The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1878-12-10
The re,ident,s Message.

IHc IresiOcnJ'S MeSSaScs
Opinion in regard to Presidents
Message, as q general rule, Is largely in
fluenced by opinion of the President
himself. Usually about one-half the peo-
pie make up their minds in advance that
they will approve the Message, while the
other halt make up their minds to de.
nonnce it.
The Message of President HAYES is
an exception to this rule. Few speak
harsh!y Of it, and fewer speak warmly OF
it, the large majority simply care moth
irg about it. There are some reasons
for this aside from the merits or demer.
its of the document ITSELF A msjC rity
OF one branch of Congress being op-
posed to him politically, and majority
Of the other branch unfriendly to him
for various reasons, his recommends
tions are not likely to receive much at
tention. 1t is doubtful If any one meas
ure will receive single additional vote
because the President has spoken in its
favor. H
But the Message is tame and common
place. 1t exhibits neither vigor of style
nor vigor OF thought. Yet it may be
said TO compare favorably, as whole
with the Messages Mr.. HAYES wrote
when he was Governor of Ohio.
We doubt if any one, unless it be
President HAYES himself, really thinks il
to be worthy Of being reproduced in all
the newspapers of.theaeeantry, or even
in all the organs of hisparty. 1t is less
generally published than any Message
for many years.
About the only point in the Message
which elicits comment is that in regard
to the recent elections in the South
While this is too tamely treated to please
the "stalwarts" of his party, it plainly
indicates that the vaunted Southern Pol.
icy of the President has been deliber-
ately murdered.
His ideas in regard TO his new South
ern Policy are rather amusiugly crude
For example, be says:
"The recent Congressional elections
have furnished direct and trustworthy
test of the advance thus far made in the
practical establishment Of the rights ol
suffrage, secured by the Constitution to
the liberated race in the Southern States
Al disturbing influences. real or in,aqin
ary. had been removed from all these
States
Again, he says:
"The people of the former slave hold
ing States accepted these results, and
gave, in eUery practicable form. assuran
ces that the thirteenth, fourteenth and
amendments, and laws passed
in pursuance thereof, should, in good
faith, be enforced rigidly and impartial
ly, in letter and spirit, to the end that the
humblest citizen, without distinction oil
race or color. should, under them, receive
full and equal protection in person and
and in political rights and priv.
ileges."
After these emphatic assurances that
"all disturbing influences real and imag-
mary have been removed" and that the
Soathern people have shown "in every
practicable FORM their determination to
give the humblest citizen "full and equal
protection" one is taken little by sur.
prise to bump his head against this SEN
tence:
."But in the States of Louisiana and
South Carolina at large and in some
particular Congressional districts outside
of those States the records of the elec.
tion seem to compel the conclusion that
the rights of the colored voters have
been overridden and their participation
in the elections not permitted to be either
general or free"
Here we have disturbances withou,
any "disturbing element" and we have
men who are receiving 'fall and free
protection" in their "political rights
unjustly deprived Of the right Of suf
frage.
1t looks as il the President had writ
ten down what he knew OF the situation
and that some one of bis '.advisers,
looking over his shoulder, had required
him to throw in paragraph for the us'
of the bloody shirt orators. At any rat
the palpable inconsistency of the state
ments places our nice, but feeble, Presi
dent In an awkward position.
Another noticeable feature of th
Message is something which is not in il
In the campaign which resulted in hi
defeat at the polls and his success befor
the Electoral Commission, he proclaim
ed, and his friends made the welkin rirl
with the proclamation, that great ant
thorough Reform Of the Civil Servic
was to be the Distinguishing measure Q
his administration. This proposed Re
form, the very soul of the campaign
and the paper which it occupied in th
Letter Of Acceptance, Inaugural, an
first Message, now do service in Whit
House rats nests.
For the most part the Message
made up of abstracts Of the Reports b
the several beads of Departments, an
is very prosy. Probably not one vote
in five hundred has any desire to dra
through It.
ETStill the Republicans count ever
negro voter as member Of their part
In some States nearly half the negro'
vote the Democratic ticket, yet we al
told that they are Republicans, and th
their votes should be counted on tn
side,. no matter whose names are on the
ballots.