New-York tribune., 1880-09-27


treason but actually gave tlem such additional
power in Congress and our Electoral College that
by their unconditional surrender and ptcous ap-
peals for mercy, they achieved far more than the
triumphant establishment of their Confederacy
would have secured to themf
THE INCAUrIous GENEROSITY OF THE NORTH.
Their treason if successful. would have given
them petty government founded on slavery WITH
out resources and with q miserable population
without intelligence or enterprise and almost WIN
out civilization. They would have been as weak
and despised a nation as they have proved them
selves reckless and unscrupulous as dependent
States and even success, would have been n pun
ishment for their treason But of the North,
confding in their professed repentance, and behev
ing in their gratitude for generosity and mercy,
opened wide arms to receive them BACK INTO
the Union they had sought to destroy; and thus
converted their defeat into what has proved to be
victory In moment of folly, gave them far
more than that for which they fought. Instead OF
yielding to them petty Confederacy founded on
slavery we gave them such additional power. as
could. if unscrupulOusly exercised. make them the
rulers of ttis Nation. Having freed their slaves,
who, as constituting the basis OF representation,
we called 'chattcls and five OF whom we counted as
three freemon but who now all countedas free.-
we gave TO the South twenty -one additional votes
more than folly IT was madness. / knew the
South, and foresaw the danger of the proceeding;
and in connection with my venerable friend Thad-
deus Stevens and few others. not only protested
against the proposed folly but demanded that for
period of thirty years. the conquered rebel States,
should be held as Territories; aud not be restored
| to their political rights until the generation OF
| traitors had passed away. But all III VAN.
Flushed with Yictorv and overfowing with gcner-
| osty and pity for the crushed rebels, our friends
| said: No. let them come back into the Union they
will be grateful for our generosity and clemency; ;
and the freed slaves, will by their votes eliectually
restrain any attempt the part of the ex-rebels TO
get control of the Gov ernment they could not con-
Quer"
Such. doubtless, would have been the case, If the
rebels we conquered and pardoned, had possessed
any gratitude, or had recognized their duty to be
at least thankful to their conQuer0rs for their lives
and for restoring to them politcalfreedom Honest
and honorable men, would have carried out in good
| faith the implied and expressed conditions upon
| which they were pardoned and would have recog-
nized their honorable well as legal obligations to
secure to the manumttcd slaves the legal and con-
sttutiona rights for them by their conqu erors
But instead of appreCiating the generosity and
the clelnency of their conquerOrs the ex rebels,
whose treason deuged the country in blood and cost
| untold millions OF treasure, ucloVid'cly 'lVidVcu
every pledge expressed or implied, upon which their
lives and property had been spared,and have abso-
lutely refused the manumitted slave all political
rights at the same time that they avail themselves
| of tie political power which his manumssion
has conferred upon their late masters They have
murdered and bulldoZed the freed negro, and driven
him from the polls until Mr.. Wade Hampton the
recognized leader of the eX-rebes, boasts, that the
| South is solid for the principles for which Lee
and Jackson fought; and pledges the Democ-
racy their 1873 electoral votes for Hancock, their
nominee and the trusted rcpr esentatve of the ex-
rebels In the meantime, the Southern press and,
Southern speakers, impudently declare in effect,
that controlling as they do already, beth the
Senate and House of Representa- ges if they elect
ercandidate for President they will rob the Treas
ury of thousands of millions of dollars to reward the
South for its treason and also, will wipe from the
statute book every vestge of legislation growing
out of the late Rebellion.
| SHALL THE SOUTH DE THE MASTERS
And this, in fact, is the great question to be de-
termincd by the approaching Presidential election
| The candidate of tho Democracy. rar as prinoi-
| pies are involved, is only man of straw He was
| nominated by the South with the aid of the
| Doughfaces of the North and If the South should
elect him. it will use him as its puppet. Give them
the Executive as well as both houses of Congress,
and we yield at once all the fruits Of our great
struggle against treason and rebellion and give to
extraitors and rebels, not only all for which they
raised the standard of Lion, but far more than
in their widest dreams, they anticipated from sue
| cess We would thus make the South the political
masters of their conquerors we would give them
the Treasury of the United States into which,
| aside from the tax on whiskey and tobacco, they
pay annually only 4l2 per cent of the
| ioo1f and Uva Them
that control over the legislation of the country, by
which they purpose to deprive us of our returning
| prosperity and bring ruin upon all our great
manufacturing industries.
The Democratic platform pledges itself to a tariff
| for revenue only, and the Hon. Robert Mclean, of
Maryland. in q late speech in Rhode Island, de-
mands of the Democratic candidate, if elected, the
redemption of that pledge General Hancock, in
his letter of acceptance solemnly pledges himself
if elected, to free trade and outsDoken Soutlf-
ern paper not only informs its readers, that Han
| cocks election will emancipate the Solid South
from the tariff, but will insure to the ex-rcbels,
the payment of all their claims for losses in tho
war-vanously estimated at from fifteen TO twenty
| five hundred millions of dollars. And in letter
| from the Postmaster General of the late COnfod-
| eracy now member of Congress, recently brought
| to light he insists that the North should paw all
| their war expenses and public debt. The xrebel
| claims now on ile in committees in Washington
and in the Treasury, against the United States
amount to upward of twel- hundred millions OF
dollars and it is said may reach twenty-five
| hundred millions, in addition to remuneration
for their manumtted slaves which claim is sure to
come as soon as they elect President to sign their
pending bill to increase the number of Judges of
the Supreme Court to twenty
Give TO the Democratic party a President nomi-
mated by the Solid South, and elected through the
aid of the misguided Northern Democracy, and our
prosperity is ut an end ruin, both financial and
political, necessarily follows Everywhere. in
every direction. the Solid South have made their