The Republican journal., 1877-07-05
From the Boston Post, June ~
The Electoral Conspiracy.

read by every citizen of the United States.
Instead of wishing to forget the crime
against popular government, there would
be an universal determination not to
leave it until it was intellectually stamped
with the public condemnation. As a
piece of writing only, the article is per-
feet; as an argument, it cannot be taken
apart; as a narrative, it is the history OF
a public transaction that will stand; and
as discussion it has every attraction
which full and trained mind, prac-
tised pen, and keen analysis, ready wit
and terseness Of expression could lmpart,
1t is 1.-the and sinewy, handling the facts
with mastery ease, pursuing its logic
with an implacable purpose, and mar
shalling its conclusions with Il skill that
gives them force which there Is no re
sisting. The article should be distributed
throughout the country in pamphlet form
for the widest possible perusal. That it
is not at all personal gives it the eleva-
ton which such performance ought to
have. 1t is free from all faint OF bitter
ness, and goes about its proposed task as
one would proceed with a mathematical
demonstration. 1t will always be the per
feet statement of a business which no one
will ever seriously undertake to defend.
The opening description OF the way this
great fraud was received could not be
made more impressive. The blow dealt
to our republican system is felt anew in
reading this plain account. Judge Black
states most truthfully the position Of the
Democratic party of the North i'll its re-
lation to the imperilled Union and its
I,nt IL Ia
was their fidelity to the whole OF the Coy
eminent that made the attitude OF the
Democracy during the Civil War so diff
cult They believed that the powers OF
the Federal Government, the rights OF
the States, and the liberties Of the people
constitute the trinity of our political forces
and the essential parts Of the system con
| structed by the Fathers, and that each
part is vital, the life Of the nation" de
| pending as much on the preservation OF
| one as the other. But they We're obliged
| to fight secession with the sword, while
| they were also compelled to defend free
| institutions from the assaults OF radicals.
| They saw the country ''attacked on both
| TANKS at once by different enemies" and
they decided to ''simplity their duty by
postponng their resistance to one until
the other was conquered" But they hoped
that as soon as the Union was restored
| the Constitution would resume its Supre-
macy. President Lincoln in the most
solemn manner declared himself a friend
of the Constitution, and that the wal
was to be waged purely in defence OF til.
United States.
All pledges made by Congress that the
war was in no sense revolutionary Wert
broken At the close Of the conflict, two
thirds Of Congress was i'll the hands o
open rcvolutionists. They refused to keel
faith. They openly announced that thu
Government was reVolution.zed. They
proclaimed that the rights o. the States
were at an end They denied that per
sonal liberty was left to the people Of The
South. They insisted that the latter coulc
be governed without regard to the tunda
mental law. And thus, us Judge Blacl
expresses it. ''the Constitution had beer
shot to death Oh the battlefield. 1t wa
dead, and could not be pleaded to pro
tect the weak or restrain the evil pas
sions Of the strong party. The Recon
struction act Of 1867 was based ON thi
assumption. at was simply slave code
Not enc provision of the Constitution wa
left unvolated.' The South was GOV
erned by the military, until ''the diyin'
right of the negro to govern the whit,
man was asserted" His ballot was eN
pected to be more effective than the sol
diers bullet But under soldier or negr
the case Of the SSFHA vas 81 nq tha 9n anes
Dagger is startlngly faithful. The color
will never fade while our literature en-
dures. 1t was carpet-bag rule that, rang
ing from the Potomac to the Gulf. re,
turned sixty of its own kind to one Con
gress and thrust ten OF twelve of the mos
ignorant and venal of the same class int
the Senate. Yet the Caucasian men O
the South We're prudent and patient
Then follows to illustrate it descrip-
ton OF the dcpredations Of this rule
OH Louisiana. A general confederation
sweeping over the State and DESTROYING
every building and every article of per-
sonal property, would have been "a vis
tatlon OF mercy in comparisons" The
steallng-poWer OF the carpet-bagger is a
new invention. BY making bonds of the
State negotiable, signing and sealing ac-
cordlng to the forms of law, selling and
converting the proceeds to his own use.
! and detyng justice to go behind the re-
| turns, ''his telonious fingers are made
long enough to reach into the pockets of
| prosperity; he lays his lien on property
Yet uncreated; he anticipates the labor
OF coming ages and appropriates the
fruits OF 1t in advance; he coins the in
| duStrY OF future generations into cash.
! and snatches the Inheritance from chill
| dren whose fathers are unborn" The
Federal agents sought to compete with
the carpct-baggers in the work of gen
eral spollatlon, and the negro Instructive
ly initiated both. All together forced the
plundered people to organize the best
way they could for such protection as
they might secure. The testimony of
army officers like Gen. Sheridan only
shows how Insecure was life and proper
" IN the hands of the party in power,
While he only intended to prove by it the
necessity OF more of the same rule whose
fatal effects he reported. And the same
with the testimony Of Republican Con-
gressional Committees. In 1870 this ne
farlous system began to totter to it's fall
A majority of the people, black and white,
had resolved to break up this den of
tiif''o' ANU W save themselves, the
Returning Board was invented.
1t was a machine with powers such as
were never before given to any tribunal
IN any State. ats object was, not to re-
hn1, but to suppress the votes of the
qualified electors, or change them to suit
the occasion" Its composition, its ope-
ration and all the belongings of the inta-
nous invention are set forth in terse
and true description that no hand need
ever try to improve. A fraud in itself, its
object Is to cheat and only to cheat The
Kellogg Board is held up to the light pre-
clsely as it is, Il thing without Il parallel
in Constitutional Government, that can
by no force Of law be fastened on a free
State. With such machine in full ope-
ration, and supported by the whole
strength of the Federal Government, the
contest of 1876 opened i'm Louisiana.
The Democrats knew that they were the