The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-08-06
THE RIOTS.
rTnE REDUCTION or THE ARMY AND
THE EsTA nulsnMENT OF A MILITIA.
President Hayes southern Policy ana Ills
social Qualities.
Editorial Correspondence.l
WAgutNaToN ID o. Auuitat

arouse the American people TO full sense Of
the dangers upon which they have been
driven by tho unconstitutional and centraliz-
ing policy Of the Republican party, with tho
habits of protligacy its political methods en-.
gendered, and the monstrous brood Of soulless
monopolies It's administrations created, there
Is little prospect of peace for us In the future.
No such uprising Of any class of the popu-
latlon has over occurred in any civilized
country without an adequate cause: and II
we arc wise and just, instead of expending
our resources of denunoiation upon the mobs
which have already been suppressed by q III.
istpr and hunger. we will demand of those In
authority and entrusted with legislation, a
remedy for the evils In our systom which
have excited the working people 10 law break
Ing and violence.
If such remedy be not promptly discovered
and applied far deadlier evils will spring
up around us and strike their pernicious
roots deeper and more firmly into our institu-
tions. Tho wild riotings which SO recently
startled and terrified the country were but
''the forests Of gourds that overtop tho in
fant cedals and aloe-trees, but like tho pro-
phets gourds wither on the third day. Tho
riots caused much suffering. destroyed much
property, and resulted in the loss Of num-
Der Of lives. That is all thoy did In the way
of harm, and they are over now but new life
and vigor have been impaired to the central.
izlng ideas of the late administration.
We do not hear 80 much of the measures oI
craftsmanship necessary to control the over.
grown corporations and monopolies of the
country, and TO emancipato trade and indus.
try from the special and unwise legislation
which are ut tho bottom Of our late troubles
as we do Of the need of great standing army
TO suppress insurreetion and compel tho sub.
mission of the people TO the existing order
of things. We hear. also. of the necessity oI
giving the Federal Government control of the
railways and telegraph. and indeed, of every
essential TO a centralized government, with ali
Ignorant and uneouth ariatocracy Of monopo
lists. with the manners Of tho slums, out Of
which three-foutths Of them sprang of army
officers and corrupt and subservient poiti.
clans. Many even Of the miserable fools who
composed the bowling mohs of last " eek
cried out for this combination and concentra
tion of tho powerful and unscrupulous agen-
cies which had worked their misery, and
combined, would crush them under their heel
COMMUNISM AND GENERALIZATION.
II In the midst of all the turmoil. and fol-
lowing its cessation, we had heard only of
Communism there would be little to appre-
hend. The impracticability of Communism
renders It's advocates except as rioters and
robbers, quite nnoxious. But tho theories Of
government. to which the troubles have
given snch aggressive prominence. while
threatening to our free institutions and to the
peace and security of the country. are not
only practical theories, but extremely faciua-
ting theories.
The policy of largely increasing the army
in particular is advanced and urged with re-
newed pertinacity by many OF the ablest gen.
erals OF the country, and VIII need not be
surprised II, when Congress assemblies. we
find many half-witted Democrats and Demo
cratic papers crawling on their knees to apol-
ogize FOR Withholding the appropriations for
the army asked for at the last session. and
ready and eager to concede any demand the
Administration or 4he Republican leaders
may make for an increase of the army and
navy.
trust, however, that the common sense of
The people will sec the folly of all such prop
ostions. The late riots do not suggest the
need Of a standing army nor the propriety of
turning over to the general government the
control Of the railway and telegraph lines,
nor of otherwise concentrating power and pa
tronage at Washington What they do sug-
gest is the necessity Of reversing the central
i2ing policy Of tho Republican party, and re-
turning to the strict Democratic theory of
government
THE ARMY
l have never been so thoroughly convinced
as am now that the army should be abol-
ished on ut least reduced to the number of
men needed to defend the frontier and protect
the public property. When 1t becomes neces-
sary for the general government to interpose
70 preserve the peace, maintain the laws and
proteet property In the several States. there
will be on end of the principle or right of local
self-govornment. The States may continue
Tor time to exercise by sufferance that right.
but it will be by sufferance only. The time of
the utter destruction Of the right will depend
upon the caprice or convenience of the central
power ut Washington. The surest safeguard
of the public peace, the safest power to aid the
civil authority in time of public discomfort
and, at the same time, to preserve and pro-
tect the rights of the States and the liberties
of the people, is well organized militia 1t
is a scandalous shame that the Governor of
any State Of the American Union should have
found it necessary to call upon the Federal
government to repress disorders within its
borders. Such a necessity is a certain indica-
tion of the decay of civic virtue among the
people of the commonwealth, or of the dis
graceful imbocility of its administration.
realize as fully as any one the importance
OF preserving civil order and repressing law
less violence; but / confess that when the
arm of the President was invoked by COVER
nors OF sovereign States to maintain their
authority, and the regular army was called
upon to fire upon and shoot down American
the Federal Government assumed, to |
my imagination at least, much of the grim |
and forbldding aspect of despotism, and l |
could not repress sentiment of contempt for |
the degenerate States too feeble and spiritless