National Republican., 1880-09-10
Bon Butler and the Negro.
can open foe may prove q curse,
But O pretended friend is worse

| To the Editor of The National Republican:
| SIR We have been taught that certain
things in the material world cannot exist to-
gether in the same place aud at the same time.
Fire cannot dwell with water; thrown to-
gether, they hiss and sputter until one is extin.
guished or the other evaporates in steam. So
with acids and alkaline salts; they foam and
effervesce until one is destroyed or both are
neutralized. In the moral and political world
there is the same law of antagonisms, Vice
repels virtue and virtue abhors vice; innocence
prccludes guilt aud guilt shuts out the very
idea of Innocence; government represses an
| archy and anarchy overthrows government;
tyranny destroys liberty, while liberty pros.
trates tyranny; freedom strikes at slavery and
| slavery seizes her chains and endeavors to
bind them upon freedom. Neither will nor
can rest in the presence Of the other. Both
will struggle for tho mastery until one or the
other must succunlb, and in the contest they
are " like the troubled sea whose waters cast
up miro and dirt"
In these philosophical reflections tho demo-
cratic party is ignored-leit out of account or
ideration-necessarily so, because of the
decided incongruity and antagonsms of its
clements. To illustrate this incongruity, let
us place in juxtapOsition the acknowledged
sentiments of two strangely mated lights OF
the sham democracy.
Tho renowned political acrobat, Benjamin
i. Butler, in his speech In Faneuil hall, on tho
2Sth ultimo gives the following reason for his
last political sommersauit:
NOW, then, it is because | am the friend Of
the negro; IL is because | desire to stand for
him; it is because desire to do all that in me
lies to aid him in the difficult position in
which he is placed by the attainment, so un.
prepared, of bis citizenship, that now propose
TO act with the democratic party. They, at
least, can protect him, and l believe will 30
do"
Mr. Buffers pathetic appeal on behalf of an
oppressed race may have made the atmosphere
Of Funeuil hall fairly humid with the crocodile
tears Of sympathetic democrats, but sober
Judgment stands electihed with amaze
ment at tho absurd and anagonistic means
by which he proposes to accomplish his ends
Let us examine tho sentiments of one nj whose
foostoOl this sni-disaut phlan thropica friend
of the colorcd race proposes to present its
petitions for redress of grievances. Mr.. Eng-
lish, the democratic nominee for the high
Office of vico-prcsident OF the United States,
and for whose election Mr.. Butler proposes to
strain his every eXortiom, in speech delivered
in congress, May 2, 1850, while he was Il mem
Der of that body, said:
1T (the republican, is purely sectional,
one-idea party, and that onoidea is the negro |!
Take away that, and the party ceases to live.
IL has been well said of some members of that
psrty that they have taken the negro to their
; bosoms aud lodged him in their hearts till
! they know him from the sole of his splay foot
to tho top.lSuot of his woody head, and they
J have imbued their minds and souls with the
very quintessence of negrosm. Aud they do
not know anything else Take them off lrO,n
the subject Of negro and they know nothing.
Separate them from Sambo aud Culee and
they are as helpless rs the babes in the woods.
; A marty composed of such men could hardly
fail to rritatc and make mischief. q
Negro equality is the necessary, logical, and
inevitable sequence of their principles, The
whole tendency of the principles and acts of
the republican party is TO that result 8
Republicans believe their "irrepressibe con-
tlcG must go on until all the states become
slave or all free, and of course they are for
the latter. Why all free? Is IL not because
they think that the negro is deprived OF FREQ
and equal rights which ought to be restored to
him? Is it not to ClOthe him with those
! rights, and to elevate and equalze him with
the white race? Their doctrines mean that,
or they mean nothing The conduct of that
party, wherever it is firmly established in
power, shows that to be its grand end and
aim. d How long will it be- ii these
republicans obtain the power before negroes
are elevated TO high official positions in tho
governmentP How long will it be before the
, Hon. Pompey Smash, Fred Douglass, or some
other kukey.headed aud thick-lipped darlSey
presents himself mere, AL rGuOltnt with TIC
peculiar odOr of his race, to claim his seat as
one OF tho peoples representatives? When
we rellect upon the state OF public sentiment
in some portions of the United States such a
contingency may not be so improbable or re.
mote MS gentlemen may suppose. What is to
prevent it, if the negro is to be held II citizen,
possessing equal rights with the white man."
See appendix Congressional Globe, first session,
thirty.siXth congress, PIP. PSF, ct seql
Verify, democrats are strange bed-fellows.
Think of b. f. Butler and w. IL. English
occupying one bed and discussing the color.
line question.
Nov, Mr.. Butler has an undisputed right to
choose and change his political views and
course as often as he desires so to do But he
is an astute man, and is, without the shadow
of doubt, thoroughly familiar with the
political character and sentiments OF tho
democratic nominee for the vice.presidency.
1t stands, therefore, in all reason and COM
mon sense, that his motive for acting with tho
democratic party, as expressed in his speech,
was but u makc.shft aud sham, as culpable
as it was pharisaC, rs Teprehonsibe as 1t WAS
hypoCritical. In the sentence quoted one can.
not but see that Mr.. Butler, to subserye some
prospective aim,
squats like toad down by the car Of Eve,
and breathes his hypocritical absurdty into
the ears Of the untaught aud down-uodden
race he falsely processes to batriend, that they
most subtle and insidious congregation of po-
litiGal cormorants and sharpers, the sham
democracy.
They ,the democratic party can at least,
protect them" says Mr.. Butler, Aye, protect
them with the lash, the hounds aud the shot
guns against every God-given right TO liberty
and the pursuit of happiness; and none know
this better than Nh Butler. Let not the col.
ored man be lured by tho siren songs Of pre-.
tended friends who would enOhant but TO de-
suoy, The policy of the democratic party
toward the colored race is Gxed firm as the
rocks in tho aphorism which they unblush.
ingly enunciated through a packed judiciary
whon, with serpent guile, ii hissed forth the
decree and judgment which will eternally
disgrace the Jurisprudence of the age and
shatter the confidence OF mankind in the in
tegrily Of human tribunals, Tho black man
has no rights which tho white man is bound
TO respect" Tho colored mans advances and
petitions, according TO Mr. English, could only
be received or entertained by his party with
fingers holding their arisocratic noses. Tho
offensive colored race must not como between