The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-03-29
AuhdfaL
A COMPLETE BACK DOWN.
Tht Tilien Doctrine TO be Observed as
the Southern Policy Of the Hayes
Administration.
[From the Cincinnati Commercial March III
The President, the Politicians and the Southern
Policy,

The new departure IN Nauonal poll'lCs
80 clearly marked out by President Hayes
both in his inaugural address and in his
selection of Cabinet, is most assuring to
those who discern most clearly the true
condition of parties and of the country
If Mr.. Blaine, and those who act with
him, think that the American people are
ready to put on again the cast-off garments
of Grant Republicanism, no long time
will pass before they will find out how
seriously they have been mistaken. The
country is tired even to nausea of the at
tempt to maintain unscrupulous and cor
rupt men in Office in the South at the
point of the bayonets. The resulting
good to the freedmen of such forcible
maintenance (Which has always been the
sole pretext under which it could be JUS
tilted for single moment,) has been de-
monstrated by all the evidence and ex-
animation made, to be illusory. The fact
is, the political adventurers from the
North are not the true friends of the
black man; on the contrary, they have
been in Georgia, in Alabama, in South
Carolina, in Mississippi and in Louisiana
his most unscrupulous deceivers and rob-
bers. The debts of some of these States
have been vastly increased, their credit
has been utterly destroyed, and their peo-
pie, both white and black, have been
taxed to the verge Of oppression.
While it is unquestonably true that
good government, in the largest sense,
must rest upon the free and unconstrined
support of all the governed, it is none the
less certain that an attempt to maintain
an unpopular local government in any
State, by the Intervention Of the federal
power, is as unwise as it isinpracticable.
Suppose the whole force of the army
were to be devoted, as Mr. Blaine would
appear to wish, to keep Packard and his
company of ofiCe-holders in possession
of the government of Louisiana, (it is
plain enough that no mere squad of Uni
ted States troops would be adequate for
the purpose,) the army must either be
increased, or transported from our ill
protected frontiers to New Orleans And
where, let us ask, are the supplies to be
found to recruit or to maintain an army
for any such purpose? The House Of
Representatives, which holds the control
of the purse-strings of the Treasury has
refused to vote a single dollar to maintain
the army under even supposed inten-
ton to use it to keep in power men whom
the most intelligent citizens in these
States believe TO be usurpers. Nor is it |
likely that the incoming House of Rep |
resentatives in view Of the revelations |
that have been made, will be much more |
favorable to granting money for the pur-
pose of controlling local self government
by the strong arm Of Federal power, That
would leave the Administration powerless
to carry out the military policy, even were
it to desire to do SO.
The fact is, the country has been long |
settled down into the conviction that, af-
ter all the experiments that have been |
tried in thepast ten years, the Southern
States must some time or other be per-
mitted to take care of themselves, subject
only to the Constitution Of the United
States. There is no possibility, under the
circumstances, by which they were ad-
mitted back into full participation in the
Government of the Union, of longer de-
nyiDg them the privilege exercised by all
other States, Of governing themselves at
home. They must inIispensably choose
their own rulers; and when these rulers
or state officers are declared by the ju-
dicial tribunals regularly established in
each state to be entitled to the offices to
which they claim to have been elected,
the United States must hold its hand,
and permit them to be quietly installed.
Besides this, there is papabe impos-
sibility for the Packard and chamberlain
governments to maintain themselves
without controlling the tax levies in their
respective States and the facts are that
the instruments Of levying taxes are "l-
ready in possession, as regards most of
the counties, of the Nichols and Hamp-
ton governments. The vast majority of
owners have taken that method
of recognizing the government of their
choice, and which they believe to have
been fairly eleCted-a method which con-
sists in refusing to pay taxes to the gov
ernment which they deem to have usurp-
ed its functions, and in paying only the
tax gatherers of the government they
hold to be legitimate, Is it wise, is it
is it even possible for the arms
of the United States to be carried into
every county of South Carolina and every
parish of Louisiana to compel the contri-
button of taxes to sustain what is declar-
ed usupation of the government at the
point of the bayonet? The question an
swers itself And when to this is added
The unquestionable facts that the senti-
ments ofthe country is Overwhelmingly
in favor of change of policy OH the
Southern question, it becomes the clear d;
duty Of those Republicans in the Senate
who would not commit political suicide
act heartily with their own President and
Cabinet in the Administration of affairs
tbat has been determined upon. The
,ecalcitrants at Washingtonsappear to be
acting precisely as if the country were in
5he situation of four years or six years
ago. In that long interval, the events
which have transpired and the tremen
1ous political changes which have swept
over the country appear to have taught
,hem nothing. Instead of seizing the
new and most opportune juncture Of the
installation of President uncommitted
TO any extreme partisan policy, free to
act as the President of the whole country
and not of mere party, these political .
Bourbons of the Republican persuasion !
act as though they were still fighting the s
battles Of the Republican party against /
IN unrepresented South. The great OBJ !
ect now to be aimed at in the Admins {
ion are such as will restore peace and )
plenty throughout the limits of the whole
Union. They include not the revival
Of dead issues--not the determined '
lighting of extinct States," but they in
clude speedy restoration of specie pay
nents through an abundant currency of c
gold and silver; a steady and resolute {
Of fba o,tfro o,,,,l ea.,,toa r