The daily gazette., 1876-02-18
Pinchback in Arms.
From the New York Tribune.

From the New York Tribune.
1t is not strange that all manner OF
foul birds hover around the third term
carcass, eager to pluck it even before
life is quite extinct. Mr.. Pinchback
is very ravenous political buzzard,
and if the third term is to be pluck ed
by anybody he intends to Lave his
share of it. Nothing less than seat
in the Senate will satisfy Mr. Pinch
back, and if he cannot get it from
Republicans he proposes to smash the
Republican party and make such terms
as he can with the Con nservatives of
Louisiana. Thus Acteon was torn by
his dogs. The miserable conspiracy
of carpet bag plunderers; which has
call ed itself the Republican party in
certain Southern States, has existed by
reason of its power over ignorant col
| ored voters. In the earlier years of
reconstruction, any creature who held
! a federal office or wore the uniform of
a soldier was regarded by the simple
colered voters as en,bodying in his
| person oil the might and majesty of
the United States, all the claims of the
| Union to the gratitude and affection
of the colored race, all its power to
save them from vague and terrible
wrongs in the future, and all the con-
| fidence to which the United States
| Government was entitled at their
hands. The meanest deputy of the
mcanest official, by virtue of his COM
mission of authority, was looked upon
as the personal representative of the
| United States of America, and, just as
any mob of unreconstructed cut
throats would instantly disperse at
sight of one unaImed man in blue uni.
form, the colored people yielded un.
questioning obedience to the mere
beck or nod of Federal officer. Thus
the South was organized by carpet
I baggers for their own uses, and it need
not be said that the least scrupulous of
them we're often the most successful
in securing the control of such an or
ganization.
Once in the hands of these men, the
organization was used by them for
selfish purposes. They cared not q
snap of the finger for the rights of
colored people or white people, rob-
bed both with absolute impartiality,
excepting as the whites paid larger
taxes because they owned more pro-
!perty, and selected colorea men for
office only when it suited their private
aims. The colored people became res
tive. But they were scared with cum
nlngly contrived tales of imminent
peril and wheedled with extravagant
promises. Ignorant men dreamed of
forty acres and mule," others more
Intelligent dreamed of seat in the
House or the Senate. If at any time
the scare abated, the fiendish ingenui-
ty of the adventurers was generally
| equal to the task of creating dIstur-
bance, in which, as Governor Ames is
said TO have remarked, the murder of
| few negroes was very useful to the
party. Promises were still trusted be.
| cause they were made in the name of
| President Grant or the Republican
party, and so. month after month and
year after year, this rascally organiza-
tion of spoilsmen has continued to
plunder the South, rule the Republi-
can party there, and hold great power
over it IN Congress and throughout the
country by means of of its control
over the colored vote.
In the nature of things, snch q con.
spiracy must break down soon or later.
In many of the Southern States it has
collapsed already, and the Democrats
have gained the votes of enough of
the disgusted colored men to secure
control. In Mississippi the revolt of
Senator Bruce, and in Louisiana the re-
volt of the would-be Senator Pinch
back, warn the Republican party that
the colored voters can be cheated no
longer, and that the day has come for
Ia N ri " fr hn halA tA cfrinf
liability for the lavish pledges made in
its name. Senator Bruce does not
speak without force behind him. The
temper of the colored people, after
years of broken promises, is perfectly
ripe for revolt, and it needs only
single bold leader of their own race to
precipitae "a political insurrection
powerful enough to sweep the last car
pet-bagger out of place. Mr.. Bruce
can make Republican success impos-
sible in Mississippi, and Mr.. Pinchback
In Louisiana, if they choose. Whether
they will gain anything by trusting
the Democrats is matter of little con-
sequence. They obviously can never
gain less than they have at the hands
of Ames and Packard. In such cir
cumstances it would be madness for
the Republican party to indulge in
any hopes based upon the assurance of
those who have been managing it at
the South. There is not single |
Southern State in which the party has
even decent chance of success, if it
remains in the hands of Grant, Morton
or those who have defended its South
ern conduct. At the South the party |
has been so damaged that it cas1ot
we'll recover strength in single year. |
1t has the choice between Scylla and
Charybdis. If it yields to the negro
extremists it goes down, and if it ad- |
heres to Packard, Ames s. Co. it goes
down not less surely in every Southern