National Republican., 1881-04-23
To Virginia Republicans.

enforcement Of the tGlCS. No great measure
has been enacted that had not its origin
in this one purpose. Every important act
of Congress from 1861 to 1865 was to
strengthen the national arm, engaged IN
conflict with the Southern rebellion.
Every leading act from 1865 to 1879 was
to maintain the freedom which war
enacted and to enforce the amendments
to the Constitution.
The cry against negro suffrage is no
more vehement than was the outcry
against Stephen A. Douglas and fair play
in the Territories just before the war.
The much-eomplained-of carpet-bag gov
ernments, which would never have ex-
listed if the conquered South could have
been wise and humane after the war,
were no more. bitterly denounced than
was the Readjuster party of Virginia,
led by native white majority IN
1879. If we speak of the right of the
negro to vote we are told he is ignorant.
If we say that in Virginia a majority Of
the white natives followed Malone in the
contest resulting in his election to the
Senate we are told that this majority is
a low, no-account set" The intelligent
and high-toned" must rule, be they few
or many, and only Democrats are "high-
toned" The Bourbon is just as honest
in maintaining this as was his ante-type
in contending for the divine right of
kings. He has no title of nobility. He
may be very ignorant and very "no-ac-
count" but if he votes with the masters
of society no reference is made to
his low degree. This question of de-
gree, rank, caste, divine right, tone"
or whatever other name is given,
is, strangely enough, never to be
decided by any but Democrats of
the regular organization. The man
ayers of the regular Democracy make the
test, and that is adherence to their cause.
The more followers they can get, the less
they have to stretch the law of necessity
in order to make their minority seem a
majority. When they cannot obliterate
the majority they resist it. If they were
reduced to hundred in any one of the
Southern States, they would be honestly
oblivious of any rights in the rest of the
people. People are not people if they are
not Democrats Malone and his follow
ers are not to be counted among the peo-
pie any more than are their black allies.
If the whole black race could be swept
from the South, and with them every
white man of Republican antecedents,
there would be no change in your Bour-
bon. His party, whether large or small,
would insist on ruling, and any majority
against it would be poohed at as low,
no-account set"
1t is against the pretensions of this
band of fanatics that the National Repub-
lican party has waged political warfare.
The negroes having aided US, the Bour-
bons have drawn along with them all
whose race prejudice could not brook
what seemed negro control. But now
the rational men of the South are leaving
the Bourbon fanatics, and the negroes
are focking to the standard of the former.
If the negro vote helps the sane men to
defeat the fanatics and places one South
ern State after another in the hands of
native whites, supported no matter by
how many of the black votes, that will
not be "nigger domination" That will
be the rule of the majority, intelligently
led, and those who resist it will be objects
of ridicule and pity.
To produce this result it is proposed
I.oH IL of
shall be the paramount issue until dis
obodior,oo to law sl4an bo an offenSe to be
concealed rather than policy to be pur-
sued.
The administration of James a. Gar
field is charged with this great work.
He is known to favor a liberal policy.
The Republican blacks of Virginia are
united. There are few white Republi-
cans yet who need to be told by the
President that his friends in Virginia will
best serve the national cause by heartily
indorsing the Readjuster candidates as
against those of the Bourbon Democrats.
One or the other must preuaiI. A few white
Republicans cannot expect to prescribe
terms to the Readjusters, who have all
the negroes at their back. The leaders
of the latter will be able to Judge
best as to how the campaign should
be managed in order to prevent
losses from their ranks. All Republicans
who intend to support the liberal ticket
can vote for delegates to the convention.
There is the place to be heard. Any Re-
publican State convention would be
mere rump, for neither the negroes nor
the body of white Republicans would
take any part in it. 1t would be a mis-
leading and dangerous gathering. We
trust all our Republican friends in Vir-
ginia will consider well before taking any
step for separate State convention. A
convention not called by the State COM
mittee would have no binding authority.
Non-action by the State committee this
year leaves it the regular organization of
the party. Do not allow the mistake to
be made of considering a State conven-
ton necessary for the keeping up of an
organization.
Wrest the power from the Bourbons
and they will rule no more. Then every
free element can in the future contend
honorably for political supremacy. Close
up the anti-Bourbon ranks and a new
Nation will be born, in which every man
shall be free.
THE divine Sara has been appearing in
New York before an audience of actors
and actresses, and they showed them
"a r,,,,,,.nninti,-n