Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-03-19
From the New York Tribune.
Across the Potomac.


Mississippi is almost frantic with delight
because a Washington journal remarks
that 1.-The Confederacy has at last captured
the Capitol" Yes, thank Godr' ex-
claims the pious fire-eater. 1--WE have cap
tured the Capitol, and in 1880 our man
will walk up the White House steps and
take his seat in the Presidential chair.
Then will our glorious triumph be COM
plete.s Then will we proceed to tear your
amendments from the Constitution and
trample them in the mire. Then will we
break the shackles You have forged for the
free, sovereign and independent common
wealths of the Union. Then will we rec
ognize the right of secession-a right
that is not dead, but sleeping. Then will
We decorate the Capitol with the pictures
of Davis, and Lee, and Stuart, and all the
glorious leaders of cause that is not lost,
but living still. Yes, thank God, we have
captured the Capitol, and from that coigne
of vantage we propose to rule the Repub
lie in a way that will make your Radical
laws and your Radical leaders forever obi
Gus in America" This sounds rather
wild; and the gentleman who is scream
ing is probably person of no individual
consequence, as his paper is certainly not
an organ of commanding importance.
Yet the most extravagant outcres of the
SputbnrIa without thar cir
nifcance. The literary swashbuckler who
fills himself with gunpowder and new
whiskey, and lays raw-hide on the table
before him when he begins to demolish
the Radical party and defend the sacred
rights of the South, is not an awe-inspir-
ing figure but he does very often express
the sentiments of his neighborhood, and
forecast the policy of his party.
There is not much doubt at any rate that
the ruling passion of the South at present
Is to trample the constitutional amend
ments in the mre-which. indeed, has al
ready been done in most of the recon-
structed States-and to sweep away all the
Radical laws" by which the republican
party attempted to secure the results of
the war when the rebels States were allowed
to return to their old places in the Union.
Equal rights, free suffrage, fair vote, an
honest count, protection for the weak and
ignorant, were the only demands which We
made of the defeated party Mt the end of
the contest. and it was to guarantee these
things that the amendments and the Rad
ical laws were enacted. While the re-
publican party held an undisputed MAORI
ty in the country, we are assured that the
South accepted everything in good faith.
The Lost Cause was lost forever. The
doctrine of equality was no more to be de-
MED either in practice or theory. The
amendments were recognized without de-
muir. The laws passed in accordance with
them were not to be disturbed. Nothing
could have been more satisfactory than the
behavior of the Confederates so long as they
were out of power, with no immediate
prospect of getting in. They were so pro-
fuse in promises and protestations that they
almost seemed to be more deeply attached
to the Union than the soldiers who fought
for it.
With the first sign of a possible return
of the Democratic party to power all these
pleasant pretences are suddenly aban-
doned. The spirit of secession, nullifica-
ton and rebellion flames up as hot as it
was in 1860. The Lost Cause is again a
cause to be fought for. The Northern
radical is an enemy to be cursed with great
sounding oaths. The Southern white radi-
cal is an ''incendiary'' to be driven out of
the country. The niger is to be taught
his place. And radical laws and radical
amendments to the constitution, with all
other devices of oppression" are to be
promptly trodden in the mire There is
nothing like sudden prosperity to test Il
mans character. A CLEAN of good for
tune works an instantaneous change in our
reconciled brother. Last year he was the
most cordial and genteel of human beings :;
to-day he is as truculent as if he still owned
niggers.
But this is not the first time that the Con-
federates have boosted of the conquest of
the Capitol before taking it. They may
remember previous occasions on which
they crossed the Potomac; we have no
doubt that they also remember the circum-
stances under which they went back again
Before their glorious triumph is com
plete'' they will have to reckon with the
same party which met them at Antietam
and Gettysburg.
Cleveland man has demonstrated that a
ton of ice weighs more than ton of coal.
He was purchasing both commodities and had
the curiosity to weigh each as it was deliv.
cred. He found that the ton of ice weighed
3 uife over 200O, and that the ton of coal
weighed only l740 pounds.
The New Orleans Times saws that a very