The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-03-05
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER
A General Review Of the Field After The
Battle.
The Republicans PrudentIy Entrenching
md Boldly Planning The De-
mocraey Demoralizd.
Especial Correspondent N. o. Demoorat.l
WAsHfNaThn. March 1. Is

| The action OF the House to-day practically end
cd The electoral struggle and before this reaches
yon MIR. Hayes will have been declared President.
The Democratic party having frat made an ss-
signment by passing tho Electoral BILL and hav-
ing now gone into voluntary bankruptcy by aban.
doning whatever few morses Of hope II may
have bad left after Tho assignment IL behooves
us TO take
AN INVENTORY or THE AssEfs.
| or course have no means OF Hsoer tanning the
DRIFT of public opinion exec pt as II may be ind
Gated by the expressions Of representative men
here from oil parts OF tho country 30 far 90
these expressions may be taken as an index Of the
state of the Democratic party at large, shall
Say that tho eIsot Of this disaster Is combinn.
ton Of disbearteament panic and disgust, which
no square defoat at tho polls could ever have
produced and the ultimate effects of which
cannot be foreoasod with any accuracy at all, for
the reason that no case like IL has ever occurred
before TO furnish an analogy.
We can, therefore, only speculate as TO tho
fotnre, since, indeed, there are hardly Two coin.
oident opinions as to the present condition in
which tho result Of this anomalous struggle has
placed the party.
| In tho course OF n somewhat extended eIpe-
rience ~ ap observer Of events In Washington, /
have never sesn any time nj which the most
| sagacioas political reasoners were 30 utterly al
fault for premises whence TO dedaoe conclusions
and for systems Of logic by which 10 shape their
train OF reasoning.
IT IL SIMPLY CHAOS
come again. But Washington, 40 / long ago
learned, is the worst place In the country whence
10 study popular sentiment. / fnd, however,
one generally prevalent theory among the mass
OF vague specusaiions. That Is the belief that
the fato OF the National Democratic party under
its present organisation depends entirely upon
tho behavior Of the massos OF tho party In tho
five or six Southern States where tho majority is
comparatively small - Louisiana, Mississippi, |
Alabama, Florida, the gsgolinas, and, perhaps,
Arkansas. There Ia M listslsing tho present
temper Of those States.
THEY ARE DtsuusrEp.
evidently beyond possibility Of repair, with tho
imbecijty and tmidity manifested by the North |
ern and Eastern m spagers In whose hands the |
fate OF the party was 80 absolutely confded
upon the nomination Of Mr.. Tilden. The coolest, |
wisost heads among the Southern Democrats say |
it will never again be possible to hold the white
vote solid for The Democratic national ticket un-
contingency, and that contingency 10 ono of tho |
least likely TO occur Of all things ia tho world
That 10 TO say, nothing short Of revival Of To-
construction, accompanied by tho worst foatures
OF tyranny and plumber at the hands OF negroes
and carpetbaggers can ever agan force the white
vote Of the South into
DEMoCnAr1o SOLIDARITY.
Now IL ID the pet purpose Of the new managers,
s.,n thn I,,, 10 Al.
the Republican party, to pursue policy that will
destroy the color limo, deach the interests Of tho
white people Of the South from those of the
Northern Democracy, and begin system of re-
construction, not Of the Southern State govern
monts, but Of Southern political sentiment. TO
this end am abundantly satisfied Rll the ener-
gIes of management In the Republican party, and
all the power Of It's administrative patronage,
will be directed for the next four years. The
Republican managers toll me they expect to lose
some strength in the North ; that they have dis.
counted certain dsaffsctions from their ranks OF
people in the North and West who, having voted
for Hayes, are not quito satisfied with the way
the vote has been counted, and who, as the man
ayers put 1t, are absurd enough to prefer honest
defeat rather than success by the methods which
have been employed to secure it.
The chicanery by which Mr.. Hayes has been
counted in is expected by the Republican mana
gers to exaeperate the Democracy OF Ohio, Indi-
ana, Now Jersey, New York, Connecticut and
New Hampshire into more perfect solidity than
before, and to disgust good many Republicans
into sympathy with their late adversares, which
sympathy may or may not result in active op-
GRAFTON, according as the character OF the Hayes
administration tends to mitigate or intensity the
disrepute attending its origin. The first consid-
erable test upon this point will come next fall in
THE OHIO STATE ELECTION, 1
and the Ohio managers Of both parties are al
ready looking forward to that event with anxiety
The Republican managers seem inclined to look {
the worst poss bties OF the situation in the face
Realizing that the Hayes administration will !
come into power with something OF the stigma j
that is borne upon the brow of a bastard, they t
propose to "live it down." to use their own Z
phrase, by developing ;
PRACTICAL GOOD WORK
IN their administration in inverse ratio to the G
rouness of the midwifery whereby it ia ushered
INTO being. This is comprehensive experiment,
but you know human nature is peculiar, and
people in the average are won't to place pecu-
iarly exaggerated valuation upon good works :
which proceed unexpectedly from tainted sources 9
The old rule, that the prostitute cannot reform,
will not work here for that the American people s
lave a weakness for fraud anyhow, being mostly =
on that lay" themselves, and unless the fruits a
If fraud are shamelessly abused, there is very P
,ood-natured Indifference to
THE STEAL ITSELF.
This then is in brief and in aggregate the hope
If the Republican managers: To do the best 1
hey can to hold their own in the North and q
Vest and bid high for gains in the ''Sod South"
t will not be long before we can begin to form t
ome adequate idea Of the out,ome. Whatever !,
nay be the fallscies and delusions Of this pro- Il