The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-01-11
GRANITE HALL, IN AUGUSTA,
On Tuesday, at . O'Clock p. NJ, Jan. 23,
1877.
Republican Arrogance.

The Republican party is frequently re.
preached by its opponents for arrogantly as
Stunning that it is the nation. The party so
completely identified itself with the national
cause during the war of the rebellion that it
became the sole organization which repre-
sented the national idea, and in common ap.
prehension all over the world it was the ma
tion. In any other country and in any other
time it would have been held entitled tor gen.
eratlons to voice the national will, and to
assume the sole administration of national
affairs. In all history the successful faction
in civil conflict has been recognized as the
nation, and the defeated faction has not been
recognized at all. The North by custom
and tradition and all provisions of national
law is the nation, and the North is Republi-
can. 1t is only by the unexampled Glenn
ency OF the nation, that is, of the successful
North, that is of the Republican party. that
the rebels against the national authority. that
is the South. have any voice in national
affairs. Men do not easily forget the tradi-
tlons OF centuries, and the Republican
assumption is not an unnatural one.
Under our form of government and in ac-
cordance with the liberal terms granted to
the vanquished the assumption has no recog-
nlzed basis, aud IS technically unfounded.
But the fact is that the vote of the North is
the vote of what was during the war, and
still is, in all but the purely technical sense,
the nation. The vote of the North is the vote
OF the states which maintained the Union,
which made great changes in the constitution,
which gave new direction to the national
spirit. And it is only by the generous suf-
ferance OF the North that its defeated oppo-
nents have any voice in the government.
In any other country than this the North
alone would for generations to come elect the
President and administer the laws. In no
other country would the section or the fac
ton defeated In civil war be so soon restored
to its old-time privileges, and permitted to
regain power by peaceful means. The Re-
publican North with lavish generosity un-
paralleled in history, has taken its vanquished
enemy into full fellowship. and given it an
equal start in the race for power. If it has
been fairly beaten it will not complain, but
it cannot help thinking that its so-called ar
rogance is excused If not justified by circum-
stances, and it Insists that its defeat shall be
brought about by fair means, not effected by
open disregard of those conditions which it
imposed upon the conquered, and made a
part of the law Of the land. It restored the
South TO fellowship on condition that the
colored men of that section should be granted
the right of suffrage, and it insists that the
South shall not return to power by violation
of the condition through the acceptance OF
which alone it was restored to its old-time
privileges. If the Republican North is de-
feated on fair vote it has no right nor dispo-
sition to complain. But it does have the
right, and will exercise it, to dispute victo-
ry won by disfranchsement OF the freedmen
for by that disfranchisement the South vio-
lates the pledge the giving of which led to its
restoration to the Union. The North i'm
posed no hard conditions, and it insists upon
compliance with the mild ones it did impose.