The Portland daily press., 1876-10-10
Our New York Letter
The Centennial State The Reign Of Ter
ror in Georxia-The Turn OF the Tid,
Toward Hayes-Demecratic Incapaciiy
nnd WicLedness.
New YORK Oct. z. 1875


youngest sister of the galaxy in the electoral
| college. The same body will send tw o senators
to swell the Republican majority in the upper
house OF Congress, which according to Gov.
Seymour is to protect the Republic from the
dlsaster OF falling under complete Democratic
control. The Colorado business is a dreadful
disappointment to the Democrats So dreadful
in fact that their organs have been trying to
break the fall By manufactured dispatches and
bogus returns. The "World'' newspaper-
which enjoys an inevitable reputation for this
sort OF work-devotes a column to labored,
though somewhat incoheront, effort to show that
things are not so bad 10 Colorado as they seem;
that the Republican majority will be small at
best; that it isn't sure they have carried both
branches of the legislature, and a good deal
more of such stuff which can give comfort only
to the very weakest minded and most credu-
lous of its followers and must disgust sensible
people who do not like to be thought simple
enough to be 80 easily imposed upon. or
course the strongest motive for casting doubt on
the accuracy of the returns from the new state
is to mitigate the effect they are likely TO pro-
duce in Indiana next Tuesday. They indicate
pretty clearly the drift of popular sentiment
and will uDquestionably strengthen the conyic-
ton already so widely prevalent that the Re-
publican victory in November will be a sweep
ing and decisive one.
Not less significant in its way is tbs perform.
ance in the state of Georgia which IS facetious-
ly called an election. Democracy asserts itself
IN Georgia as it is doing throughout the South,
by holding undisputed and exc usive control Of
the ballot. The Republican masses are COM
petely subjugated. They might risk their
lives by attempting to vote if there was any
probability that their votes would be counted.
but with the inspectors ana canvassers cooper
ating with the bludgeon and the knife there 10
not the slightes. temptation for them to court
martyrdom. Popular government has been lit
orally blo.ed out of the states lately in rebel
lion. A despotism exists there which il shame
and disgrace to every American citizen. A
reign of terror, system of violence has
been established which it is q sacred
obligation OF the government to rspress
The right of suffrage having been conferred on
the black citizen the good faith of the nation is
plighted to maintain and defend it. The cruel
mockery just practised with so much efffontery
in Georgia ought to and probably has fred the
hearts of the freeman of Ohio and Indiana 10
proclaim with potential voice their deter
mination to maintain with their ballots the
popular rights they preserved with their bul-
lets. No one agency perhaps has been so pow
erful in summoning the loyal people Of the
Union to participation in the Presidential can
vass as the cry of "a united South" What
that means is so perfectly we'll understood that
the race must have degenerated sadly within
fDa &c tk1.. + \
the people to prevent the country's failing
under any such tyrannous domination. Tho
experiences of Southern oligarchy are too
recent and too calamitous to make it possible
that an Intelligent people will consent to renew
them.
1t is strange the Democratic party does not
discern the signs of the times sufficiently well
to avoid such wanton provocstion OF loyal
men as is implied in their audacious
trampng out of the rights Of Republi.
can maiorities iu at least half the states
that seeded. The Democrats have long
and not inapsly been compared with the Bour-
bons because the proverb applies to them so ex-
a;tly. "they forget nothing and hey learn
| nothing" Here they are pretending to fiud
| causes for qualification 10 the unauimIty and
/
carried Georgia, for example. 1t never seems
to occur to them that the condition to which
they have reduced political affairs in the South
is perfectly illustrated in the lines OF the poet:
They have made solitude
And call 1t peacel'
The reaction which has grown out OF this
| impudent undertaking to create capital of 13S
| electoral votes-within AZ of . maiority--in
favor of a Democratic President by intimida-
l ton, violence aud outrage is .een in the returns
from Vermont and Maine and Colorado, and
will be felt when Ohio ard Indiana are heard
from. The dread of another rebsllion is .
/ natural and earnest sentiment, while the
| graves are still fresh Of the heroes who died in
suppressing the last one. 1t cost too much
blood and treasure to relieve the colored yeo-
manry of the cotton fields from slavery, to
make it possible to contemplate with equanim-
ity the contingency of rescuing them from dis
fraachisement by force.
And SO it befalls that the news OF Repub-
lican victory On a full vote In Colorado, and OF
a Democratic success In Georgia because only
one side was permitted to vote, equally tend
to quicken the pulses OF the lovers of the old
flag in all the free states, and kindle within
their bosoms the old fires of patriotism and
devotion to country. Mere attachment to
place and patronage would have hardly suf-
iced to keep the grand column united and un-
broken. The Republicans have held sway for
sixteen years. They have had q surfsit of
| political triumpbs. There is something mo-
| notonous abo.t this continuous empire II the
| experiment could be trisd without too much
peril, it wouldn't be q bad idea to give the
Democrats chance to administer affairs.
| They profess to have adopted every article of
the Republican creed now. They claim to be
more radical than the EXTREMIST radical could
have been at the time they we're pitched out
neck aud heels. II their promises could be
trusted, there are u great many Republicans
who wouldn't mind seeing the reins handed
ever to them, for one term, just TO observe how
they would drive Bat very slight glimpse
of their soings on, in one branch Of ths gov
ernment last winter, safficed to demonstrate
thatf any further assignment OF responsibility
to them was too hazardous a policy to be ven-
tured upon. They couldn't restrain them
selves, even with kuo wledse OF the impera-
tive necessity Of keeping up appearances
Every act of theirs, whether of commission
or omission, tended to make manfest.the prop
ostion that they were utterly incapacitated tor
assuming executive or legislative power in the
land, and that their advent 10 Office would ir-
volve a vast outlay of treasure aud a wicked
sacrifice of humaa rights The mission OF the
Republican party will never be ended until the
Democratic party has ceased to exist. Tho
one stands by the declaration of indie pendence
as a sacred charter the other sneers at il a.
mere sentimentalism. The one maintains the
impartial civil rights of the whole people, high
or low, black or white; the other is the advo-
cate of caste and sectonalism. The one rep
resents the new ideas TO which the war gave
birth and growth; the other clings to the obso.
lete and anti.republican theories which were
born of slavery and nurtured in oppression.
The irrepressbe conflict will not absolutely
come to an end, till the organization which
was worsted in the encounter is disbanded and
dissolved. YARMOUTH.
There have been great many hard things
L.