Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-06-01
nauscating to people who understood the

fax, Coushatta, Mechanics Institute, Clln.
ton, Vicksburg, or any other OF the hundred
slaughtcrs Of Republicans that might be
named
do not believe that President Hayes In.
tends TO desert or destroy the Republican
party and attempt the erection of new one
upon its ruins. 1 believe In his patriotism
and high integrity, and in his individual pur-
pose to make his administration beneh-
cence TO the country. The language OF his
inaugural was strong and beautiful, and the
declaration OF his devotion to the great doc
trines OF human rights, which constitute the
foundation of the Republican party, left
nothing to be added or desired. lie began
the conduct of national affairs under circum-
stances of extraordinary diillculty-when'
the minds of men were greatly divided as to
what should be dOnc-whilC all were agreed
that something should nc done, and that
things could not long go on as they were.
He marked out his course and addressed
himself to it with undaunted courage.
Mr. Hayes was elected as Republican, and
| believe will be Republican President, not
in mere partisan way, but in the sense OF
devotion TO Republican principles and the
maintenance of the Republican organization
by placing political power in the hands of
worthy and qualified Republicans, Political
principles do not execute themselves; they
require party to do that. Organization in
politics Is as necessary as IL is in war,
Great numbers of the same way OF thinking,
but acting without concert, are as helpless
as the unorganized multitude in the pres
ence of disciplined army. l present the
Republican party as grand and indispensa.
bic instrumentality for carrying into opera
tion the true principles of government and
human rights.
1t was the Republican organization, con-
solidatcd and disciplined with great labor,
that carried the country through the war,
preserved the Union, abolished slavery,
tb. a In bo Constitution
and that now stands the guardian OF the ma
tion's liberty and honor.
We hear it said that the Republican sys.
tenn of reconstruction is failure. The sys-
tenn is the true one, and the principles upon
which IL is based Just and immutable, and
the only sense in which it has failed is that
IL has been resist by armed and murdcrous
organizations, by terrorism and prescriptions
the most wicked and cruel of the age. And
it the Democratic assurances to President
Hayes in Louisiana and elsewhere of prOtcc
ton and equal rights are executed in good
faith the system will not be u failure, but q
grand success cXtortcd from its enemies
The great features of reconstruction are the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the
Constitution, establishing the equal civil and
political rights Of all men, and the statutes
enacted for their enforcement. So far as
these have failed reconstruction is failure;
so far as they succeed reconstruction is a
success.
Let il be understood that the great purpose
now of the Southern people is to recover
from the losses inflicted by the rebellion.
They do not now think of leaving the Union.
They are not now preparing schemes for
future secession, but they are, with intense
earnestness, revolving plans for recovering
from their great losses. For this purpose
they will support the Democratic party of
the North as long as it is suhservicnt to their
policy, Notwithstanding their Unsurpassed
resentment for its influence in getting them
into the rebellion and its sneaking ana cow
ardly course while it lasted.
We are told there will be quiet in those
States when Democratic rule is established.
Very likely When they have gained com
plete power and the Republican party has
ceased to struggle, there will be no induce
meRt to shoot men because of their politics.
There will be peace when there is aOject sub
mission. Let the recent massacre in Missis-
sippi, which has made the Modoc compare
lively respectable, answer. The peace which
is obtained by stamping a political party
out of existence is not the harbingcr
of prosperity or happiness. The hope enter
tanned by some of dividing the Democratic
party in the South by surrendering the Repub-
lican party, is groundlcss, to express it mildly.
The only way to divide the Southern Democ-
racy is to advocate their measures. They
care but little about the name of Democracy,
but everything about the purposes and meas
urcs which pass under that name. The large
body of white people who engaged in The re-
bellion are firmly united in favor of several
things, and they will stand by the party that
favors them, and oppose to the bitter end the
party that opposes them. Among these is
payment for rebel property taken or destroyed
by our armies. When Tilden wrote his letter,
Just before the election, against these claims,
he lost his hold upon the South, and was
made to feel it in the late struggle in Con.
No nnmnpratip fan1idatn will
his blundcr.
Although Southern Democrats voted for
him after he wrote the letter, it froze the
current of their sympathics and had more to
do in restraining them from tilibustering II
prevent the counting of the vote than any
other cause. 1t greatly rcconcilcd them to
the loss Of Tilden.
In the late House the dividing line between
rebel and loyal claims was ignored, and with
a single Democratic Administration would
be obliterated. When this comes to pass
about claims, the distinction in the law be
tween rebel and Union soldiers and rebel and
Union debt will be Obliteratcd, and the lOs
slaves will be treated as other property sacri
feed by our Government. 1T will not all bt
done or avowed at once, but step by step, al
ready becoming more rapid, until the public
mind has become demOraliZed, the rebellion
has ceased to be crime-scarcely mistake
and the complete restoration of fraternity
will demand the abolition of all the distinc
tions in the law between loyalty and treason
The Republican party was never more neccs
sary to the nation than it is to-day. All talk
about laying down the Republican organiza
ton to take up a ne" one, with new title, intC
which the old Confederates may enter with
out wounding their susccptibiities, woulC
be criminal if it were not supremeiy silly
The proposition that the party which saved
the nation, and which embodies in its creeC
the immortal principles upon which it mus
live, it live it does, and which has recOrC
the most glorious in the annals OF human
organizations, shall commit suicide as ar
act Of conciliation to the late enemies of the
Republic silences comment by its audacty.
We are but realizing what has been visiblN
coming for several years. From 1868 it hai
been apparent that the Republican party o.
the South would be overthrown by force, J.
it could not be done otherwise. The open
ing scenes of carnage in that year, in which
more than 1000 Republicans were killed anC
wounded in Louisiana alone, were but tn,
prelude to the campaign of violence whicl
eliminated in the bloody field OF last year.
The destruction of the Republican party
would make the Democratic party supreme
and fasten upon the country its odious pol
! icy and principles. The men who directed
| the bloI dy crusades in the South for the las
ten years, that have now eliminated in fina
victory in South Carolina and Louisiana, ar'
still living and have lost none of their power
The men who within seven years hay,
welded the Democratic party In solid.eolumn
| North and South, against the Fifteenth
| Amendment are still in the ascendant
Is any man weak enough to believe tina
they, or a majority of them, have beer
soundly converted and are honest advocates
Of the equal rights of menY 1t ia my opin
ion that the body of the Southern DemOe
racy have not changed in regard to the civi
and political rights of the negro, and that, |
Tllden had been elected President, within
his term of four years the Fourteenth AM
! Fifteenth Amendments would have been sui
stantially overthrown in most of the South
ern States. This would have been accom-
plished by methods recently illustrated Il
Mississippi and other States, and is alto
gethcr possible to that exquisite politica
genius which can extract Democratic ma
| jority of 60,0O0 from Republican maiorit
OF thirty.
No one prays for Cancellation and fraterni
| ty between the North and the South NOR
earnestly than myself, but cOnciliation ant
fraternity, to be honorable and durable
must be based upon the concession OF equa
civil and political rights, peace and proteC
tion TO men OF all races and creeds. III tn
men who held the colored people in bondage