National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1877-01-19
The Mission Of the Republ,csu Party.

The Mission OF the Republican Party.
This is period black with angry portents.
Leaders seem bewildered and weak and waver-
ing. They look duty In the face for moment,
then tremblingly turn aside and pass away.
For ten years social ostracism, violence, muir
der and inhuman wrong have been piled on
intolerable burdens upon race in the South
which the manhood of the Republican party
and the voice of the Constitution have sworn
to protect and alleviate. For ten years mob
violence, masquersding in the body of Ku-
Kluxism, breading rampant sedition and mon
strous usurpation, have stalked unwhipped OF
justice through seven of the Southern States,
battering to smithereens all constitutional
safeguards, perpetrating lawless outrage on
human life and human liberty, making pro-
scription and murder the force by which abso-
Lutte power over State government was secured.
More than this. These very men and this
very same great political party which is now
screaming fraud !" "fraud % at their Re-
publican opponents have thrown law and
peace aside and stood with shotguns and re-
volvers at the bulwark of American citizen
ship-the polls-and there defrauded and
can voters of their dearest and most sacred
rishts-those of full and free exercise of the
elective franchise privileges. They have
stuffed ballotbox to any extent deemed
necessary for party success; have thrown out
legally cast votes, and proven themselves as
shameless in their recreancy as they are
deceitful in their claims. With this black
and wrong stained record they have come up
to the shrine of liberty, at the nations capital,
and demanded that the Constitution shall be
set aside, that established presidents shall be
ignored, that the final and conclusive force of
the Returning Boards shall be annulled, and
that compromise shall be formed in the in
terest of peace, Tlden and reform.
They do these things In face of the solemn
fact that the people, expressing their will ac-
cordiDg to the forms of law and the Constitu-
ton, have positively decided that Rutherford
B. Hayes is their choice for President.
compromise indeed How can, how dare
the Republican leaders compromise matter
like this ? The Republican party have great
mission in this conflict, which 1t will be fatal
to forget. This struggle is not to see which
party shall grasp the prize of supreme power.
IL ID W scIllC VIC tOCobiOh Va .SCuouA
and equality throughout the land. The Re-
turning Boards were established as supreme
arbitrators in these matters of political rights
and wrongs in the South. Their creation was
based upon the fact that malignant proscrip-
ton and murderous outlawry for political
reasons were rampant in these sections, and
their mission was and is to pass judgment,
final and conclusive, upon these outrages.
They have done so, and by their decision the
Republican party must stand firm as the
eternal hills.
Now is the time to forever settle the ques-
ton whether freedom and equality shall ex-
tend to every American citizen or q White
Line system established by which one class
shall have absolute dominion over another
class, and rob them of their political rights.
If the Republican leaders in Congress wish
to establish freedom and equality before the
law throughout the land they will ind no room
for compromise in this political struggle.