The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-05-03
THE NEW DEPARTURE.


Thus far President Hayes has re-
deemed his pledges. Thus far he has
done the Union and the country's
peace the greatest good ever achieved
in so brief period by any President.
He has abolished the "South" as an
idea and passion and AS the origin OF
distinctiveness in partisanship. He
has lifted US up from the midst Of the
battle field where we were destroyed
by two crazed bodies of maddened
contestants and placed us above the
reach of the deadly missiles of the two
great armies that came down upon US
quadriennially to enrage apd desolate
and destroy. Their coming was more
terrible and ruinous than that of Goths
and Vandals. Not only did they suE-
pend the industry of forty millions Of
people, but struck down popular
morals and even threatened the peace
of society and stability Of government.
They came az SerrIed hosts; one, NOV
ing downward from the great lakes
the other, northward from the gulf,
and fatal, incurable, final collision was
recently prevented by the Intervention
OF grard commissioner body of
plenipote Ltiaries who established peace
for troubled nation. Their purposes
may have been depraved; but they
gave US president whose ability to
serve the country, because of his rela
tions to parties, was infinitely greater
than could have arisen from any other
selection, and he has spared no exer
ton of official and partisan power to
demonstrate his patriotism.
He has redeemed his first and most
important promise. In withdrawing
armies from the South, he has not only
declared peace, but given the States
freedom. In freeing Louisiana and
South Carolina he has at last freed the
South. For the first time, we repeat
it, in seventeen weary years, the tenn
pie of Janus is closed and the people
should celebrate the event with bon
fires and illuminations. 1t is not the
freedom of two ravaged States, but of
a continent, that was achieved when
enslaved Louisiana and South Carolina
were liberated. 1t was not conces
sion to popular liberty alone, but to
the exsctions of outraged constitu-
tional law. The country had borne
these wrongs till the law itself was
perverted in the very hearts of the peo-
pie and President Hayes remedies an
evil greater in its moral than immediate
practical results, and yet how strangely
silent the press and the people
of the South Our very Indifference
is demonstrative of the grandeur of
the end accomplished by the Presi-
dent. We had forgotten the value of
the freedom of States. We have be-
come so diseased morally and dement,
ed because of the maddening passions
of party and of sectional hates that
we are absolutely incapable of appreci-
ating the magnitude of dangers we
have escaped or of the boon conferred
by the countTy'S chief magistrate.
True, she has only done hIssduty,"
but no hero of battle fields, neither Lee,
nor Grant, nor Jackson, nor Mcpherson
ever discharged duty that involved
so much human liberty or required
greater heroism of purpose and char
acter. To close the war, to strike
down the bayonet and uplift the law
and free the States was the proudest
deed and most benefcent of the cen
tury. 1t Is base wrong to deny 1t, and
the baseGt cowardice that prevents as
sertions of the fact. Miserable, dis.
eased, beaten, purpOseless Radicalisu
and Democracy, ragged and beggared,
have such terrors for the people and
have so shackled the press that
even in Texas, where freedom OF
thought and action should be as bound,
less as these sunlit plains and uncon
fined as the breezes that come up from
the sea bestrewing their pathway with
roses-even here the press and people
are silent, and the courage and patri-
; otism of the President hardly recog-
} nIzed. ''He has only done his duty,
we are told, and yet when God comes
;; to reward mans virtues He can say nC
morS than 'he has only done his duty
Let us not forget to quote the Presl
: dents enemy, and repest it again ant
again, and write it ineffaceably upor
: our hearts AMI memories, ''He has on
l ly done his duty"
The army as a factor in State gov
ernments and politics is no more. Th'
South is free, the war ended, peace re
q stored and that new departure, TO
i which patriotism prays and by whisl
? the South Is lifted up from betweeI
colliding contestants and made finally
secure in local rights and in perfec
freedom, is at last insugurated.