The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1877-03-25
PRESIDENTIAL PLEDGES.

Are the resonant pledges OF Mr..
Hayes letter of acceptance and his in
augural address on the subject Of local
selfgovernment, to be redeemed or notY
This is an interesting question to-day,
A Louisiana commission and that, too,
coming left,handedly through the cabi.
net, is entirely too Andy Johnsonish,
and too little like the other great his
torical Andrew (J0ckson), to reassure
the country on this point, Local self
government thus receives its crueest
stab from the man who is loudest in ap.
proyal Of the theory Here is another
instance Of the wide difference between
theory and practice The simple an
nouncement Of his holding that politi
cal faith was sufficient to procure many
votes in the election, Vnd upon its rep
etition at the Inauguration procured a
measure of liberation and endorsement
from the section most interested, which
nothing else he could have said or done
would And yet with all this, when
the moment arrives for the application
of the theory the whole affair is turned
over to the cabinet, and n commission
appointed, We will do Mr.. Hayes the
credit Of saying that the members of
the commission are about as goodmen as
he could have chosen from the material
at hand but still, had none but angels
been appointed, it would have been
nothing more nor less than ilagrNnt
violation of a solemn and oit-repcated
pledge.
What can such nm administration
promise tsclf2 With Republican
party riven and scattered, with hostile
majority in the lower house and nearly
II Tie in the upper, at war with one sec.
ton of its own party and not upon cor
dial terms with the other, with the coun-
try at homo and the world abroad still
unconvinced that the award of the ele =
toral commission was not the most stu
pendous fraud ever perpetrated-there
was only one course to pursue, and that
was to build up and sustain the slowly
recovering States which former adj.
ministration had by commissions and
committees Comment ones at that
ground well,nigh to powder.
The country had II right to expect
both from Mr., Hayes well known char
cter and from his unsolicited pie dyes
that he would do it, Mr.. Hayes knows
Packard is not, and never was, the
legally elected governor Of Louisiana
and even if he were by the strength Of
a carpet,bag and ignorant negro vote
his holding the State government would
be simply u continuance of the wretched
rule which has bankrupted it already.
A little Jacksonian nerve worked into
this administration and used in the
direction of great and much needed
reform in the South, would have gone
far toward causing the people to forget
the frauds 10y which Mr. Hayes grasped
the great prize Of his ambition. II
would have restored confidence and set
the South oil again in the necessary
work which is to bring her up to that
prosperity which made the whole coun.
try rich before the war; and it would
have restored that respectable Southern
element in government which for sew.
enty-iive years kept the hands of tho
national government clean, while cX-
tending its influence and commerce to
the uttermost parts of the earth.
We deeply regret for Mr.. Hayes own
sake, for the sake of the whole country,
and more especially Louisiana, that the
administration has fallen into the same
weak and yascillating policy of Grant
and Andy Johnson, and which bore
such bitter fruit for them and the whole
country, 1t is deplorable also that
presidential pledges cannot be redeem
ed. 1t is deplorablc that the rights
of States to local selt,goyernment is to
be forever denied, and some simple
of five must be sent from
the capital to say in every case who
shall, and who shall not be governor of
the States of the South, TO subvert the
will Of the people, and to defeat the
ballot, No matter what the decision
of the Louisiana commission may be,
its appointment and office is q dangers
Gus attack upon the sovereignty of the
States.
THE CENTRAL RAILROAD.