National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-05-13
The Crisis

A great nation OF fifty millions of peo-
pie, severed in twain but a few years ago
the knitting process between the then
severed fragments still going on, cannot
be safely subjected to any unnecessary
strain. The determination of the Solid
South and its Northern allies not
to submit to the national idea was mani
tested six months ago in the deadly
grapple between the Old and the
New, which resulted in the choice
of a Republican President. The national
idea which prevailed in that contest was
that the Nations Constitution and laws,
including the amendments and the laws
for their enforcement, are binding aswell
upon those who opposed their adoption
and enactment as upon those who by
their votes made them the supreme law
of the land. The destructive idea that
what are sneeringly called Republican
or Radical" constitutional amendments
and laws are binding only on Re-
publicans, and that Democrats are to
obey them or not as they please,
was voted down. Intolerance of opinion,
reaction, and violence and intimidation,
as means forcoercing political action, were
condemned. The Solid South made its
supreme effort to secure national control
by attracting Northern soldier votes to a
gallant general of the national side.
The Republican party, torn with dis
sensions and divided into angry fac
tiOns, went into a national conven-
ton to make a candidate. The bel
ligerents destroyed each other, and
candidate was made who had been al
most stranger to the struggle. Bearing
upon him the scars of yitriol.burning in
f1icted by the baser sort Of the so-called
press few years before, he
was burdened by the officious support of
the same crew. The Democratic writer's
and stumpers had but to appeal to the
columns of the New York Tribune and
other equally reckless sheets to find We
hement testimony against our candidate.
But the national cause was too strong in
the hearts of the people to be lost sight
of or weakened by any campaign cries,
and the field was won.
Never since the Nation began did a
President enter upon his duties under
more favorable circumstances The De-
seemed to have staked all, and
to have lost all There was a sense of
relief at the result, as though the Solid
IDl fo,,orl+ 70 L.. I,-
look was grand and well calculated to
stir the patriotic instinct. The business
Of the country felt the impulse. Both
Houses of Congress were lost to the De-
Thoughtful people saw peril
in tied Senate and lower House with
an exceedingly scant majority. But then
a new administration could gain recruits,
Or, at all events, it couldhope to have the
benefit of its majorities, however small.
Virginia, which had been the back
bone Of the Rebellion and the theatre of
its bloodiest scenes, had begun !. new
ife.. Half her white population had
rallied under progressive and patriotic
eader, whose name was synonym for
courage and devotion to the confederacv,
and were following him out of the worse
than Egyptian bondage of Bourbon party
spirit. In the Senate he told the world
If the purposes which animate him and
lis followers. The Republican Senators
applauded, the President approved, and
he backbone of the reactionists seemed |
about to be broken. The angry scowls |
If the opposition and their anathemas |
lgainst General Malone showed. that |
hey believed he had placed their bad |
ause in mortal peril. The Bourbon party |
n North Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas,
md Tennessee, endangered by the Lib |
raj movement in Virginia and the North |
rn States substantially solid, the prospect |
vas indeed encouraging. We seemed |
bout to enter upon an era of great ma
erial prosperity. immigration was
timulated by the result of the |
lection. Northern capital was ready to !
inter the South as soon as enough OF the |
ative white element could be relied on to |
reserve order and protect newcomers.
IL short, our Nation, great and strong, was
bout be discharged, cured, by the politi-
al doctors, and the administration of |
ames A. Garfield seemed certain to be
most illustrious as the one in which the
Nation peacefully extended its authority
'yer the South, whose sons welcomed it's
omipg. He was, we thought, the Presi-
ent of no faction. Grant men, Blaine
len, Sherman men, Edmunds men, all
elt secure of an equal opportunity to give
i'm hearty support.
Lett to himself we prefer to believe
hat the reasonable expectations of the
eople would not have been disappointed.
'llt as Satan squat like toad at the
arofEve, so some malign influences at the
residents elbow have prompted things
inexplicable, and destructive.
IS not only that the great political
over of the New York custom-house is
be violently seized and drafted
ITO the service of the element which
ontrols William H. Robertson, bat
/ doing It an open and relentless war is