New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-05-15
FOUyD AN ISSUE LAST


FOUND An ISSUE At LAST.
Our Democratic friends at Washington are
reported to have put on within the past two
or three days more thoughtful appearance.
Immediately after the veto some OF them
seemed quite joyous over the situation. Inc
veto. thew said, gave them just the issue they
wanted. They were all ready to go to the peo-
ple upon the question Of bayOnets at the
polls They were confident that the people
would rise up and give overwhelming major
tiles everywhere in favor of free elections and
the Democratic ticket. 1t was noticeable,
however, that the most hilarity prevailed
among the Southern Democrats, who declared
that this was just the issue they wanted,
and that it could not be too sharply
defined. A few Northern Democrats who had
sufficient appreciation of the situation to know
that what would consolidate the South more
firmly would be of no special advantage to
the party, since the South is already unit
and practically discounted in all political cal
culations, and the effect was very likely to be
damaging at the North, where the party really
needs STRENGTHENING, did not enter so heartily
into the Tejoiciugs. Within the past day or two
their soberer view has become more general,
and it has begun to dawn even upon the
minds of the impulsive representatives OF the
superior race that the popular Judgment on
the issue they have raised may not, after all,
be so overwhelmingly in their favor.
1t remains true, however, that they have at
fast found a real issue upon which TO 90 to
the people and that, to a party that has been
so long diminishing around in search Of some
vital question, must be a source of comfort
They have got it at last. We congratulate
them upon it most heartily. And we cOngat-
ulate the country as we'll that there Is an end
to a good deal of the lodging and turning
and twisting and dOuble-dealng and trickery
which the Democratic party has been in
dulsiug in for several years. They call it
question of the freedom of elections, and
their confidence IN it arose unQuestionably
from their belief that the appeal which they
should make to the sympathies of the North
upon their representation of the tyranny
of bayonet-rule would be as effective as
their former appeals against the injustice and
hardships Of negro ascendancy. They have
yet to learn that public opinion at the North
has undergone a radical change since the re-
suits of the so-called policy Of reconciliation
have been made manifest. The behavior of
Southern Democrats since they have had an
opportunity to show their real spirit and pur-
pose, their treatment of colored voters and
political opponents, their methods Of carrying
elections by violence and fraud, and above
all their candid disclosures upon the floors of
Congress of their motives and their inten-
tons, have put an end to the emotional pol
itics which prevailed for time, and to
which they are indebted for their present in
complete power
Through all this meaningless talk about
bayonets at the polls the people of the North
see the kernel of the whole business and the
real merits of the question. The discussion
has been too thorough and searching, and the
public interest in it too profound and wide
spread to permit the success of any attempt
to conceal or evade the vital points at issue.
There are very few intelligent voters at the
North who do not understand, as well from
the utterances of Southern Democrats them
selves as from the speeches Of Republicans
and the messages of the President, that this
is simply the old question of State Rights
revived, and that the ground occupied by the
Democrats in Congress is precisely that upon
which secession was justified and the appeal
to arms taken. The Democratic position
is precisely that OF the followers OF Cal
hoan, only more extreme, if possible, in
its advocacy of the rights of secession and
notification. And that is the issue which,
after so much skirmshing, they have found
and set up. They seemed at first quite jolly
over their discovery. The Republicans could
have desired nothing better than that they
should continue III that frame of mind and
present the issue squarely and honestly to
the people. 1t is question with which they
are somewhat familiar. They supposed they
had at some cost and some sacrifice pretty
definitely settled it once, and that the concu-
sion reached at AppOmattOX was final. 1t
comes up again with the first appearance of
Democratic majority in both branches of Con-
gress. And perhaps it is as well, if it has to
be done over again, that it should be done at
once. The event will show that the mind of
the North has not changed upon this subject.
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