New-York tribune., 1880-07-02
No ESCAPE FHOu THE RECORD.


This is what every Democratic paper in the
country has been shouting with genuine or
simulated ioy ever since their ticket was put
into the field. 1t is plain that the Democratic
leaders wish to have it understood that they
have escaped an impending peril, and it Is
therefore worth while to inquire just what the
danger is, and just how it has been removed.
OF course no empty cry no "cry" which
d oes not give audible and aIticulate expression
to some vital fact OF fteling-can help or burt
any patty or any man. What the Democracy
are pleased to call the bloody shirt cry" was
annoying and threatening simply because 1t
was a declaration of the Nations deep distrust
OF that party III view of its attitude toward
the freedmen, and It's sympathetic aid cX-
tended TO late secessiOnlsS in all their attempts
TO regain by multiplying legislation what they
had fought for and lost in the war. In the fist
place, among loyal citizens there Is il damaging
presumption against IA patty which counts upon
the electoral vote of every State which helped
to organize an armed rebellion against the
country This presumption is stronger when
it is remembered that the voters in these States
who are allowed to go to the polls continue to
Justify their reasonable course as reasonable
and patriotic. This distIust is deepcned by
the admitted fact that the men lately
in arms against the country and
pardoned into full privilege of citizen
ship have violently robbed of all practical
political rights the only class Of citizens III those
States which was and is stubbornly loyal to the
Union. The popular dread of handing the
Government over to these men Is naturally IN
creased when the Brigadicrs in Congress by the
grace of the loyal majority threaten 10 " leave
"n0 vesige of war legislation on the statute
"bOoks" threat with meaning III it when 1t
is remembered that 10 Democratic Legislature
at the North voted to ratily the amendments
which embodied the principles OF institutional
liberty saved to the country from out the havoc
of vii war.
A record of this kind is certainly n desirable
one for any party to get away from and If the
Democracy have suddenly blotted out their
history by a skilful nomination, the achieve
ment is one upon which they do well TO con-
gratulatc themselves The claim is that this
has been accomplished by the nomination OF a
soldier who fought for the Union. But is not
the very fact that they have selected such Il
candidate, without protesting any change OF
heart or purpose, an advertisement that they
intend to capture the Presidency by stratagem
DO they acknowledge in terms the justice of
the war for the Union any more than they did
when they set up Mcclellan, a still more famous
soldier? Wade Hampton greeted the nOmina-
ton of Frank Blair, another Union soldier, in
Tammauy Hall twelve years ago with the same
effusiye demonstrations which have lately been
witnessed in Cincinnati. Was anybody de
luded by this pantomlme? Does any one
doubt that the triumph of the Democratic party
at the coming election would be the triumph of
the Solid South and the ideas of the South as
conspicuousy as if Wade Hampton was the
candidate instead of being one of the chief
managers of the campaign
The fact is that by nominating soldier
ostensby for his record as a soldier, they have
themselves revived the issues of the wal. If
they had selected a man with any known views
upon finance or tariff, OF taxation, they might
have withdrawn some popular attention from
their attitude during the war, and from their
attitude since that time toward the questions
which grew Out of the struggle for national
unity General IIancOck's sole services TO the
country which educated him were rendered in
that war. He was in the wrong then, or the
great body of his supporters are in the wrong
now II may be that he repentS of his services.
Duling the brief period when he was brought
into contact with the plans for reconstruction.
he did his best or worst TO defeat the plans of
Congress In any event, the Democrats have
deliberately rcllindled the embers of sectional
STRIFE by sbirling all other questions, and
the country knows whose fault it Is that there
are any embers left to kindle. Everybody
knows how the kindly overtures of Mr.. Hayes
were scented, and majority of the voters of the
country will express a pretty emphatic opinion
in November as to the impudence Of a section
which ventures to make still heavier demands
upon the Nations forbearance. Instead Of
dancing hornpipes over their escape from his
tory, able Democratic editors had better begin
TO sober themselves down to face Il record
which the civilized world has condemned as
unpatriotic, dislOyal and cowaIdly.