Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1879-10-16

science of power thus gained the Democratic
party becomes defiant in its denial of the right
of the Government to defend itself bvregulating
the national elections or by enforcing its
statutes for the protection of its citizens, Ell
Their by the military or even the civil authority
1t denies the Government any participation in
the control of proceedings which affect the
common defense" and the general welfare !"
Anarchy may reign supreme on the day of an
election involving the interests of the whole
people, but the Government has no power to sub
due it. DENY ing with deadly determination, as
just now at YaZoo, even the right of candidacy
to one differing from the dominant majority.
this solid South asserts its right in carnival of
rifles, shot-guns, masks, red shirts and tissue
ballots to elect its own Congress, which shall
enact the laws-reyenue, commercial, financial,
and others-affecting and binding the persons
and property of the whole country. Such is
the party which, intrenched in Congress and a
solid South, proclaims its purpose to turn back
the finger on the dial and to reverse the legisla-
ton of the nation for the last eighteen years.
THE DIsHoNORED SOUTH
Who are these demanding that their states
mauship and patriotism shall shape and con-
troll the destinies of this nation? In the knowl-
edge of every man of ordinary intelligence in
the land, they ale minority of the legal voters
of the United States, making up in force what
they lack IN numbers; suppressing by fraud
and oppression the vote Of the emancipated
citizens of the South; standing always across
the pathway of the progress OF the masses !;
despising the rule of the ma ority; educated to
despotism and violence, and impelled by one
controlling purpose born of their barbaric IL.
sttution-to rule their section in their own way
They are party led and dominated by those
whose violated constitutional oaths and for
sworn allegiance to the Government are TIE
only testimonials of their fidelity to the Union
and whose contempt for the Government and
w-defying spirit are shown by their neglect
4ln5,n
one of the numerous foul assassins of United
States officers, guilty only of attempting to
discharge their duty in executing the laws
OF the United States-a party whose leaders
launched the spurious Confederacy, with ne
gro slavery as its cornerstone, and which was
buried in the abyssmal depths of that out
growth of treason, but which, resurrected by
the benefcence of the Government, rewarded
its clemency by resisting at every step the work
OF reconstruction, the amendments to the con-
stitution, and the legislation necessary to give
them effect. Who are those who demand to be
made the sole custodians of the national faith?
A party which, on it's dismissal from power in
1861, left the credit of the Government dishon-
ored; which, during the war, flooded the South
with It's Confederate promises, until they be-
came as plenty as the drifting leaves of autumn,
and as worthless as the waste parchment
signed at Montgomery; which, since the war,
has been engaged in the South In the open work
of scaling down and repudiating its State and
municipal obligations by the whole
sale; which has waged unceasing war
upon the obligations of the nation; which,
in National Convention and Congress,
has resisted to the last the great measure of re-
sumphO1-the browning achievement of the
Republic an party, and the first instance in the
worlds history in which a nation has redeemed
its forced loans on demand, without discount
and IN the money of the world, and under the
influence of which every PROSTATE industry in
the land is throbbing with new Life and the
whole country entering upon a career of un-
precedented prosperity. This solid South, TO
whom our obligations are the irritating token
of their subjugation to the national author
ity, now demands that it shall be invested
with the sole power of regulating, collecting
and disbursing the revenues of the country,
upon which its faith rests, through which
we saved the Government, and which,
perverted or abused, would cripple and
destroy its ability to maintain resumption
or even its own existence. Who are these
who, to infiame the partisan ignorant, conjure
up the use of the army as an instrument to
oyeraWe State authority, and shout themselves
hoarse over the phantom? 1t is the party Of
Jefferson Davis, under whose order, as Secre-
tary Of War, In 1856, United States dragons
rode down and dispersed the free-State Legis-
lature of Kansas Who are those who pirate of
the freedom of elections and the sanctity of the
ballot? lt is the party which, by the denial Of
free discussion, by lawlessness, violence and
Vasion of meetings and polling places by bands
of armed ruffans, has Knocked the sanctity of
the ballot, and has made, in the South, the re-
publican form Of Government guaranteed by
the constitution by-word and farce.
REPUBLICAN RIGHTS AND DEMANDS.
To these demands the Republicans of New
York make this answer: We love honorable
peace and hate contention; but we put the su-
premacy Of the constitution and the law, JUS
tice and our own equality in the Government,
before cowardly peace and craven submission.
We acknowledge the sovereignty of the people
within the rule of the constitution. The war
of the rebellion was fought in vain if it failed
to establish the doctrine that the will of the
majority, fairly expressed, shall be the SUI
preme Law of the land. The majority have
successfully asserted their fidelity to the Union
upon countless battle fields, and at every fair
trial by an honest ballot, and, despite the mach
nations and revolutionary aggressions of
the Democratic party, will again maintain their
rights to govern, under the constitution, their
own Union, rescued by war from the tolls of
treason, in their own way, AS Winter Davis
who have laid down our 100000 men under
who shall triumph above ' it," TIE e
question is DO longer the equality of the freed
men in the Government, but that of our own
equality. We will no longer be deluded by
fluent promises and Punic professions We,
too, make our demands, and Will exhaust all
constitutional and legal methods to enforce
them. We will have the equality in the Gov
eminent to which we are entitled under the
constitution, and will not submit to the ex-
cessive power usurped by the South in the sub
version of law and citizenship. We assert the
right of the Government to control national
elections, SO that every man entitled to suffrage
may cast, in peace and security, one free vote
and no more. We demand one law-justly en-
acted-equally binding upon every citizen of
the land, to be respected and obeyed alike by
all, and, when all other means fail, to be en-
forced by the strong arm which subdued the
rebellion. We make no secret of our partiality
for the regulated bayonet in the hands of men
wearing the blue of the Government as against
the shotgun in the hands of the red-snirted
mobocracy of the South. We demand that this
land
She that lifts up the manhood of Inc poor,
She of the open soul and open door,