New-York tribune., 1879-05-13

| South nad aDanuOHeu ItS oiu So'Ooo'"'
and State Sovereignty notions ana was
willing and anxious to recognize the new
order of things and accept fully the results oi
the war; There are thousands of voters at
the North who were Republicans before and
during the war, who sincerely desired to be-
| lieye that this was so and were willing to cut
loose from their party If necessary, to help
| establish a permanent Union and lasting
peace They have more than met the South
half way: They have accepted the vague
generalties and gushing sentimentalitles OF
Mr.. Hill and two or three other emo
tional statesmen Of the South as the ex-
preston of genuine desire for recon-
clliation-not with the Democratic party,
with which they had had no falling out or
difference,-but with the loyal North. through
whose efforts the Union was maintained and
the Rebellion crushed. The North more than
met them half way when tins seemed to be
their purpose. They brought them back not
only to equal enjoyment of the rights they
had forfeited, but to places of power in the
Governments And it is by their utterances
since they have been so trusted that we judge
| them.
Senator IIill the most conservative OF them,
does not hesitate to say that the crime-for
let us call it in plain words crime. since 1t
is a question of responsibility for it-of rebel
| lion is traceablc directly to Northern inter
ference. "The South seeded" he says, "be-
"cause there was a war made upon what she
"belieyed to be her constitutional rights by
"the extreme men OF the North. Those ex-
"treme men of the North were gaining abso-
CUTE power in the Federal Government as
"the machinery by which to destroy Southern
"property.n That seems sufficiently explicit,
and certainly is candid enough. Is there any
question as to what this most moderate and
conservative and best cOnciiated states
man thinks as to the responsibility for
rebellion 1t was not the South that was to
blame for firing on Sumter and opening the
war; not at all but the North that had
"made war" upon :" the constitutional rights
of the South - in voting for Abraham Lin
coin. Very well; 1t is good to understand
precisely what the most thoroughly placated
Southern statesman thinks about this buried
bygOne. Not only that, but he tells
us something entirely new as to who
put down the rebellion and saved the
Union. 1t was not the Republican,, but
the Democratic party that did it. "NO, my
good Northern Democratic brethren" says
Mr.. Hill, lyon saved the country at last !;
"you saved the Union in the hour OF its
"peril, not the Republican party" This is,
indeed, news; news to the Democrats who OPP
posed every step i'll the " coercion OF the
South" and persistently obstructed all the
war measures Of the Government, as well as
to the Republicans who through all that fiery
struggle had to contend with factious De-
mocracy in the rear while putting forth all
their energies to crush the rebeliOus De-
mocIacy in the field.
But Mr.. Hill goes even further. He lays
anew upon the Northern Democracy the old
duty of weakening and destroying the opposi-
ton to n Solid South. at is for yOu," he
says, "to go before your people and tell them
&" that the Solid North must never become a
L" fact against the Solid South" With this
TOO, goes the old, old threat for he adds ::
"If so, dsunion will be accomplished 1t is
"you that we look to-" And so ends the
hope cherished by hundreds of thousands of
Northern voters who love peace and do not
desire contention, that the men who
entered upon secession and rebellion,
and were fairly beaten in their appeal
upon ground of their own choosing,
had come back, having learned something,
willing to bury the past and cOncede that
there had been something settled by the war.
Mr.. Hill has enlightened all who fingered i'll
that delusiOn. The case has now been fully
and very frankly stated on the floor of the
United States Senate, and il is this: The
Republican party are now, as they always have
been, "the only enemy of either the States
I" or the Union" The crime of Rebellion was
theirs. The South was entirely justified in
secession. The Democratic party saved the
Union. That party must save 1t again by
preventing a solid North from combining
against a solid South. 1t is right for the
South to consolidate against the Republicans,
but if the North combines "disuniOn will be
accomplished" This is the summing up
of the points in Senator Hilps great speech.
We believe he has done his party greater
damage, if possible, than any one who has
preceded him IN this debate. But he has been
utterly frank and sincere, and we thank him
for it. The issues he presents we are quite
ready to meet and go to the country on.
Meantime, the North has leisure to chew
upon these three propositions. First, that
the election of Abraham Lincoln justified
secession Second, that the Democratic party
saved the Union. Third, that while it is the
right and the duty of the South to be solid,
the consolidation of the North will bring dis
union. According to Senator Hill. nothing
was settled by the war. Let us have that
question put to the people.