National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-05-30

!
MUS of the war. That freedom was but
partially attained. Only while the strug-
gle lasted was the eNaltation of the peo-
pie equal to the noble aim which seemed
to inspire them. The Nation once safe,
and the strength which had saved it re-
laXed. Spurred by mixed motives of
fidelity to an emaneipated race and de-
sire for their aid to maintain political
ascendancy for the, Union sentiment,
the leaders Of Northern opinion obtained
the assent of Representatives and States
to constitutional amendment for the
extension of suffrage to the negro. This
secured the only safe alternative to con-
tinued military rule at the South, to
which the North was opposed. The
popular assent to negro suffra ge has been
but grudgingiy given. The party of the
Union was demoralized by Johnson,
Seward, and others, and would have been
defeated in 1868 had it not been rein
forced by the powerful material interests
threatened by suggestions of repudiation
Ofthe debt. The suffrage had not been
extended then, except Professionally in
the preliminary elections for reorganiz-
ing the Southern States. The Fifteenth
Amendmentwould probably not have re-
ceiyed the assent of three-fourthS of
the States had not President Grant given
it his earnest public support. 1t operated
to increase the Outrages against the freed
men which it was intended to prevent.
The North never comprehended a tithe
of the resistance to it, and the Govern
ment's insufficient measures for its en-
forcement resulted in irritation only. 1t
was conquest, not reconstruction, and
while wholly justitiable towards the
enemy which had only seemed to sur
render, it was monumental folly unless
followed up by military force su-
perior at all points to the re-
sistance which was sure to be made.
For twelve years the Republicans Of the
North have not only not been united on
enforcing the political rights of the negro,
but they have actually been divided over
the question as to whether those rights
were really denied. The Democratic
party, with occurrences which would
have done honor to Reynard the Fox
while he was protesting contrition to the
chickens he was addressing for the muir
ders done by him upon their race-the
Democratic party, seriously, and, indeed,
with warmth, denied that they objected
to, opposed, or interfered to prevent the
exercise of the negrO's right to vote. The
bloody garments of the murdered blacks
were derisively jeered, and official re-
ports of pitched battles in Southern capi-
tails between the contending parties, end
ingin the massacre ofhundreds OfnegroeS,
were coolly dismissed by the valiant con-
quererS as mere fables of an Outrage
MILL" in which Black Republican lies
were ground out by such unreliable and
disreputable persons as Senators Fessen-
den, Trumbull, Morton, Edmunds, Sum
ner, Anthony, Buckingham, Conkling,
Frelinghuysen, Cameron, Reverdy John
son, Sherman, Wade, Chandler, Stewart,
Conness, Sargent, and others. "The
bloody shirt" of victim to the mad
rage against the negro's constitutional
right to vote was made the standing joke
of Democratic statesmen, orators, and
writers. Murder became party policy,
and the unoffending traveller who had
been beaten by the thieves of Jericho
and left for dead was passed by on the
other side by false-hearted priests and
Levites, who styled themselves-GOd
save the mark =" the better class of
Republicans" Some who had ranted
the loudest for negro suffrage were early
in deserting him. Sumner, Chase, Schurz,
Trumbull Fenton, Greeley, Julian, Ash
ley, Curtin, and the great daily papers
in the principal cities went bodily over to
the Southern cause i'll 1872 and used their
powerful influence to convince the North
that the Northern lamb was muddying
the stream at the point above him where
the Southern wolf was drinking. There
has been no Republican party since that
fatal time worthy of the name. There
were Republican renegades enough to
have made Mr.. Greeley President that
year if the Democrats could all have been
voted. The fear of few of these
latter in every community that the
treason of the candidate was not
sincere deferred them from yield
ing the support necessary to success.
The second term of General Grant was
devoted to the investigation of members
of Congress for bribery and corruption.
Very little was discovered, and the few
who were found guilty have ever since
been the subjects of highest eulogy in the
newspapers which bounded on the in
quiries and shining lights in the reform
wing of the party. The virtuous Bristow
endeavOred to fasten upon his benefactor,
General Grant. guilty knowledge of the
coarse thievery Of the lowest and vilest of
his own subordinates, and common
thieves in his employ prated at street
corners in detective parlance that
they were about to turn up Grant" The
panic-stricken people surrendered State
after State to the Democracy, and in 1876
the Republican victory, if any," was at
tributable to the surrender of the Stall
warts at Cincinnati to a stranger, claimed
equally by themselves and the pharisaical
reformers. Stalwart Republicanism did
not thrive under his reign. He made
way in March last to another, who has
finally thrown off the mask and pro-
claimed himself a placeman and trader.
without principle and without prejudice,
oblivious to every dogma of the party,
and unfaithful to every method by which
the traditions and principles of the party
my be maintained.
And so when we decorate the graves of
OH dead today Let lis humiliate ourselves |