Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-10-06
REASONS FOR REpUBLIcANIsM

"pablicans have not this privilege" Ii
there were no other considerations before
the American voter to-day, this single
one ought to determine his action IN
stantly. For in this consideration the
whole question of republican government
is Involved, and unless it is not only set
tied, but settled right, American politics
will proceed on the downward path from
bad to worse, until chaos is reached.
Perhaps the most alarming circumstance in
the situation at this moment is the CON-
parative indifference with which this issue
Is regarded 1t has been said of old that
eternal vigilance rs the price of liberty,
but the meaning Of that declaration seems
almost to have been lost. There was a
time when the organized programme to
control the Government directly through
the violation of the franchise would have
raised storm of righteous Indignation be-
fore which the treason must have been
swept away. But now men regard the
spectacle Of South made solid by frauds
with unimpassioned apathy, and even
those who are in the van of the conflict do
not appear to realize the tremendous sig
nificance of the phenomena to which they
are opposed. If, in 1861, when the South
ern States begun to pass ordinances of Sc
cession, the North had listlessly observed
what.was passing and had continued to
argue the question of State rights while
the Union was being torn piecemeal, the
republic would have been destroyed then
and there, and by this time anarchy and
intestine strife would have sealed the fate
of its severed parts. But the danger to-day
is only less menacing in appearance. 1t is
true that the South does not now confront
the North sword in hand, but that is be-
cause it has found quieter, less ex-
pensive, and more certain method of gain
ing its ends. 1t has ostensibly yielded to
the final arbitsament of war /; but in fact
it has conceded nothing. The North
enacted the constitutional amend
ments, and supplemented them with
coercive legislation. 1t enfranchised the
negro, and undertook to give him equal
political and civil rights. Yet neither the
constitutional amendments nor the legisla.
tion supplementing them have been or are
respected or obeyed in the Southern States.
All that negro enfranchisement has done is
to put weapon in the hands of the old
slave-owners, to be used against the North
The war measures have been nullifed. The
negro vote has been wrested from its
owner, and turned to the purpose of the
Southern Democracy. A Presidential cleo
ton is in progress in which one party sets
out with the bold and open theft of l3S
electoral votes. Republican government is
dead in fourteen States of the Union. The
ballot in these States no longer represents
the will of the majority. A minority has
usurped the polls, and with this audacious
defiance and violation of the fundamental
principles of our government the Demo
cratic party advances to "argue the
point whether AZ more Electoral votes shall
be contributed by the outraged North to
complete the mockery of free suffrage.
When in 1852 Louis Napoleon arranged
his plebiscite, and made himself Emperor
of France Americans were quick to per-
ceive and exclaim against the wretched
pretense of free voting therein exhibited.
But we assert that the assumed election of
Hancock to-day, through the methods de-
scribed, would constitute far more dis
graceful and alarming proof of the deca-
dence of free institutions in the United
States. He must indeed be blinded by
partisan bias who viii dare to maintain
that Hancock can under the circumstances
be elected. With the help OF the stolen
electoral votes of the South he might be
made to seem to have a majority in the
college, but what would those votes really
represents Not, assuredIy, the untram-
neled choice of majority OF the lawful
voters of the United States Such an
assumed majority in the electoral college
would stand for the triumph of fraud over
republican government. General Hancock
cannot be the honestly and lawfully elected
President of the United States. That fact
is as plain and as certain as that the 1873
electoral votes of the solid South do not
represent the majority of the Southern
voters. Ii the suffrage was free at the
South the Democrats would be without
chance of success. If they sue
coed they Will only do go through
bold and wholesale crimes against the
franchise. Does any sober.minded man
believe that permanent Government can
be established on such foundations To
accept that belief would involve reliance
upon anarchy as the means whereby order
is TO be evolved. 1t is impossible that the
political conditions which this canvass pre-
sents can survive Already, as Ingersoll
has said, we are upon the edge of Mexi-
" canization, A Democratic victory
would plunge us over that edge, for it
would involve the Abandonment by the
Northern people OF the only safeguards of
ordered republican government. Every
thing in a democratic society is dependent
upon the freedom of popular expression.
Destroy that freedom, admit the legiti.
macy Of frauds on the suffrage, and the
preservation of free institutions must be-
come impossible. The suffrage is not free
to-day in fourteen States, and one party
demands control of the Government on the |
strength of its success in striking down the
sovereignty of the msjority in all that re-
gion. The Northern people, if they realize
the magnitude of the stake, will cling to
the Republican party with the grasp of
dying hand, and hold every vote cast for
the Democracy as a treason to the republic.
GRANT ON ORDER NO. 20.
We print this morning a statement by
General Grant, giving the inside history of |
that Order No. 40, upon which Hau,ock's
Southern and Democratic reputation rests. |