New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-01-01

TIE CKl Or MOhIOH,
For Il very earnest. we might almost say
obstinate man, commend us to Senator Oliver
=. Morton of Indiana, leading statesman OF
the Republican purity, and possible Republican
candidate for the Presidency. Not that he has
been at all logged in maintaining any special
view of the currency question. Upon that
subject we freely admit ho has been wonder
fully ducte aud plablc. We do not know,
indeed, what his present views are and II we
did it would be no guide To us o.
To what they might DO tomorrow or
were yesterday. 1t is perhaps safe 10
say that he favor5 an elastic chr
rcncy: his opinions regarding it have GER
taiuly been elastic. But whatever may have
been his course upon questions OF inance-ahd
the impression is abroad that it. has been
vacillating and uncertain; that no has III
short. wigglcd several times and once or
twice stood on his head-of one thing there
can be no manner of doubt or question, 10
wit: that he believes in Southern outrages
as proper capital upon which to conduct po-
liucal campaign. In this belief he Is constant,
persistent, stubborn. Other party leaders are
disposed 10 admit that the outrage cry
has ceased to alarm or excite. There are
very few intelligent men in the party
who do not now understand that most of the
outragcs" and the intimidation out of which
so much political capital has been made have
+ been either wholly inventions, or have been
brought about by the misdeed, OF members OF
Senator Morton's party. Not only that, the
people have voted o. it. and have said with
great deiiberatiOn and emphasis that they are
no longer to be played upon by old womens
tales They said it when they elected this
Democratic Congress at tho end Of a campaign
in which "Outrages' figured "a the chief
argument for tho Administration party.
Sagacous politicians who appreciate the
logic Of events took the verdict a. con-
elusive and shrcwdly said "Thats done with !;
eve must find something else now with which
"to fire tho popular heart Mr. Morton kept
and keeps right on, a. 90 who mumbleS
about "A ghost whose shirt has been torn of
and which has turned ont to be John the hired
man.
Called TO speak for his party in Ohio, he pro-
cecds to discourse upon the subject of south
crn outragcs a. calmly n, though there had
been no exposures OF Hester and Hays
and the management of the lato Attor
ncy-Gencral Williams; n though the Chatta-
nooga Convention bad never set up IFS
search for outragcs and SUNK away amid
tho outlaws of a whole people "a though The pco-
pie had not voted on it once and said they would
hear no more. He goes 10 Maine and repeat,
the story, and in Pennsylvania again uniolds
it to audiences who listen with thcir tongues
in their checks. And now that Congress il in
session he lifts up his voice and in the same
key cries aloud. Mississippi was carried at the
last election by Democrats. He has counted
up the black voters in the State who ought 10
have voted the Republican ticket, and ho finds
there are enough TO have carried the State.
lie has anonymous letters and letters not
anonymous that would carry much more
weight if they were, and he has made up bis mind
that the State was carried by fraud, ntimida-
ton, and outrage. This, he says, must be in
yostigated. Never mind about questions of
finance and tho currency never mind about
| South Carolina plundercd and oppressed or
| about retrenching expenditures or about pnt-
! ting an end TO frauds upon the Government,
or about anything else here Is reason To sus-
| pect that some of the black mon of Missis-
! sippi who wanted 10, or ought to have
wanted to, or whom, at any rate, he wanted
TO have, vote the Republican ticket, didn't
do it; stop everything and find out about
it. Not that good government Is placed in
jeopardy by the failure of these men TO put
something they could not read into tho
ballOt-bOx; but the supremacy Of Dir. Morton's
party is endangered, and it is necessary to
make the people of the North believe that the
Southern whites are not TO bo trusted
Meantime SO good IN authority IA ex-senator
II. X. Revels of Mississippi, tho first colorcd
man who ever sat in the United States Senate,
himself Republican, and fully acquainted
with the situation, differs with Mr. Morton.
| He says in a letter to President Grant:
My people naturally Republicans, but they grow
older In freedom do they in wisdom. great portion
Of them have learned that they being used mere
tools and in the late election, not being able to
rect the existing evil themselves. they determined
by casting their ballots against these unprincipled
to overthrow them My people have been told
by these soheme when placed upon the ticket
who notorously corrupt aud dishonest that they
vote for thom that the salvation of tho party do
pended upon It; that the who scratched ticket
| was not Republican. This Is only OF tho many
these malignant demagogues have devised to per-
petuae tho INTELLECTUAL bondage OF people To defeat
this policy the late election, men, irrespective Of race
or party aiatOn united and voted together against
| men known 10 be incompetent and dishonest.
Is it worth while for the United States to
consider the fact that the Republicans we're de-