The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-05-11
Current Comment.

"Mr. Hayes has, like good journalist, fallen
in with the true spirit and need of the times"
is Watterson's way of commencing the
Presidents action.
The Vcksburg Herald says that the South
wants a Speaker who is in favor of the devel-
opment of its material interests, including
the Southern Pacific Railway.
The Boston Journal says: "The sure.t way
to influence the result in 1880 is to see that
the present Republican administration re.
deems the pledges of the campaign"
A prominent Northern Democratic mem
ber of Congress, who has just returned from
an extended tour in the South, pronounces
the idea that President Hayes policy will
draw any strength from the Democratic ranks
false one.
OF the hungry Louisiana ofice-seekers
who are teasing the President with their de-
mands for positions, the Washington Star
says: ''Not a night passes that the President
Is not bored with some distinguished Lou
isiana politician who wants an Office. Most
OF them would swallow any policy may, an
alligator-to succeed"
SIS this Gail Hamilton, the authoress ?"
ooIu o lOuuS Iudu do uO Cdllcu dI ucI EcSl-
dence last spring, determined on making her
acquaintance. "Nor' exclaimed the irate
Gail, who stood in the doorway with small
hod of coal in her hand. This is Gail Ham
ilton, the coal heaver," and shut the door in
his face. The young man has given up in
terviewiDg, and gone to farming.
Mr.. Smalley of the New York Tribune,
has been investigating the Kemper county,
Miss, massacre, in company with Gov.
Stone, and closes his account thus: 81 wish
I could say that politics had nothing to do
with the terrible affair, but cannot, in the
face of the fact that the assailants were all
Democrats and the victims Republicans, and
in view of the bitter feeling against CHS
holm and Gilmer that had pervaded the
county for years. Still it was by no means a
purely political outrage"
According to ga Looker-on," who writes
from Orangeburg, the fate. of the negro in
South Carolina will be as the fate of the ne
gro in Georgia and Texas. 1t will be politi-
col serfdom. II is the inevitable of Demo-
cratic rule. The cant phrase, "Peace, har-
mony and prosperity secured to ALL" means
nothing more nor less than that the negro
shall be allowed to labor as a menial unmo-
Tested, but neverlagain to occupy any position
among his fellow white citizens in public life,
nor in the administration of the Government
of which he is subject.
A "conciliatory" preacher, one Rev. Walk
er Lewis, in delivering the Grafton at Macon,
Ca, on the Confederate Memorial Day, thus
addressed his hearers: 'Stand, then, to your
principles, and give the present hypocritical
I'D, ,;n;e fho till b,ta of
urable loathing. Its head, if not himself
thief, is knowingly the receiver of stolen
goods, and neither previous worth nor subse-
quent conservatism can condone the injus-
tice of his infamous Inauguration, or cover
the shameless degradation of wearing the
stolen honors OF another. False to his own
party, false to the stupendous villains that
gagged states in his behalf, false to the black
commission and its perjured judge, all that he
does with seeming decency is only the bid Of
a hypocrite for the treachery of Others"
Though an efficient bulwark of peace and
union, the foremost champion of his party
and admired throughout the civilized world,
Webster never could obtain even nomina-
tion to the chair of state. His betrayers
found their precedent in an ancient legend.
1t was in the beginning of time that the
feathered tribe assembled TO choose ruler
and he was to receive the diadem who could
attain to the greatest height. The majestic
eagle when his wing had tired beheld far be-
meath him exhausted and descending to earth
the host of his vanquished rivals. He was
about to pour forth his triumphant clarion,
but 10! the little wren, who until that mo-
ment had sat quietly and unfet upon his
bosom, now sprang aloft, and with tiny cry
announced himself the Victor. Thus was
elected the king of all birds. By some crafty
device of this sort the politicians will ever set
aside the magnates. Those who from their
shining talents and their public services
might justly claim preference, and who, il
the people controlled, would receive it, will
be apt to fail in future contests. If this regal
eminence, the quadrennial presidency with
its vast power and patronage. must remain
elective, the paltry little wrens of faction, not
the lordly eagles of the land, will almost in
variably win and wear the purple.-Charles
OC0nn0r's Recent Address.