New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-01-19

Vho programme of Reaction Must Fail.
The battle is over. and the Confederatee,
who threw down the challenge, are COM
pletely beaten. In the parliamentary coM-
chivalry" 10 unhOrsed. The old plantation
boast that one elave-driver could ''lick five
Yankees" is again shown to be mere brag-
gart boasting. by the fact that q minority
in the House, led by the exasperatiDg
knight of Kennebec, has clicked" the
majority of twice it's own number, led by
the invincible knights of the lost cause
and the champions Of Andersonville.
The Times has said that the country re-
Davis, Robert Toombs. Howell Cobb. the
pirate Semmes and the TAG other still dis
abled captains Of the pr0-slavery Democ-
racy, to participation in our public life:
The country has no political offices which
it is essential to its well-being that these
political frauds from the pro slavery era
should fill. It has no political use for them
at all. There are rebel generals enough in
the national Legislature already. There
are quite as many Of the came sort in the
national administration as the country
wishes to have there. There is excellent
reason to say that the country would be
quite as we'll off if the number of this sort
of men in public positions was much fewer
than it is. The man Ben II. Hill, the man
John II. Reagan, the man T. L. Jones, the
man Philip Cook, and a large number Of
other JEFF Davis leaders in Congress could
be benefcially dispeneed with. The propo
sition to ask pardon of $50 more of them, and
invite them, without sign of repentance
or a promise Of future good behavior, to
come forward and take Office, is presuming
too much upon the good nature of people
who are not fools. On this point Mr.. Blaine
and the Republican minority were as
wrong, last winter, as Mr.. Randall and the
Confederate majority are this winter. The
bill, last winter, to invite JEFF Davis. Cobb,
Toombe, Semmes and the rest of the still
disabled political humbugs back to par
ticipation in our public life, was defeated,
as it ought to have been. The Sam Randall
bill, which proposed TO insult the nation by
begging pardon of JEFF Davis, instead of
requiring JEFF Davis to ask pardon and
promise to behave himself properly in fu-
ture, is defeated, as il ought to be. Let the
disabled old frauds alone. OF those among
tion" of petltioning Congress for the re-
moval of their political disabilities, death
will remove the disabilities az soon as they
ought to be removed.
But between the amnesty bill of last
winter and the present JEFF Davis scheme,
the country recognizes very remarkable
difference, though the Confederate poll
ticians may not oe able to perceive it. The
country has been told that the object of the
petrified old Bourbon politicians in seeking
TO get con-rcl Of the national government
was reactionary one; that their aim was
to undo the results of the war; TO abrogate
the reforms of the constitutions; to recon-
pense the Southern chlvalry" for the loss
of their human ''chattele;" TO reafrm Sc
cession and return to the practice Of plan.a-
ton dominion under the style OF Estate SOW
t~slS StnNn %11n
'.lost cause" and enable the plantation
"chivalry" to gain in the constitution what
they failed to gain by the attempt to over
turn it. The country has seen much reason 20
believe this to be the actual underl ing po-
litical aim of the Bourbon ctiefta!ns and
their old alliee, the Southern chivalry. The
tone of the organic Bourbon press; the Ian
guage of Bourbon orators; the united voice
of the reconstructed chivalry, through press
and forum; these evidences of Bourbon
opinion and desire have all combined to
corroborate the theory that the real pro-
gramme Of the reunited Bourbon COnfeder-
ates was areactionary programme. whether
such be the actual programme OF the Con-
federatee or not, the country has believed
i. to be their actual programme, and in that
belief has epurned them in three successive
presidential contests.
fourth contest is near at hand. The
crate combination, led by the same Lien,
advertising its political opinions in the
same modes Of expression. The question is
thus forced upon the public conscience. Is
this recon bination of Northern Bourboniem
with its old Confederate ally inspired by
reactionary motive : Was Its political pro-
grsmme foreshadowed by Mr.. Jefferson
Davis. when he said, in reply to one who
remarked that the Confederacy was lost:
sH~ h,,t ho V,ripo o;v,1o for vrhi oh
We contended is bound to reaseert itself,
another wayy, IL this the other time,
and is this reconsideration Of the North
ern Bourbons with the old plantation chi.
valry the other way in which the principle
for which the eaid chivalry inaugurated
civil war is "bound to reasert itseltF' These
are questions which the country naturally
asks. Oh, NO! nothing OF the kind! reply
the Confederatee. But in the next moment,
they bring forward with an air of defiance
or project to apologize to JEFF Davis and
invite him back into political life, as one of
tho old "wheel- horses" whom the party
desires to follow and to honor. Every man
on the majority side in Congress gives his
voice and his vote to this proposition, and
its most vehement champion opens hell
of Andersonville, which only one man on
that side of the House ventures to even
mildly rebuke.
Actions speak louder than words, and
more cOnvincingly. Had the Republican
party amnesty bill Of last winter been en-
acted, the country, though it did not de.
mand it, would have said and thought very
little abo1t it, because it's movers, not being
politicians who had been either charged or
the measure would not have appeared to be
mart Of roactiOnorV nrOpramme Knit
when like measure lin q form, however,
implying that the disabled rebels, instead
of being rong-doers, are the parties to
whom all the wrong has been doue) is
brought forward with q swagger by poll
ticians who have been charged, and whom
the country has been made to believe, are
moved by q reactionary purpose Of which
situation is entirely changed, and the dying
embers of the war feeling throughout the
North are instantly famed into flame of
passion which says plainly: No reactionary
programme shall prevail. Though the prin-
clple for which JEFF Davis and the chivalry
cOntended may reassert itself, it is q prin
ciple against which the country has rem
dered the verdict which the country will
henceforth maintain, in all times and in all
wars.
The country has been listening for num-
Der OF years 20 tne lOuO prOtostatlOn5 OI tno
Northern BourbOns that they have no re-
dictionary purposes or schemes, but, if
trusted again with power, that they will
honestly maintain the reforms of the con-
stitutiOn and preserve the fruits of the war.
The country has been listening to their
words with great distrust. suspiciously con-
STRUNG them in the light of their behavior.
Their re-entry into the old confederationtof
Southern fire eaters and. Northern dough
facee; their too manifest scheme to play the
old game Of political fraud by united
South against divided North" their inau-
guration of the confederation by defending