Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1877-01-16
For the SPECTATOR.
Hayes and Lamar.

For the SPECTATOR.
Hayes and Lamar.
When the electric flash which told tn
story of Mr.. Tilden's election to Joy
: GUS people reached Mr.. Hayes, he i
said to have remarked that he grieve'
for it not on his own account. "but be
cause the election of Mr.. Tilden mean
bitter and bloody persecution of the col
ored people of the South" What di'
this remark mean? If it meant any
thing, it meant that Mr.. Tilden, his adj
visers, mis- counsellors and companions
would direct the whole weight ant
, power of his administration to the per
negro in the South-that Mr.. Tilden
elected by the solid South, and there
fore the exponent of Southern senti
ment, would be obliged to follow thu
dictates of his party and consign th'
negro to everlasting political oblivion
by depriving him of his right of suf-
frage and sitting his political aspira-
tions forever. This thought, so happi-
ly expressed by the leader of this great
party of 'MOral Ideasn had been dis
cussed and elaborated by every Repub-
lican demagogue who had the strength
to lift on high "the bloody shirt" to the
admiring gaze of an exulting populace
Like the wolf, which, when once it has
tasted blood, fears not to enter the very
Jaws of death that its devouring appe-
tites may be satisfied, these people OF
the North only devoured the first frag-
ments Of the bloody garment to have
their appetites whetted the sharper for
the CORY meal. Yes, "the bloody shirt''
was the malignant cry of this party
throughout the North and South. The
debasement Of the negro and the depri-
walton of all his rights and privileges
granted under the Constitution and ac-
cepted by the South was the story
which found ready ear among the ig-
norant population of the South. The
South, they said, could not be trusted
with the power of governing and direct
ing the policy of the Government to-
wards the very negroes it fought to keep
in slavery. Nor would the Republican
party submit to see the negro which it
had fought to enfranchise enslaved
again by its Southern master. These
things were proclaimed from every
hustings throughout the North and
South, and yet when Mr.. Hayes thinks
there is chance of his being inaugura-
ted, that he may temper the feelings of
the South by his reasoning moderation
and fairness he declares that, if inaugu-
rated he would give Mr.. Lamar seat
in his cabinet that his Southern policy
might be dictated by him. In plain
language it means simply this, that from
the ranks of a party which Mr.. Hayes
and his friends declared on every stump
in the land, during the late canvass.
could not be trusted with the control of
the Government; yes! from the ranks
of this very party which was held up
to the negro-by Mr.. Hayes himself and
his associates-as the party that had
held them in bondage and deprived
them of their sacred liberties SO long
and which could not be trusted now be-
cause of it's hostility to them-it is even
proposed by Mr.. Hayes-or if not by
him, by his party presto take a man
who in case of his Inauguration shall
dictate the entire policy of his admin
istration toward the negro and maintain
his rights before the law. But mark
the dilemma of the situation. If Mr..
Hayes should appoint Mr.. Lamar to his
Cabinet for such purpose, the appoint
ment itself would be an admission that
the po.icy of the Democratic party as
embodied in Mr.. Lamar's views was
better suited to the amelioration and
advancement of the negro in the South
than those of the Republican party as
embodied in Cameron's, or Chambers,
or anybody else's views-in short, it ad
mits that the party which Mr.. Hayes
declared the worst enemy of the negro,
produces the man whom he now says
can best dictate the policy of the admin
istration toward him, and that his own
party which has these many years as
sumed the peculiar privilege of fostering
his interest and defending his liberties
must now fOrsake forever the paths it
has trodden and assume policy, the
very assumption of which admits their
past course to have been erroneous. He
discards the carpet.bag rule, the rule of
his own party, and declares for the rule
of honest men-the former masters
whose policy has always been to live
peaceably with their former slaves
But if these things be true-and we take
the words of the press that they are true
then Mr.. Hayes has the graver ques-
ton to meet-of what he meant by de-
claring during the late canvass that the
party, which he noW believes to be the
best friend Of the negro, was his bitter
est enemy. What did he mean by hold
ing up to bis party the Southern people
as the enemies of the negro, when he
believed they were his best friends as
his subsequent conduct shows? What
did he mean by Haunting in the faces OF
the multitudes the bloody shirt, which
means war upon the negro by the
whites, when he believed there was no
such war; What did he mean by STIR
ring the passions of the people and
making them believe that the liberation
of the slave for which they fought was
not yet accomplished, but that he was
still the serf Of the white man? What
did he mean by exhorting his party to
action upon policy which was bound
to generate sectional hate-and this, too,
when the grounds upon which he urged
it he knew were false. What, I ask, did
he mean by these things? If there is
any truth in facts-if the history of the
party of which Mr.. Hayes is the leader
shows anything-1f truth is not liar
he is convicted out of his own mouth of
acting lie-of playing the demagogue
of forfeiting all claim to craftsmanship
of resorting to sectional issues in or
der to gain power-of debasing his lofty
position to that of demagogue-o: sac
rificing principle to party purposes
For these things I arraign him before
God and the country as malicious dis
turber of the peace, who would thus
sacrifice the well-being of this great peo-
pie for his own private advancement
and selfish ends.
1t is to be hoped that the new century
of cur infant country just opening may
witness the total annihilation of party
which bases its claim to rule this Gov
eminent on its power to infiame one
section against the other. and that we
may yet see, through the Providence OF
God, the glorious ascendency of that
party whose principles are founded on
the granite rock of the Constitution and
whose leader is Samuel j. Tilden.
ST. G.
/. SEED WHEAT.-Farmers, in running
your wheat through the tanning mill
after threshing do not be satisfied with
merely making clean seed; aim at pro.
ducing a grade of wheat that will aceigh
i IL, -. 4: