New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-04-30
Especial Correspondence Of tho Republican,
NORTHERN POLITICS..
The Promise and the Pledge.
NEW YORK, April 81, 1876.

NEW YORK, April 81, 1876.
Two declarations are stamped, q in char
acters of living light. in the page of Ameri.
can history. Before the light of these
declarations all other events in American
history pale into comparative obscurity.
The radiant glow of these two declara tions
eliminates, not alone the new world, they
throw their cheering rays of hope abroad
into every land. The language of the mis-
sionary hymn, "From Greenlands icy
noun tains to India's coral strand" can be
applied to them. Humanity loves to ponder
over these declarations, to dream of them,
and to keep alive the aspirations which
they awaken. These two declarations are
the promise contained in the charter of
American independence, signed on the
fourth of July, 1876, and in the pledge given
by Abraham Lincoln in 1864 on the once
bloody battle field of Gettysburg
Waterloo of the Confederate cause. The
promise declares that Gan men are born
free and equal" The pledge declares:
"That government Of the people, for the
people, by the people, shall not perish
from the earth"
Shall the promise fail Shall the pledge
be redeemeds These are the questions
which now agitate the hearts and minds of
those who are always the indicators of
coming events in Northern politics. The
true leaders of the Republican party are
neither at Washington, nor are they to be
found in the "ofices." The "leaders" of
the Republican party are the men who
made it, who are independent Of it's favors,
regardless of its frowns, and whose
"breath can unmake as their breath has
made" The men and women Of personal
Independence and deep conviction who rep
resent the brain and heart and eoul and
driving force of the great Republican or
ganizstion, are to-day as true % ever to the
things for which the promise and the pledge
stand. They know also that the issues born
Of emancipation involve the integrity Of
both the promise and the pledge. They
know that the human rights and the civil
rights of the negro are the things which
from the realization of what Jefferson and
Lincoln stood for ss earth's foremost repre-
sentatives of the cause of humanity and
civil liberty. But this fealty to principle
has been subjected during the last ten years
to severe trial by those who, of all others,
should have been found most faithful to the
sacred cause of liberty. This fealty is now
in danger of being subjected to still more
severe ordeal. Before this additional strain
is applied to Northern continent let the Re-
publicans Of the South pause and reflect.
The last straw breaks the over burdened
camel's back. The last drop of water causes
the too full vessel to overflow. The one
strain too much wrecks the strongest brain.
The one added sorrow to long life of suf-
fering breaks at last the most patient, all
enduring heart. Those who have nearly
wrecked the cause of humanity in their own
selfish greed for plurder are now called
upon to halt! Southern Republicans need
to know and to be told that off.
cial corruption in the Southern wing
of tho party has had more to do with
producing reaction against the policy
and principles of the Republican
party, than any other one cause. The COZ
ruption in the Northern wing of the party
has not had the same effect on the public
mind, because the South has been since
1860, as it is to-day, the admins trative
battle field of the great political conflict be-
tween the two great parties which divide
public sentiment in America. This tact
should have made every Southern Repub-
lican, whether colored or white, native born,
or from the North or abroad, keenly alive
to the personal responsibility which they
owe to sacred things in crisis like the one
through which we are passing as people.
And of all men the colored Republicans
should have furnished conspicuous and
shining illustrations of purity. integrity
and unselfsh incorruptible char acters as
the passport to public confidence and SYM
pathy, and as vindication of the wisdom
of negro emancipation and negro citizen
ship. But we have no such characters
to hold UP from among the political
leaders of either the emancipated race
or from the "leader" of the white Re-
publicans Of the South. The fact that the
eating the wisdom of emancipation does
not weigh as it should against the evil in
fuence exerted over the political mind by
conspicuous characters. The fact that there
are hundreds of thousands of honest, un.
selfish, white Republicans in the South
disreputable white "leaders." These things
of the past have, as 1 said in the past,
nearly wrecked the Republican party. 1
do not recur to them in any spirit of mere
faultinding, but nOrder to warn Southern
Republicans against the danger of placing
the zone straw too much" on the back of
the patient American camel at Cincinnati;
against adding the lone drop of water too
much" to the already ove1fowing indigna-
ton of outraged public sentiment; against
the Zone grief more," which may break the
all.enduring love with which devoted anti
slavery men and women at the North have
90 long borne the disgrace of tho corrup-
ton of the Southern wing of the Repub-
ican party.
The Northern people will stand by the
promise of Jefferson and the pledge of Lin
coin, if it is possible to do 20 in the pend
ing presidential election. But it will be i'm
possible to unite the "solid North" against
the Confederate-D Democratic coalition if the
Republican nominees at Cincinnati, even
by faint or indiscretion, are connected with
the system of organized corruption which
is now as a public stencil penetrating into
every household. I say all this because it