The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1877-05-03
PARTY Names and Principles.

they are convenient agents to carry into
operation defined principles. There is no
memorable law to govern in the adoption OF
party nomenclature, nor is there any impera-
tive mandate linking party names to princi-
Piles. 1t is only in the sense and degree that
names reflect principles that there is con-
sistency In adhering to them. There is
abstractly nothing in a name, really. 1t
receives its virtue from the principles that
underlie it. Usage connects names with
principles, and they are employed simply to
locate and identify principles. Principles
never die. They sometimes become mop
erative and obsolete, because of their conflict
with the mission Of government, but still
exist to Illustrate by contrast and negatively
define those upon which government is oper-
ated. The Declaration Of Independence an
nounces the principle that all men by nature
are created equal, with certain inalienable
rights that grow out of that equality. Not
equal in intellectual endowments, nor in
the moral forces that direct their action, but
equal before uniform laws made to govern
communities and States-the right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness under
uniform laws.
This principle is the basis OF the Republic
can party. 1t is the principle that is exem-
pliHed in the National Constitution. 1t per-
meates all of its provisions. 1t looks to the
equal rights Of all under laws enacted to
govern all, and recognizes the right Of every
citizen to carve out his own fortune, in in
tellectual, moral, and material advancement.
It antagonizes all local legislation repressive
and reactionary in its tendency, as affecting
manhood rights, and contemplates the con-
tinuous and indefinite development and pro-
gress of the human race. 1t seeks the good
of the people-the object Of government
in a higher civilization, universal intelli-
gence, and more elevated intellectual and
moral attainments.
/ The amendments to the Constitution en-
larged the application Of this great funda-
mental principle Of Republican government,
and the Republican party is pledged to its
faithful enforcement in this broader sense.
1t stands out as tie party Of the people-re-
flecting and championing their rights under
the cardinal law. Wherever the Constitu
ton is recognized, in its new Interpretation,
by local autonomy, 1t is the mission Of the
Republican party to give it countenance and
support. The administration Of President
Hayes is simply carrying out this principle
in what is called the "Southern policy
The local authorities there have accepted
and pledged themselves to practically en-
force the national law-that no State laws
or State policy shall be recognized or encour-
aged that impair any Of the rights secured
by national law. Under our system of gov
eminent, the President could 60 no further
than to see that the national law was en-
forced. That is the limit of his authority.
1t is all that the Republican party has ever
contended fort is all that it could contend
i for, without fragrant usurpation. 1t was
what President Grant required, and what
4 he desired to bring about in the policy ini
tiated in 1869 in the appointment to office Of
Longstreet of Louisiana, Orr Of South Caro-
lima, aud Alderman of Georgia. He ad-
vanced to the people of the South with the
olive branch interviewer with the law. All
he asked, speaking for the Republican party,
was chat the amendments to the national
Constitution and the rights they guaranteed
should be respected. He simply proposed
what President Hayes has done. They then
rejected and scorned. They now accept and
pledge. That is the difference between then
and now. And if the people Of the South
had, with the same earnestness in 1869,
given their honor, as Hampton and Nichols
now have, to carry into effect the national
law, the eight years Of turmoil and strife
they have endured would have been period
Of progress and prosperity. II they had
accepted the amendments to the Constitution
and addressed themselves to accommodating
local laws and local policy to national law,
as the terms OF the war adjustment required.
the black code of Mississippi and Louisiana
would never have marred their Legislative
records.
The principles Of the Republican party
have eliminated in great triumph, In the
solution of the Southern complications. II
was simple method-the recognition Of
national law. That is all of it. 1t might
and should have been done long ago. But
passion and prejudice ruled, and there was
no place for reason and prudence.
The Republican party reflects this living
principle, which has so happily been accepted
in the disturbed Southern States. The power
of the government was pledged to its en-.
forcement where local laws and local senti.
ment were hostile. With these conforming,
it was proper that federal power should
leave it to them to direct. The right Of the
State to control its own affairs, where ma.
tional law is not impaired, is a cardinal idea
with the Republican party. National law
first recognized, and then local authority In
harmony with it.
This adherence of party to the principle
it had proclaimed, and which it steadily
battled for because it is principle of right
and justice, until it is accepted from one end
of the country to the other as the basis o.
all local laws affecting political and civil
rights, presents wide contrast to the pro-
fessions and practices Of the Democratic
party. 1t has been consistent in nothing
but its prejudices. Opposition has been its
shibboleth. In 1858 it proclaimed in the
Blair Broadhead letter, upon which the Pre-
sidential canvass Of that year was made
opposition to the reconstruction measures
and demanded their repeal. In 1872 il
Ignored its platform of 1868, and planted
itself squarely upon an ultra Republican
platform, with an. ultra Republican as its
candidate, but in opposition to the Repub
lican organization. In the meantime, all Of
its energies were directed in State govern
ments South, to impair the force OF the
measures it professedly accepted. In 1876
it again proclaimed the principles Ct the
Republican party, but presented as its stand
ard-bearer political Bourbon, who chung te
the exploded doctrine Of State rights, al
emphasized by the extreme men of the
South. Again defeated, it now accepts thu
ituation-announces as its local policy thu
very ideas the R epublicaDs have maintained
-attests the justice Of Republican policy
and adopts the principles upon which that