New-York tribune., 1879-05-02

proposition to refuse appropriations until the
President consents to Their demands-is not at
all of Southern seeking, but comes of acting
upon the advice of Northern and Western
Democrats These latter, we are told, are the
extremists who originated the issue by put
ting the riders on the appropriation bills, and
who are now tine loudest and most obstinate
in their demands that there be no falling
back or swerving from the line OF that
policy. IT is to be noted that disclaimers OF
responsibility from Southern Democrats are
much more common, now that the policy is
so plaint seen to be a blunder, than when
everything seemed to be going on swimmingly,
and Blackburn and Chalmers in the House,
and Beck and Salisbury in the Senate. were
crack 9 the whip of the caucus and
debating terms to the Executive. The Con-
scrvative Southern Democrats, who are repre-
sented now as dcprecating this suicidal policy,
and as having been opposed to it from the
beginning, We're very quiet then. when IL
seemed possible TO force measures through
which concedo the doctrine of State su-
premacy, and by removing restrictions upon
fraudulent voting make Democratic success
possible, they GiscreeIly held their peace. Now
that they find that the transaction does not
promise profit, but rather damage to the
party, they protest that it was none OF their
work. they disapproyed it from the first.
Well let us look ut this matter philosophi-
cally. The Northern Democrats who are
charged with this great responsibility are but
a small minority of the Congressional repre-
sentation. Does the tall really and truly
"waggle the dog I" Have these few Northern
Democrats such force and persistence,
and such intellectual superiority over
the Southern Representatives, that they can
take the whole party and swing it ut Will to
whatever policy they chOOsc2 1t has not been
generally 80 supposed; and some OF these
Northern Democrats, we have good reason
to believe, are, and have been, op-
posed to the pursuance of the revOlu-
tionary policy. Not many of them per-
haps, but certainly two or three, VINO
are not wholly pig-headed or blind to
the current of opinion and the set OF
events. Take these out, and there are left
but a feeble few TO bear the responsibility OF
ling swung the whole party, including
the. conservative Southern statesmen who
w,.e powerless to resist it, over to the policy
u
do all this mischief? Was it due to
their impassoncd elOquence, their IN
equalled skill in management and ability
as leaders, that the Democracy struck
this attitude of defiance and recorded Its
threat to starve the country into submission
to its viii ? Begging your pardon, ConSe1ya-
tive Southern Democrats, who never believed
in this plan, or approved it, but have been
dragged into it by your Northern allies, aren't
you taxing our credulity little too
far We can believe, of course, that
Northern Democrats tempted you into
secesson; that you all loved the Union,
as you protested you did, until Northern ag-
gressions siren gthened the small secession party
in the South to the point of engaging i'll re-
bellion, and that one State dragged all the
others after it into the Confederacy we can
believe that in many sections of the South
a minority of white Democrats gets hon
est mGjOrities over an opposition that
outnumbers them; that Southern Democrats
are opposed to bulldOzng, but are over
ruled by small gangs of lawless fellows, and
that Northern Democrats are opposed to fraud,
but compelled to defend and profit by it by
few bad leaders III large cities and we may
believe, perhaps, that political control in this
country properly belongs to a minority but is
there to he never an end of thsl Must the
tail always "waggle the dognl
On the whole, hadn't we better have it
understood once for all that the country
holds men and parties responsible for the
things they are caught doing without much
reference to the other and opposite things
they are found sayingl These gentlemen
have just come back from an unsuccessful
conspiracy and the first thing we find them
doing is engaging in another. When this, like
the others, bids fair TO fall disastrously, it
will not answer to try TO turn off the cOnse-
quences by protesting that they were tempted
again by the same old tempter. Here is Mr..
Alexander Stephens talking like little winged
cherub about the unfortunate complication
over the Appropriation bill and saying that he
was not and never was III favor OF that method
of legislation. And q lot of mjlI-and- peO
pie cry out, "Just look at the noble and patriotic
"stand of Mr.. Stephens! Can any one say
latter this that the Southern Democracy can
"not be safely trustedp Oh. essence of skim
milk, what logic That's the way he talked
against secession. And then he became Vice
President of it. If Democratic caucus de-
cides to "stand hrm," hell stand finn; if it
decides to back down. he'll back down.
Judge these men by what you catch them
doing, not by what yOu hear them saying.
These receivers of stolen goods who trade
and flourish, and say never word till the
hue and cry is raised, and then remark to an
interviewing reporter that they always did
deprecate this way of dong business, are not
good models for courageous or wholesome
politics. The country finds the Democratic
party in possession of both branches OF Con-
gress, and the South in possession of the