The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-11-29

order of great journals. It Is a newspaper,
and it's editorial columns contain the news in
regard to popular opinion, which they always
endeavor to reflect, just as the local and tel
egraph columns give the news of what trans
pires daily throughout the world The Herald
never utters an opinion Of its own but it's sole
object appears to be to find out and express
the popular sentimentof the day, upon all sub
jects Of the more liberal and better informed
elements of Northern society. For this very
reason. as o sort of gage and weathercock Of
Northern opinion, 1t is q very valuable paper
while, beyond this, its opinions and utter
ances are of no Importance whatever.
We therefore infer from the tone Of tho dis
patch with which Mr.. Charles Nordhoff, the
HcrGlTa Washington correspondent, signal
lied his arrival at the capital for the winter,
and the papers editorial comments thereon,
that we are to have one Of the old time "stal-
wart' campaigns which characterized the
days of Grant, and are, therefore, suggestive
Of his temperance in the political arena, and
that just at this time. the idea is enjoying an
ephemeral popularity.
It Is the sensation, the mood Of the hour,
and, Of course, it finds an utterance through
that very sensitive medium, the New York
Herald. Now that paper is slang whangng
away, for Grant apparently, In true "stal-
wart' style. It adopts and publishes all the
absurd and fantastic stories Of outrage in the
Southern States, and warns the South that
the North will be as Thoroughly united
against the South as it was during the period
Of reconstruction" and predicts storm of
fndignant feeling against the whole South
on account Of these reported acts Of violence
in one or two localities. The feeling which
prompted these warnings and predictions Is
temporary, mere 'spurt," which will dis
appear when the Northern public comes to be
informed as to the facts Of these wild rumors
of Southern outrage, and its subsistence will
be duly chronicled In the altered tone of the
Iernlds very versatile editorials.
The HeraId's main grievance now is, that
some Of the persons in Virginia and South
Carolina who had made af1idavits against the
local election officers, with q view to prose-
cutting them under the Federal statutes have
been indited in turn by the State authorities
for perjury. In the short-sighted eyes of the
Herald this la q fearful outrage, for which the
indignant people of the North will "try to
find scme other remedy" than that supplied
by the Federal election laws.
The Washington Post, referring to this
grievance of the Herald, very sensibly OBJ
serves that it's language means-if it means
anything-that the processes of the State
courts Of Virginia and South Carolina must
be carried on with view, not to the local dis
pensation of justice, but with respect to the
feelings of "the North" That is to say
case of perjury in Virginia or South Carolina
is to be tried not by the lee loci and the facts,
but by the will and wish Of "the North" If
"the North chooses to espouse the cause of
the defense in any given case OF per-
jury arising in the local courts of
those States, the prosecution must be
Immediately abandoned and the indict-
ment quashed, or, in the exact language
Of the Herald, 'the indignant people Of the
North will try to find some other remedy"
But why confine this novel theory In criminal
to the one ofense of perjury?
Why not extend 1t in the form of an mgis of
the ali-wise providence Of an overruling
North" broad enough to shelter the negro
chicken thief or ravisher? In fact, why not
make the rule generally applicable to all
crimes, and the theory comprehensive enough
to cover all cases, real and hypothetical OF
course such proposition is simply Iudicrous.
But it Is nothing more nor less than the inevi-
table and unavoidable sequence of the Radi-
cal logic carried out to ultimate conclusions.
The Post concludes It's very admirable ar
ticle by propounding to the Herald the fol-
lowing very pertinent questions:
|. What is the South against which the
NORTH is to "united?'
2. What is the NORTH which is to he
united" against the "South?"
3. By what received and authoritative poll
tlcal document, treaty, Or whatever it NAV
be called, Is the American Union divided into
Two SECTIONS, countries or races cherishing
Two sets or interests, aspirations and pur-
poses, developing two systems of civilization,
polity,, and inter-diplomacy, and subject to
periodical seasons OF hostility Ito wit: at
every recurring election)?
4. What relations do these two subdivisions
or the American Union sustain to each other?
Is one the government and the other a
province? Is "the North" conqueror and
the South a conquest? Is the former O
principal State or political entity like Eng
land and the other dependency or political
nonentity like India, Canada, Australia or
Leaving it to the Herald to answer these
questions at its leisure we will merely sug-
gest to the great American weathercock that
the Supreme Court of the United States has
very unequivocally decided that the confer
ring and control of the franchise of suffrage
belong exclusively to the States, and that
neither the United States nor the North nor
The South have voters in the Southern or any
other States, and that the whole subject of
election frauds and the treatment of ali cases
If false registration, voting or counting are
matters of exclusive State jurisdiction. This
vas the doctrine too, upon which even the
Electoral Commission most urgently insisted.
What was sauce for the goose may be safely |