acts of law
lessness, outrage and wrong but seldom
equaled in the annals of history. During
the reign of terror thus inaugurated in the
Southe states no less than ten thousand
loyslist thedust at the hands of masked
assassinsS In one or two instances-1ota-
bly, South Carolina In 1S71-General Grant
interposed the national arm and stayed the
wholesale slaughter Of Republicans, but
still the work of death goes on, and short
time since be was again app ealed to to nip
treason in the bud, which he has success
fully done, receiving therefor the plaudits
of all lovers of justice and haters Of wrong
and oppression. The Southern leaders had
been carefully schooled for the work they
knew 50 well how to perform after the war.
Slavery had rendered them callous to all
the finer instincts of nature. Their intel
lects had become distorted and
their hearts ossifed by participat-
ing in that cruel wrong. Followers
and imbibers of the pernicious doctrines of
J. c. Calhoun, they regarded themselves a
favored aristocracY, and by means of a
Chinese wall, so to speak, they kept out
all enlightening influences. They fed
upon such pabulum as the Charlsston
Mercury and De Bow's RsUisU furnished
them, and their ideas of government were
as crude as they were erratic. Their idea
was that all Governments began by
usurpation and were continued by force;
that nature put the ruling element upper
most and the masses below. They be-
lieved, and still believe, that the right to
govern resides in a very small minority
and the duty to obey Is inherent in the
great mass of mankind. Under such
blighting influences naught but Ignorance
could be expected and was fully realized.
These doctrines, however pernicious, are
still pertinacitly adhered to, and, as a
natural sequence, we find the South still in
squallId ignorance, her borders being
filled with widows, orphsns, cripples and
premature graves. But the talismanic in
fuence ofs Hayes will regenerate, redeem
and disenthrall these benighted Southern
communities. His election will encourage
the better elements Of society to improve
their condition, both morally, financially
and intellectually. The Nemesis
of the South, the disappointed leaders,
will be gently admonished that they may
not with impunity barter away the rights
of an enfranchised race for simple phrase,
and peace, meek-eyed, dove-like peace,
will once more reign supreme. The cleo
ton of Hayes means that the lawlessness
which has afflicted the South shall cease,
because the malcontents will have dis
covered that the stamp of Northern disap-
proval has been placed upon their past in
human acts, and her material resources
will be speedily developed, making her
manufactures musical with the hum of in
dustry, and her temples vocal with unre-
stricted piety; while the election of Tilden
would be blight whose whitening in
fuence would permeate every branch of
society, encouraging those who struck at
the nations unity, and rebuking those who
stood by the Union in its bloody trials.
Verify, in such an event would the old
rebel leaders rejoice at the success of their
hellish Vaccinations against equal rights,
and in their contempt for those who saved
the nation, they would exclaim: LET he
"who will make the nations laws, II we
"but be allowed by means Of the balance
" of power to shape its destinies." May
Heaven defend the country from such a
calamity as would be the election of a rebel
sympathizing President.