The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-06-24
A Lost Race.

| DelnG Bcfe III abundance. 1Dcy
created nation, fought three for
cign wars, acquired immense terri
tory. made the whole land 10 bear,
bloom and fruit, lifted up liberty un
Til it was seen and loved of all the
population, were just to every See
ton, made no wounds upon the great
patriotic heart of the masses, and
left no scars upon the beautiful face
of the law.
The statesman of the old days
was known at a glance. History has
handed him down both as model
and a curiosity. He spoke well. His
thoughts were clear, his verbs point.
ed, his lea, ming firm. Most general:
ly he had been bred to sclf-rcliance,
and so had strengthened his will;
afterwards he had been made a
scholar, and so had strengthened his
mind. He seemed to have grasped
all that the struggles of the world
have developed of craftsmanship,
three leading types, as it were, which
| he utilized and made national. And
the first of these types was that
based on faith in some great mill
tant principle; the second the power
seen in the reorganization of old
States to fit new times; the third the
perfect capacity to serve successful
~ in times Of dire chaos-in times
when a nation is by no means ripe
for revolution, and when it yet must
organize revolution to preserve it's
organic life.
Such was the craftsmanship of
the past; what is the craftsmanship
of the present? A simple panderer
to a scrf system which is as surely
destroying the very form, essence,
and spirit of the American govern
ment as that sectarianism and civil
war destroyed the Jews. Necessar-
lily reference is here made to the
statesman of the Radical party. It
had possession of the administra.
ton of the United States for nearly
twenty years, and whatever sins of
omission or commission have been
permitted to go unexpiated during
all this distressing time must be laid
at its door, to bear their inevitable
fruit, and to return, sooner or later
to torment and destroy the guilty.
The Radical party never had a
statesman. At best civil war al
ways produces more adventures
than heroes. Brute force, and mum
bers to beat down au enemy, are not
in need as an ally of much intellect.
1t only required an executiener with
hammer and some nails to nail
Cicero's head to post. Given the
odds, and every State is full of
Grants; given She license of unlimit.
ted political power, and every party
born of revolution will yield to the
passionate sway of its Blaines, and
it's Conklings, its Logans, Camerons,
Hales, and Hayeses. Bat when the
time comes to make peace and build
up, one looks in vain for single
Radical statesman. Surely no war
can last forever. Surely the day is
nigh at hand, if not already here,
when the negro must be taken out
of his political bandbox and put into
the harvest or the cotton field
Surely there is a higher destiny than
eternal sectional strife and attrition.
Surely time will bring it's consola-
ton, and the coming years the balm
of a dreampt of Gilcad; but what
ever may come, or remain, or go
from bad to worse, this truth re-
mains irrevocablo that tho Radical
party is incapable of craftsmanship,
and that if ever the country gets
back to what it once was, it must be
through the management of and the
ability of the Democratic party.