The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-12-30
A Republican Crisis.

rarty there can be no doubt, and that
this crisis is far more grave and deci-
sive than the party has ever confronted
be ore, is equally certain. There have
been many Republican defeats during
the last twenty-one years, but none of
such sweeping and crushing character
as this; none which indicated such a
tremendous revolution in popular senti-
ment, such unmistakable and emphatic
condemnation of the principles and
practices that have so long controlled
the National Administration. After
making all due allowance for Republic
an discussions, there still remains
wide margin of defeat. which cannot be
attributed to these, and which must be
charged to the sins and shortcomings
that a patient people have endured I'M
til patience ceased 10 be virtue. The
discussions themselves are unimpeach-
able and unanswerabie witnesses against
the power they have helped to break.
They were caused, not so much by the
conflicting ambitions and INSCRIPTIONS
intrigues of party leaders. as by the de-
moralization and rottenness of the party
itself, which, disgusting the better por-
ton of the rank and tle, either drove
them into oren and active opposition or
kept them away from the polls. The
intelligence and honesty of the people
as whole, are, and we may hope will
always be, the salvation OF our system
of government; and no political organ
ization, however old and strong, how
ever firmly cemented by drill and dis
cipline and the cohesive force of patron
age and plnnder, can persistently insult
that intelligence and honesty without
provoking appropriate punishment.
Circumst, noes may conspire to delay
this punt ,hment, but never to avert It
altogether; and when it comes itsweight
and severity will more than atone for
the postponement.
The Republican party began business
on single issue. and after one failure,
in 1856. established itself in 1861, only
through the suicidal blunder of the
South. That section. had it cordially
united with it's Northern friends, could
easily have elected Democratic Presi-
dent; and if Southern Senators and Rep
resentatives had remained in Congress
after the Inauguration of q Republican
Administration, u Democratic majority
in the National Legislature wou Id have
been all-sulficient protection of Southern
rights. But it was not so to be, and the
one Republican issue reached its con-
summation by the terrible processes of
civil war. No sooner was the war over
than the party dropped the mask of pat
riotism and philanthropy it had so sue
cessfully worn. Instead OF being con-
tent with the restoration of the Union
and the destruction of slavery, and set
ting about the healing OF the wounds
the sword had made, it immediately
proceeded to consol d ne and perpetu-
ate its political power by comforting cit
izenship upon those who hardly knew
they were free. and certainly had no
just conception of the duties and re-
sponsibilities of freedom-much less,
citizenship. Military government in
the South accompanied African enfran-
chisement, and enabled it to be util-
lied at the baIlot-box; and fol-
lowing in the same train, as a natu.
raj and legitimate result, came so
called "Southern reconstruction" in
which negroes. carpet-baggers and Fed
eral bayonets were the dominating eIe-
mcnts. Of the fruits OF this desperate
effort to Republicanize the South we do
not care to speak. Enough to say that
they fixed an indelible stain upon the
American name and Nation. and cul-
m mated in the greatest political crime
of the century-the theft OF the Presi-
dency. This crime, however, compelled
the usurper who hal profited by it to
lit the oke from Southern necks; and
since then Republicanism in the South
has maintained a precar.ous and COM
paratively harmless existence only
through the influence of Federal patron
age and the shameless treachery Of such
men as Malone. If the Republican
party had nothing to answer for cept
its action in the South from 1865 to
1877, it wonld still deserve even more
than 1t has received from the people;
but when we remember all that
is meant by ''Grantism," "Stal-
wartisin" and "Bossism;" all that is
included in the reign of abuse and cor
ruption from 1877 to 1882, the wonder
is that the loft year. did not bring an
avalanche Of popular rebuke to extin-
guish the guilty party at once and for
ever.
~ snCAV HOS AAOt ACOA ouOn Oh Nv
alanche, there has been most unques-
tiOnably combination of earthquake
and tidal wave that shakes and skaters
the Republican party from turret to
foundation. No explanation will ex-
plain the resul. in New York. Pennsyl-
vania. Massachusetts and elsewhere that
does net recognize the great and essen
tial fact that the party in its present
shape is hopelessly rent asunder; and
"a house divided against itself cannot
stand" There must either be radical
reconstruction from bottom to top. q
complete turning over Of an entirely new
Leaf an une4uivocsl and absolute, new
departure, or Republicanism Is dead
and buried II the ''Stalwarts'' and