The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-07-04
THE OK AND THE ASS.

We remember of having read some
policy to yoke an OK and an ass together
in the same team. This is what destroys
the consistency and influence of so many
of the great city papers. There is the N.
Y. Times, in very many respects great
paper yet it fails as to consistency. 1t
advocates the election of Republicans to
Office, but when we read its leading edi-
torials we fail to see why it should desire
the success of Republicanism.
Here is an editorial from the Times,
where it reviews the sound Republican
platform of the State convention in Iowa,
and concludes thus:
To persons at distance these manifes-
tations of the Republican spirit in Iowa
| look like superfuous assurances of ortho
doxy. No one doubts the soundness and
heartiness of the party faith as it is cher
ished in that State in anything that re-
| lates to the nature of the Union, the po
| litical lessons of the war, the rights con-
| ferred by the constitutional amendments,
or the essentials of permanent pacifca-
| ton at the South Nor does any one
|
and faithful to the elementary truths of
Republicanism in the future than in the
past. But political campaign is sup
posed to have some immediate practical
connection with eXtant questions and
tendencies, and the stereotyped PROPOSE
| tions which compose one-half of the Iowa
! platform have none. Probably they
sound sororous and grand in Des Moines,
but to the Republicans of other States
they give no more aid and comfort than
would be- derived from the literal faunt-
| ing of bloody shirt. Had Mr. Harlan
or Mr.. Wilson climbed the Capitol and
gone through this performance it might
have been accepted as sign of readiness
to reconstruct the reconstructed States
at the point of the bayonet. But what
meaning attaches to a series of declara
tions which imply that the work of the
war has not been finished satisfactorily,
| or to succession of demands which pre-
suppose a power somewhere to enforce
them2 If the intention was thus to ex-
press disapproval of the Presidents
| Southern action, direct statement to
| that effect would have been better Are
we to understand, then, that the Iowa
Republicans would have Congress disre-
gard constitutional limitations with the
view of adj usting matters in the Southern
States, or that they would have the Pres
ident enforce the objects of reconstruc-
tion by exercising powers he does not
possess? If not, the demands" amount
to nothing.
This essential fact which Iowa seems
not to comprehend is plainly understood
| in most of the other States. For the
time, at any rate, the Southern question
| is dead. 1t may rise from the grave some
| day, and decisive treatment will then be
necessary. Meanwhile, in all its old
aspects, it is removed from the partisan
arena and the candidate who goes about
shouting himself hoar5e with cries which
are no longer applicable is more likely
| to lose votes than to gain them. People
generally are tired of these things They
may not like Mr.. Hayes method of set
| tlement, but they are rather thankful
| that the question is out of the way. The
feeling is not indicative of coldness or
| infidelity toward the cause with which
the Republican party is identified. 1t
means simply that men are not willing
! to waste time in bandyiDg epithets, as
serting what every body knows, and de
manding" what the Executive cannot
| enforce; and that they are more disposed
| to seek practical reforms, to resist propo
! sails which the Iowa Republicans have
overlooked, to cultivate national inter
ests, and to rely upon ordinary influences
for the development of independent po-
! litical action in the Southern States.
That was evidently written by the ass
of the editorial team.
The following is on the same page of
the Times and must have been written
by the other half of the team:
When, at the request of Senator John
| B. Gordon and Gen. Wade Hampton,
Col Fitzsimmons, late of the rebel Army,
was appointed to the United States Mar
shalship of Georgia, vice a gallant Union
soldier removed without cause, it was
stated that there would be no more illicit
distilling done in the Empire State Of
the South, and no more violations of the
Internal Revenue laws. Col. Fitzsim-
mons and his friends made many prom
ises They told the President that the
old Marshal, being "carpet-bag
Yankee" did not understand how to go
about the enforcement of the laws among
1.-The good people of Georgia" that the
presence of U. S. soldiers was distasteful