The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-05-03
The Presidents" Southern Policy Dis
CHsSGd by the Radical Republican
RGlUatl,
In Which He DiscOurSes, in a Let
ter to a COlOred Misslssipian,
the Duty of the COlOred
Population.
No Further Allegiance Due the Repub-
lican Party-Why the Blacks Should
Join the Democratic Party.


WASHINGTON, April Ia, 1S77,-DEAR
SGR-You ask me what think of "Pres-
ident" Hayes and his policy, and what
the colored voters of your State, and the
Gulf States should do, if the national ad-
ministration abandon them?
shall answer you fully and frankly /;
and, as these questions are constantly
asked, shall print my reply, and grant
you the liberty to use it any way you
please.
President Hayes is the wisest and
ablest statesman of the day"-that is, his
partisans and the Office seekers say so.
They have unanimously voted that he is
a great statesman, an American RICHIE
lieu ora second Bismarck ; providentially
sent to re-cement the Union-with the
milk of ofhuman kindness, History shows
that God has veto power over all such
verdicts, and that his ancient servant
Time, always records His opinion, and
not that of the voice of the parasites
And Time, l think, will write it down
that Hayes was a man Of good intentions
as it has already recorded that "hell is
paved with good intentions;" that he was
a man of moderate intellectual capacity,
with Just frmness enough, and brains
enough 10 commit political parricide-to
destroy the party that invented him; that
his vanity was so great, and his grasp of
contemporary tendencies so feeble that
he founded his policy not on social facts
and organized forces, but on air-woven
sentiments and pedagogical theories
unlike the epoch making men of history
who first diligently sought the truth
without regard to their own wishes, and
then directed the complex elements ex-
isting around them. Hayes is honest
enough and he means well. But, as
Buckle has shown, the greatest ills that
have come to man. through governments
have been inflicted by conscientious ru-
lers-men of excellent intentions, like
good little Hayes
AS Lincoln will be known as the liber.
ator of the slaves, and Grant as the pre-.
server of the Union, so Hayes will be re-
membered as the betrayer of the South
ern Republicans. Lincoln freed, Grant
conquered, Hayes surrendered. Do you
forget that it was to Save 0hio"-that
is, to elect Hayes as Governor-that
Grant was induced, against his ownjudg-
ment, to refuse the call of Ames for
troops to protect the Republicans of Mis-
sissippi? That was the inauguration of
Hayes's Southern olicy. He is acting
to-day in entire consistency with his his
tory in preierriLg the bandit chieftain,
Hamnton, and the Ku.Klux cyclops,
Nichols, to the lawfully elected repre-
sentatives of the Republican votes of
South Carolina and Louisiana.
II.
One word, constantly in Hayes's mouth
is Poticu That word is shibboleth of the
motley horde of scamp followers. Once
the inspiration of the Republicans was
Principle. The party was warrior of
the Lord then, with light from Gods
throne on its forehead. AS far as Hayes
represents the party it is leprous Laza-
rus, whining for the votes that fall from
the Southern Democratic table.
Open your eyes, my friend, and dare to
gee the truth, even if it makes you sick
at heart. For the truth will set you free
from partisan bondage-a great boon
if the price be so great. l have given
too much of my life to this grand old
party-asking nothing from it but the de.
light of serving it, not now to have griev-
ed over its unhonored and dishonored
grave How luminous its pathway has
been since little band of us, northern
men and boys, called it into being by con-
fronting the armed emissaries of South
Carolina and Mississippi on the unsullied
soil of Kansasl First, resisting slavery
as aggressor; then, shifting slavery as
traitor; then making of ChaJtels black
men, and of blaCkmen American citizens
its record is a shining trail of glory.
It's battle cry was equal rights, and it was
a noble defender of the faith. And now?
Hayes surrenders the brave leaders who
saved to us South Carolina and Louisiana
in order to Conciljate the assassins whose
triumph in November would have been
his defeat. He is President" to-day by
the votes of South Carolina and Louisi-
ana negroes. By their unreasoning self
sacrifice, by their sublime devotion to
the party that freed them, they Saved
the pearl of liberty to the family of free.
DOM" Lol Hayes has pawned it to his
prosecutors! All the perfumes of Arabia
will never sweeten this perfdy most foul
All the pleading tongues of men and of
officeholders will never keep down this
spectral Banquo.truth: That Chamber
lain, Packard and Hayes are each and all
and equally, the rightful or the fraudu-
lent rulers of the people who elected
them by the same vote on the same day
and by the same party.
III.
Don't be deceived by what Hayes says.
Rulers are men Of deeds. His acts speak
for him. He appointed colored man to
an ofhce-and then made haste to aban-
don colore | State. Frederick Douglass
gets post worth $4,000 a year, and the
fact is trumpeted as if it were decisive
proof of Hayes's friendship for the negro
as if it were new departure" Why,
Grant appointed Bassett, colored man,
to $4,000 mission to Hayti; another to
the lucrative post of Liberia: and still an
other to consulate in Spain; besides
giving black men throughout the South
honorable positions by the score. Hayes
says, or is reported to have said, that eff
the rebels do not act in good faith, he
will soon change his policy" This is
boys talk, orworse. How can he change
his policy after he yields his power2 As
soon as South Carolina and Louisiana are
Abandoned, Hayesis as powerless to help
the Republicans as any private citizen.
"Who willcaFe for Logan" then? The Re-
publican platform declared that the Uni
ted States is nation--not a league; but
the Democrats adopted that article when
they insisted that Congress should 60 be-
hind the Florida returns-thereby aban.
doning their theory Of State rights; and
Hayes adopts the cast-of Democratic
theory, and repudiates the Republican
doctrine when he declares, both by his
works and acts, that he has no right to
interpose the arm of the nation between
u. 4 L. = A r.