The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-12-06

Washington Capital.

cation of one letter from Mississippi
enormously attributed to the pen {
Senator Lamar, indicates the feverisl
condition of the public mind over tn
change now going on in our form o
government.
The cry sent up at the North for
stronger Government than that givel
us by the Constitution was responds
to in the affirmative by one voice a
the South, and. the country was startled
The people at the North have beel
educated to the belief that the Soutl
was an alien enemy-made up of
people without patriotism, and ANNA
ted by selfish cruelty, that made then
unworthy of public trust or nationa
confidence. 1t was preached from al
the public pulpits that solid Nortl
was necessary to put in the Executive
chair man stronger than the Consti
tuition, that the war might be contin
ued against a solid South, so that thu
war power, that overides all law, nigh
be evoked to teach obedience.
One solitary voice from the South
responded, saying ave will accept the
the situation. You deny us all partici
patton in the Government-we resign
all pretentions to such. You say we
aresalien enemies-we are alien enc.
mics. You want strong centralized
Government-we will aid you in crea-
ting it. You want a President elected
for life-we will elect such a President
The leaders were startled. The issue
was made up for them ere they were
prepared for it. They had been lying
about the condition of the South, and
frightening people from the stump, that
they might gain votes, and were alarm
ed at their own stories being verified.
However we'll prepared they might be
for the strong Government that they
had advocated, and while waving "the
bloody shirt" from every crossroads
and scholl-house, they feared. the masses
were not yet prepared, and that the re-
action would be fatal to their presiden-
tial hopes.
1t was as if a mountebank, frighten-
ing rustic audience at night with calls
for a ghost, should have a verltable
ghost appear and frighten the mounte-
bank. :.
Let us suppose it to be true that half
of our territory is held by an alien enc
my, made up of people whose fields
we have laid waste, whose homes we
have rendered desolute by cruel war,
|, xryaI II n cIIltn6 since
the conquest, by not only bitter words
of abuse, but deprivation of the rights
of citizenship and brutal robberles OF
the most Infamous sort-what then?
The Union that we made the war to
inforce is an impossibi'ity, and we have
no choice but that change of govern
ment which will enable us to hold half
our territory conquered province, as
England holds Irelad, Russia Poland,
Austria Hungary, and Germany AIsace
and Lorraine. 1t is not question to
be settled by popular election; it is
dead issue, buried by the logic of events.
What the political leaders of the
Republican party propose is that While
trampling like beasts upon the people
of South, the people of the South shall
have enough patriotism not only to
submit humbly to the degradation, but
but hold aIoft the republic of the fathers
and save for all the country the. rights
denied them.
We are rapidly drifting into civil
war Senator Carpenter, when he
foretold the course of the Democratic
party in the next Presidential contest,
gave point to his prophecy by reciting
in fact the history of the Republican
organization in the last contest. He
was the attorney then of the President
elect, and to appreciate his prognosti-
cation now one should read it by the
light of his eloquent protest then.
We then put to record in the most
solemn manner that it was possible to
fix a legal precedent that the voice OF
the people, however clearly expressed
through the ballot, is subordinate to
the will of o faction controlling the
forms through which that voice is eX-
pressed. The fact that the Democracy, |
through their timid leader, gave way,
and submitted to the inauguration
of a minority candidate, emboldens
that organization to try again; while |
the Democracy, the war element of the
land, unburdened by bonds, is prepared
to make the fraud of that day the
violence of the next.
The fathers of the republic based its
on system that is the very
essence of its existence. 1t was purposed
by those wise and patriotic men that we
should have a self-government so sim
pie in its form, 50 clearly defined, that
at all times it might be administered
by the peoples official agents without
any heavy draft on their intelligence.
They placed more stress on virtue
than intellect, and were uneasy, and
well they might b., on that score only:
We are satisfied that the masses of
our people yet cling to that form of
and are not prepared to
pronounce it failure, and SO call in
'the man on horseback" to save us
from ourselves.
We were guilty of wrong in giving
to the public a confidential letter, but
# it's printing has served in the slight
EST extent to awaken the popular
mind to our perilous condition we may
be pardoned.