New Orleans Republican., 1877-05-30
ina could only be kept in place a b. the

~ 10 discuss; out ne did not DO 30, and
on the fourth of March, when Mr.. Hayes
came into power, he found these govern
ments existing only in name, surrounded
by enemies, living only from day to day
by the presence and protection of the
United States troops.
Would it have been in the power of the
President to maintain them by the army2
A Democratic House of Representatives
recently withheld appropriations for the
support of the army, except on the condi-
ton that it should not be used in the
Southern States. 1t was clearly uncon-
stitutional to put such condition in the
bill, but it did, and was likely to do it
again at the extra session thus made nec-
essary. The majority of the House made
up of Southern Democrats, late Confed-
crates, 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 inevitable, or proceed only to
inevitable defeat2
There are and heve been for years
many Republicans at the North who have
deprecated the use of the army for the
support of Republican State governments
in the South. The Republican majority
in the Senate upon Southern questions is
but nominal, if it exists at all. Five Re-
publican Senators voted at the late exc
cutive session against seating Kellogg and
to refer his credentials to the committee,
thus refusing to recognize the Packard
government. And number of Repub-
lican Senators, sufficient when added to
the Democratic members, to constitute a
majority, have steadily refused to recog-
nize the Republican State government in
Louisiana since 1873 by voting against
| seating Senator chosen by it. While, in
my judgment, it was clearly the right of
the President under the constitution, to
recognize the Packard government and
support it by military power, the under
taking would have been futile and the
failure disastrous. With divided public
| opinion in his own party and both houses
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 Re
publican majority in that body could
hardly be relied on to support him in such
a course. We have had so much talk
about Cancellation and fraternity that
many we'll 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 withdraw the
army, the Republicans to abandon the
struggle and commit the government to
the white Democracy OF those States.
The professed yearnings for peace and
fraternity of the very men who planned
the massacres in Louisiana, Mississippi
and South Carolina have been received
with gush intensely nauseating to people
who understood the facts.
The painful truth is that political mur
ders in the South have ceased to be shock
ing, and are readily justified by energetic
talk about carpet-baggers, scalawags anC
Radical thieves. Not man has beer
punished for the butcheTies at Hamburg
Ellenton, Colfax, Coushatts, Mechanics
Institute, Clinton, Vicksburg, or any o
the hundred slaughters of Republicans
that might be named.
do not believe that President Haye
intends to desert or destroy the Repub
lican party and attempt the erection of
new one upon its ruins. l believe in hi
patriotism and high integrity, and in hi
undivided purpose to make his admins
tration q benefcence to his country. Tn
language of his inaugural was strong AM
beautiful, and the declaration of his de
votion to the great doctrines of huma,
rights, which constitute the foundation c
the Republican party, and left nothing +
be added or desired. He began the COZ
duct of national affairs under circum
stances of extraordinary difficulty
the minds of men were greatly divide
as to what should be done-while all wer
agreed that something should be done
and that things could not go on as the
were, He marked out his course and aC
dressed himself to it with undaunte
courage.
Mr.. Hayes WAS elected as Republican
and believe will be Republican Presi
dent, not in a mere partisan way, but i
the sense of devotion to Republican priI
iples, and the maintenance of the Repul
lican organization by placing politics
power in the hands of worthy and quail
: fed Republicans. Political principles d
not execute themselves; they require
party to do that. Organization in polite
is as necessary as it is in war. Great nun
bers of the same way of thinking, but &C
, ing without concert, are as helpless as th
/ the unorganized multitude in the presenC
of disciplined army. present the Il,
| publican party as grand and indispensl
bic instrumentality for carrying. int
{ operation the true principles of govern
, ment and human rights.
1t was the Republican organization
i consolidated and disciplined with greG
} labor, that carried the country throue
the war, preserved the Union, abolishe
: slavery, placed the amendments in Il
constitution, and that now stands Il
/ guardian of the nations liberty and homo
: We hear it said that the Republican sy
/ tenn of reconstruction is failure. II
} system is the true one, and the principle
. upon which it is based just and immutab
/ and the only sense in which it has faile
, is that it has been resisted by armed ar
murderous organizations, by terrorism an
prescriptions the most wicked and cruz
of the age. And if the Democratic assu
ances to President Hayes in Louisiana an
: elsewhere of protection and equal righ
| are executed in good faith, the system wi
not be failure, but grand success e,
torted from its enemies. The great fe
lures of reconstruction are the tourteeni
, and fifteenth amendments to the eonstitl
ton, establishing the equal civil and %
/ litical rights of all men, and the statut
enacted for their enforcement So far
these have failed. reconstruction is a fai
, ure; SO far as they succeed reconstructic
is a success.
} Let'it be understood that the great pu
ppse now of the Southern people is TO r
: cbver from the losses inflicted by the +,
bellion. They do not now think of lea
: ing the Union. They are not now DR.
: pairing schemes for future secession, bl