The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1877-06-28

] I
1 the army
What might have been the result hac
President Grant promptly recognized the
Packard and Chamberlain Governments
in January, and declared his purpose tC
sustain them by force, it is not now nee
) essary to discuss; but he did not do so
Z and on the 4th of March, when Mr.
{ Hayes came into power, he found these
{ Governments existing only in name, sur
! rounded by enemies, living only from day
, to day by the Presence and protection oi
! the the United States troops.
Would il have been in the power oi
the President to maintain them by the
army? A Democratic House of Repre-
, sentatives recently withheld appropria
+ ton for the support of the army, except
T on the condition that it should not be
used in the Southern States. 1t was
, clearly unconstitutional to put such a
condition into the bill, but it did and was
likely to do it again at the extra session
thus made necessary. The majority oi
the House. made up of Southern Demo
Gratis, late Confederates, and desperately
in earnest, and of Northern Democrats
wholly subservient, thus threatened the
existence of the army, and had it in their
power to destroy it. The question was,
should the President yield to the newt
ocANt VI BAONSSN W AhOfAhacAc NO
feat2
There are and have been for years
many Republicans in the North who
have deprecated the use of the army for
the support of Republican State Govern
ments in the South. The Republican
majority in the Senate upon Southern
questions is but nominal, if it exists at
all. Five Republican Senators voted at
the late Executive session against seating
Kellogg and to refer his credentials to
the committee, thus refusing to recog-
nize the Packard Government. And
! number of Republican Senators, suffi-
cient, when added to the Democratic
members, to constitute a majority, have
steadily refused to recognize the Repub-
lican State Governments in Louisiana
since 1873 by voting against seating
Senator chosen by il. While, in my iudg-
ment,i was clearly the right of the Pres
ident under the Constitution to recog-
nize the Packard Government and sup
port it by military power, the undertake
ing would have been futile and the fail
ure disastrous. With divided public
opinion in his own party and both hous-
es of Congress against him he would have
failed in the end.
The Democratic House has the power
to destroy the army utterly, and from
my knowledge of the Senate | am sure
Republican majority in that body could
hardly be relied on to support him in
such a course. We have had so much
talk about conciliation and fraternity
that many well-meaning people in the
North had come to believe that all that
was necessary to secure tranquility and
equal rights in the South was to with
draw the army, the Republicans to aban-
don the sfrnuUla and oona rnit he Gouarp
ment to the white Democracy of those
States. The professed yearnings for peace |
and fraternity of the very men who plan |
ned the massacres in Louisiana, Missis- |
sippi and South Carolina have been re- |
ceived with a gush intensely nauseating |
to people who understood the facts
The painful truth is that political MUIR
ders in the South have ceased to be |
shocking and are readily justified by en-
ergetic talk about carget-baggers, scala
wags and Radical thieves. Not a man
has been punished for the butcheries at
Hamburg, Ellenton, Colfax, Coushatta,
Mechanics Institute, Clinton, Vicksburg,
or any other Of the hundred slaughters
of Republicans that might be named.
/ do not believe that President Hayes
intends to destroy the Republican party
and attempt the erection of a new one
ism and high integrity, and in his undi-
vided purpose to make his administra-
tion benifcence to his country. The
language of his inaugural was strong, and
beautiful and the declaration OF his doc
trines of human rights, which constitute
the foundation of the Republican party,
left nothing to be added or desired. lie
began the conduct of National affairs un-
der circumstances of extraordinary diff
the minds of men were
greatly divided as to what should be
done-while all were agreed that some
thing should be done. and that things
could not long go on as they were. He
out his course and addressed
himself to it with undaunted courage.
Mr.. Hayes was elected as Republican,
and l believe will be Republican Presi-
dent, not in a mere partisan way, but in
the sense Of devotion to Republican prin-
ciples and the maintenance of the Re
publican organization by placing political
power in the hands of worthy and quail
lied Republicans. Political principles do
not execute themselves; they require a
party to do that. Organization in poll
tics is as necessary as it is in war. Great
numbers of the same way of thinking,
but acting without concert, are as help
less as the unoFganized multitude in the
presence of disciplined army. | pres
ent the Republican party as a grand and
indispensable instrumentality for carry
ing into operation the true principles OF
the Government and human rights.
1t was the Republican organization,
and disciplined with great
labor, that carried the country through
the war, preserved the Union, abolished
slavery, placed the amendments in the
rFrxv,a fhnt aFa
guardian of the Nations liberty and
honor.
We hear it said that the Republican
system of reconstruction is failure. The
system is the true one, and the princi-
pies upon which it is based just and in
and the only sense in which
it has failed is that it has been resisted
by armed and murderous organizations,
by terrorism and prescriptions the most
wicked and cruel of the age. And if the
Democratic assurances to President
Hayes in Louisiana and elsewhere of.pro-
lection and equal rights are executed in
good faith the system will not be fail
ure, but a grand success extorted from
its enemies. The great features of recon
struction are the Fourteenth and Fiji
teenth amendments to the Constitution,
the equal civil and political
rights of all men, and the statutes enact
ed for their enforcement. So far as these
have failed reconstruction is a failure so
FAR as they succeed reconstruction is a
success.
Let it be understood that the great
purpose now OF the Southern people is TO
recover from the losses inflicted by the
rebellion. They do not now think Of
leaving the Union. They are not now
schemes for future secession,
but they are. with intense earnestness,
resolving plans for recovering from their /
great losses. For this purpose they will 1
.unIanrL the Dam nnnraiin 81 H.. /