The Columbus journal., 1881-05-04

SELVES uellUtTdtcll III the dttltuut y
regulating the last democratic can
didate for the presidency. 1t wa
Hancock who, in his letter of &C
ceptance, going beyond the bourbon
platform Of his party, declared the
issue, so far as the south was con.
cerned to be q full vote and fair
count. This is not the first time mol
the second that the democratic party
has repudiated its candidates. In
1864, the copperhesd democracy
nominated General Mcclellan on q
platform declaring the war for the
Union failure, and demanding the
cessation of hostilities on the part OF
the Union north. Gen. Mcclellan,
in his letter of acceptance, went be-
yond the copperhead platform, and
in effect repudisted it. Gen. Nc
Clellsn was defeated, sharing in his
defeat that of the copperhead-disun-
ion party. In 1876 Mr.. Tilden was
nominated on brigadier-democrat-
ic platform, which was silent in
regard to the then vital and COM
msnding issue Of the payment of
rebel claims. Mr.. Tilden, seeing
that he could not hope for any sup
port in the north, without an ex-
plicit declaration on that point just
before the day of election wrote his
celebrated letter, disavowing for
himself any principle or purpose
looking in that direction, and sssur-.
ing the country that should he be-
come president his veto would be
interposed against any and all acts
of a democratic congress providing
for the payment of claims of rebels
for damages sustained in the course
of their war against the Union. Mr..
Tilden was defeated. And so Gen.
Hancock does not stand alone in
being repudisted by the democracy
at least by the copperhesd-rebel
element of the democracy, and that
is about all there is left of il. North
ern democratic copperheadism de-
feated Mcclellan i'm 1864; southern
rebel brigsdierism beat Tilden in
1876; and northern democratic bour-
bonism in alliance with southern
brigsdierism knocked the stuffing
out of Woful Sawdust Hancock in |
1880.
Can the bourbon Ethiopian change |
his color or the copperhesd leopard |
its spots? What said a prominent |
southern brigsdier senator the other
day: "We would not continue this |
struggle twenty-four hours, If moth
ing were involved except the pos
session of few Offices. III the Ma
hone movement in Virginia sue
ceeds, we may as well make up our
minds to surrender the control of
half a dozen of the other southern
states. Mshone's success will make
political rebellion and treason re-
spectacle in the south, and Mshones
will spring up in North Carolina, in
South Carolina, in Georgia, i'm Ala
bsma, and even in Mississippi. The
very existence of the democratic
party in some states 10 at stake in
this contest. Disaffected democrats
in every southern state are watching
the struggle with eager interest, and
they will rise in rebellion against
party discipline the moment they
see the democratic party overthrown
in Virginia" For two weeks we
sat on the senate floor, not q month
ago, and listened to rebel utterances
such as the debates in 1861, when
Davis and his secession horde took
their departure from the national
capitol could no more than parallel.
We heard Ben. Hill glory in all the
shame of the solid south from the
day he carried the Georgia conven-
tion over to rebellion to that in
which, ten years after the war clos
ed, he helped carry Georgia with
the solid south by force and fraud.
We heard his colleague Brown, glo-
rify and glory in white domination,
secession and rebellion, in words
most cool, deliberate and carefully
weighed. We heard Lamar pro-
an elaborate, comprehensive
and finished orstion, which was an
spotheosis of state sovereignty, null
lifcstion, secession and rebellion.
We heard like reports of other rebel
guns Of lesser cslibre, at points all
along the solid south line on the
democratic side. For two weeks
since that time we have heard the
distant echoes of other guns from
the same batteries, and we hear them
to-day. Here was Coke, of Texas,
SO late as Thursday, planting his
rebel gun at the most advanced
point Of the line, not content with
affirming state rights, justifying and
glorying in rebellion like his prede-
cessors in the debate, but loading to
the muzzle with the same snti-nigger
which Bob Toombs and
his crew drew from long before the
war. "The people of the south had
never been dominated by an inferior
race and never would be. That