The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-03-22
RECONsTRUCTION OF PARTIES.

have conference and take up the cud-
gels and form q line of battle and get
the voters into the ranks, the whole
machinery will fall in pieces, and eS-
pecially in the South. This must not
be. The country needs violent parties.
They make the proper distribution of
offices and honors; and if Hayes pro-
pose TO do for the South all that Tilden
promised, and more than he could have
accomplished, with the Senate hostile
to TIlden and the House about to slip
out of Democratic fingers, 1t would
still be proper, for many reasons, to
keep the party intact, and it would
have served party purposes much more
effectively. whatever the country's for
tunes, If Tilden had been made presI
dent. The masses of the people take
strange view of the matter. They
persis: in talking and in writing letters
and, in older States, in holding public
meetings, in which they have the hard
ihood to say Whist they think. They
seem to think it advisable, honest and
wise to approve and sustain the Pfesi-
dent. They have said in public as
semblies that Judge Key did right,
having Hayes's programme before him,
to accept office in cabinet that pro-
poses to restore the autonomy and free
dom of Southern communities. But
it happens that while executing this
most desirable and bene6cent purpose,
political parties in the South undergo
the sure process of disintegration, and
here in Texas we have already-and it
must be most unfortunate for many
party leaders, divided Democracy.
Mills leads off in one direction under
the guidance of that gay young gentle
man from Georgia, Senator Gordon,
while the greater number of the dele
cation accept terms proposed by the
President. The conservatism of the
SOuLu uSScILS lIscll anu uuuS CA PlCo-
sion for the first time since diabolical
schemes of reconstruction were de-
yised. Radicalism Geized the honest
patriotism of the South by the throat
and crushed it into silence and sought
to reign not only in these States but in
Washington by means of the negro
power organized through the interven-
loyal leagues. There was no place for
a decent civilized citizen except with
those most bitterly hostile to Federal
ism as then instituted and operative in
the South. President Hayes proposes
| 70 aha~e~--n 1L:----IrA onas how Fhad
Stevens and Ben Butler, when supreme
in the North, necessarily gave
absolute supremacy in the South to
their counterparts. Southern conser-
vatism was made hopelessly impotent
by Northern Radicalism, and Northern
Radicalism infused Its energies and
violence into Southern prejudices and
convictions of right, and extreme and
passionate men, as in 1860 1, were
thrust to the surface and into the
leadership and control of parties in
| both sections. The President proposes
to undo the work of Thad Stevens
and Of Ben Butler and those in the
South lifted into Office and power by
Stevens and Butler and those whs
would succeed them will now take up
arms against the President, and in
weigh against men who approve his
conservatism and justice. But the rev.
oIution is coming. Parties, as now or
ganized, if Hayes adhere to his de-
clared policy, must undergo the sure
process of disintegration and recon-
struction, and the South, at least, wins
peace, seclionalism disappears, and
these States are no longer ground to
powder between the upper and neither
mlllstones of Northern and Southern
hates and Northern and Southern Rad
icalsm.