New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-03-31
THE FOOT or THE NATTER.


The mistakes of Just men are dangerous. A
mistake into which very many just and SIN
cere men have fallen, and by which their
course in an important emergency may be
governed, has been stated with characteristic
sharpness by the well-knOwn correspondent,
Mr. Redfeld of The Cincinnati Commercial.
TO him, recognition of Nichols or Hampton
means abandonment of impartial suffrage.
But recognition of Packard or Chamberlain
means a continuance of that corrupt and
odious rule which can be upheld only by the
bayOnet Hence he cuts to the bone OF the
matter, as he understands it, with one keen
sentence: The North must face the real qucs-
ton, Shall carpet-bag rule, with all its in
famies, be upheld by the bayonet, or shall we
allow Democrats to staplp out negro suffrage
in Louisiana and South Carolina as they have
in Mississippi and Georgia The mistake be-
meath this reasoning is precisely that which
million honest voters at the North are in dan
ger of making to-day. 1t underlics all honest
opposition to the policy of the President.
Let it be granted that, if troops are with
drawn, negro suffrage WILL be stamped out as
to the vital issue upon which parties at the
South are now divided. Southern whites want
local lf-gOvernment. They care for nothing
else. They do want that the State or city
shall be ruled by its own property-owners and
taxpayers and citizens, and shall not be ruled
by irresponsible aliens. fastened upon il by
Federal troops. On that one matter the whites
of the South are practically united. They are
not united about anything else, and never can
be. So long as the controlling question in all
politics for them is whether the Federal Gov
eminent shall continue to uphold a set of
carpet baggers, who by cOlOred votes and
Federal bayOnets have wrecked and robbed
States and cities, the whites of the South are
and will be practically unanimous. So long,
they will control the colOred vote for their
own defense just as far as they are able. SO
long, fraud will be met with fraud, and bayO-
nets with revOlvers, and the South will con-
tnue to be the unsOlved problem in politics
and the chief danger to free institutions.
The mistake is in suppOsing that the danger
will remain when local sef-gOvernment is
conceded. The instant carpet-bag domination
is no longer upheld by Federal force, the in
slant it becomes no longer desirable for South
ern whites to get control of the Federal Gov
eminent in order to secure local self government
for themselves, they will divide on every
question that can be named Old antagOnisms,
of principle rather than of party, will control.
Wings and Democrats will fight for ancient
ideas. Those who are called Southern Demo
Gratis are not united to-day in respect to any
feature of Republican policy, good bad,
excepting in regard to the use of troops to
maintain so-called Republicans IN power. Able
and sincere men at the South will contend for
the right of colored citizens to vote freely and
to hold Office. Such men will demand educa-
ton for The cOlOred man as the only safety
for the State. Do we talk of the currency
Hard-mOney Democrats at the South have shown
as much courage and persistency as any defenders
of public honor at the North, of either party
Is the tariff an issuef The South has thousands
who will battle for the ideas of Clay, and
other thousands who cling to the doctrines OF
| Calhoun. If internal improvements are pro-
posed Southern Wigs will appeal to Southern
interest, while all the teachings and traditions
of Democracy will be revived to defeat them
Not single issue can be named or imagined
upon which the whites of the South will be
united. Inevitably they will divide; inevitably
each element will strive to secure that colored
vote which will turn the scale in any State
To secure each party must defend and pro-
tect the colored voter. And thus at last i'm
partial suffrage will be, not abandoned OF
stamped out but defended and upheld by
every sane man of either party at the South.
The essence of the policy OF President Hayes
is that it will put out of the way the only
question upon which Southern whites can be
united to resist the colored men. If it sue
ceeds, it blots out the color line forever. Here