The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-07-04
DEMOCRACY NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
Record OF the Last Congress Mis-
sion Of the Republican Party.

plant against the Democratic party are not
merely political crimes. They are not ordinary
political propagandists Their methods are
those which characterized the Inquisition in its
worst and in it's bloodiest periods. The shot
| gun is favorite means of conversion with the
Democratic Thug South. Murder is one of his
usual methods of carrying elections in remote
and unprotected districts, and, until murder,
assassination, house-burning and robbery
cease to be an element in the carrying-on Of a
| political campaign, we should better suspend
| all questions of reform of the civil service I'M
til a very positive reformation is wrought in
| this direction. All the Southern States, with
out an exception, are now in the hands of the
Democratic party. In many of those States
there is large, positive Republican ma
| jority. No question more serious
can be presented than this one:
Shall that majority prevail in the
States where it honestly and in fact exists
Shall the majority have the rights of the ma
jority? Shall they have the privilege of being
what they in fact are, majority? Stated in
| the briefest possible fashion, the Importance
| of this question startles one. 1t is this and
this plainly: Shall the Republican majorities
| in Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and
Florida be disfranchised And in the pres
ence Of such a question all other minor issues
such as the methods of examination which
shall be pursued in determining the fitness of
an applicant for postofice or a. Consulship
dwindle into utter insgnifcance. I believe
that the Republican party is now fully deter
mined that that question shall be settled, and
it's mind is clearly made up as to the manner in
which it shall be settled These majorities
shall not be DISTINGUISHED. While we desire
peace and quiet, we have learned that there
are many things which it will not do to sacri-
fee to peace and quiet. We might better have
century of uproar, and tumult, and confu-
sion, than one year of such shocking injustice.
Our Government has declared that sail citi-
zens of the United States, who are otherwise
qualified by law to vote at any election by the
people in any State, Territory, district, county,
parish, township, school district municipality,
or other territorial subdivision shall be en-
titled and allowed to vote at such elections,
without distinction of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude, any constitution, law,
custom, usage, or regulation of any State or
Territory, or by or under it's authority to the
contrary notwithstanding. The DISTINGUISHED
majorities in four great States, themselves
guilty Of no crime, themselves having per-
formed every duty Of the citizen, take this en-
gagement in their hand, and go to the Govern
ment of the United States and demand the
fullest and completest performance on its part
of this obligation. Who shall say them nav?
Who, in the presence of such contract. so
ri hot rho 7,1TYlc no
faring man, though he be fool, shall not err
therein, shall postpone, or attempt to postpone
the execution of this obligation, upon the
ground that the State in which the injured
citizen lives is the proper authority 70 which
he shall look, when it is the State itself that is
guilty of the very crime which the Govern
ment, by it's contract has agreed to punish
and redress? This, after ALL my fellow citi-
zens, is the solid, real question of the hour.
A Government that will not keep an engage
ment of this character is not fit to be Govern
ment. A Government which will not protect
under the sanction of so solemn promise, the
citizen in the enjoyment of his privileges which
it has guaranteed, has no right to demand allie
glance from that citizen. The Government
that refuses in it's fullest measure the perform
ance of that obligation is guilty Of great
crime-is not fit to be Government; is I'M
worthy of obedience or allegiance. Is there
room for bubble here? Is there space for
doubt? The fact is unmistakable. No man in
his right senses will undertake to deny its ex-
istence. The law is clear beyond all question.
The justice and propriety of the law does not
admit of moments discussion. What. then,
is the first duty of the Republican party?
Clearly that this obligation of the Government
shall, in its letter and spirit, be carried out;
that the disfrancbised majority of these States
South shall be enfranchised, and that there
shall be no quiet, but eternal agitation, until
this enfranchisement is an accomplished fact.
To that the Republican party from the begin
ming has been pledged. To that, if it is true
to itself, unto the end it will be pledged.
Heretofore we have been met by the obiec-
ton that the issue which l now present is an
old iasue-that bygones should be bygones,
and that the people of this country should
turn their attention to new questions. If the
question is an important one, it is no objection
to its continual agitation that it is an old ques-
ton. If the issue which the Republican party
makes is real and substantial we will not be
justified in abandoning the issue because it is
old. We should never abandon it until 1t is
settled. 1t is no merit of political issue that it
is new The only consideration in this respect
is, whether it is living issue. An issue lives
so long as it is undetermined, and the question
Of the enfranchisement of every voter, North
apd South, is a living question, vital ques-
ton, so long as any voter North or South, is
deprived of the unconstrained privilege of the
ballot. AS we'll might the preacher be required
to cease denouncing sin this year because he
denounced it last as that the Republican party
should be expected to cease pressing this issue
this year because we urged it last year. The
preacher may as well say that he will
cease denouncing sin when sin ceases
and we will cease clamoring for
the enfranchisement of all voters
when all voters are enfranchised.
The issue as to whether the law shall provide
for an absolute equality of suffrage has been
settled, because the Law does provide for it; but
the issue as to whether the law shall be carried
out has not been settled, because the law has not
been carried out. Issues are not manufactured
to order. The presentation to a great people
of a real issue is not merely literary effort.
Conventions do not make issues, nor do con-
ventions settle issues. Conventions find is
sues, and the people will compel them to act
upon and determine them. And the great
body of the people are not so soon fatigued
that they will fail to redress great wrong this
year because they undertook to redress it last
year and failed in the undertaking.
The curse of Southern intolerance is and has
been that it excludes free and independent
thought from its midst. With the same lati-