The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-03-12
Let Us End the Southern Question
But No Bargain:

the new Senate. Like an evil conscience, 1t
will not rest. 1t cannot rest and we are
glad to hear from Washington that Presl-
dent Hayes has determined to make its set
Element the first object of his first Cabinet
meeting.
The longer it is made to last the more
trouble it will give to the President the
more opportunity it will give to gentlemen
like Senator Blaine for attempts to make, at
the expense of the peace and security OF the
country, political capital, as the phrase
goes, for themselves and the more muddied
it will become through the efforts OF the
carpet baggers and their helpers.
The whole spirit of the public. the answer
| of the country to the inaugural message,
| show that the President and the people are.
at one on all the subjects he there touched,
and on none more than on the Southern
question General Grants remark. in the
last days of his administration. that the
people were tired of seeing troops used
to maintain state governments, and
that if republican government could
not maintain itself in Louisiana or
South Carolina it must go-this contentious
statement met with general assent 1t is
the simple truth, and even those repub-
lican extremists who are most Jealous in the
support of Packard and Chamberlain ac-
knowledge, reluctantly, that the country de-
mands new policy, and say they are will
ing to see change tried
But we see not only that Senator Blaine
remarkable sometimes for prudence rather
than boldness-at once not only defended
Packard and Chamberlain, but took the
extraordinary course of opening an attack
on the President almost before he entered
the White House; we see also various
schemes and intrigues begun by the carpet
baggers and their allies having for their
object to delay the settlement of the ques-
ton and to gain for themselves some per-
sonal and political advantages out of it.
There is, for instance, the scheme of COM
promise in Louisiana, by which, in ex-
change for the recognition of the Nichols
government, Mr. Kellogg is to be admitted
as United States Senator. That is to say,
the wholesome and just policy which Gen
eral Grant, at the end of long and cruel
experiment., declared to be the only one,
which President Hayes strongly favored in
his message, and which the country has at
once adopted, is to be soiled with bar
gain. Justice. these intriguers insist,
should be sold to the people of Louisiana.
Of course we know that the President
would favor no such arrangement or ''com-
promise" as it is called whether it in
cluded Kellogg or some other perhaps less
odious person. But we know that it is
urged with pertinacity by adroit and in
fuential men that it has the favor not
only of that class of politicians who see
wonderful virtues in bargain if only you
call it compromise, but it has the Jealous
support Of the other class who mean to
keep Packard and Chamberlain in. These
men see that, if only such plan of settle
ment can gain the consent Of some of the
Presidents advisers, and can thus be pro-
posed to Governor Nichols and the Legisla-
ture as by authority, as it is sure of rejec-
ton, there will come q new deadlock, out Of
which they hope for delay at any rate. and
perhaps some act or incident in the South
which would give them pretext for de-
handing Packard's recognition.
We give warning of this intrigue. because
nothing could be more fatal to the real and
great end which we suppose the President
has in view, which is not only the pacifca-
ton of Louisiana and South Carolina, but
the breaking of the political color line and
the drawing into the republican party Of a
mass of respectable. intelligent and prop
erty-owning voters men of influence in their
States. This object, disliked as it naturally
is by democratic politicians, is yet one of
the most essential to the welfare of the coun-
try, as everybody understands. When it is
done we shall no longer have political
South But it cannot be done by bargain !;
by forcing upon the Legislature and the peo-
pie, either in South Carolina or Louisiana,
q man they would not naturally take, a man
odious to them, Of the type of Mr.. Kellogg.
There are now less than five thousand white
republican voters in Louisiana, most of them
either State or federal office-holders. A very
great benefit will be conferred upon the
State if considerable number of respecta-
bic and influential white voters can be drawn
away from the democratic ranks and into
the republican. But what hope would there
be of doing this if Mr. Kellogg, or some one
like him, any one, in fact, who is tainted by
connection with the misrule of the lasAseven
years, should misrepresent the State in the
Senate and be the official head of the party
in the State? Such scheme, if it could be
accomplished, would only consolidate the
white vote in the democratic party and per-
petuate the mischievous color line.
No conditions are necessary to the liberia
ton Of South Carolina and Louisiana, and
we believe none can justly be made. Sena-
tor Salisbury said, the other day. that if
the federal troops in New Orleans were or