Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-11-10
The Lesson.

munity. Certainly not IN the last twenty |
years in the existence of this American
Union has the opportunity occurred
when the political economist, calmly and
patiently and with the lights of true pa
triotism before him, could, in view of
the political status Of the whole country,
diagnose its condition, as to its prospec-
tive length Of days, its social and mate
rial development, and Its existence as a
government founded on the ability and
power of the people to rule.
For more than twenty years passion,
prejudice and sectionalism have prevail
ed in this Union. For that length of
time the ruling and governing spirit in
national affairs has taken its tone from
distrust and suspicion. The Gninaus thus
engendered by civil strife has been famed
and aroused by sectional jealousies, until
sectional ideas took the place Of patri-
otto devotion to country, and honorable
preferment was extended to him who
served his party best and his country
least. For nearly quarter of a century
the party that has controlled the destiny
of this great nation has had full, IN
contested and hmitless swing in framing
its political desLinies and controlling
its political orbit. Its leaders, selfish,
greedy and powerful, have direct
ed all its movements to selfaggran-
dizement. Fraud, murder and whole
sale corruption have been resorted to in
the interests of the perpetuatiOn OF
power, until the government OF to-day
exhibits the routine movement Of a
mighty engine, whose pulsation has been
directed solely by intense selfish
ness and the greed of gain. The inter
ests, the welfare and the peace Of the
mass of the people who make up this
Republic have been ground to powder
by those molochs in power, while to
crown the height of this dishonOrable
and startling picture, all this crime
against right, principle, civilization and
truth, has ostensibly been done in their
sovereign name.
Is it then to be regarded as strange or
| outside the natural order of things that
the accumulated crimes of political mis-
doings should at last have aroused
popular resentment? That the damning
record of political venahsm should be
exposed, and that the hidden principles
aud thoughts of the party and politi-
clans who have well nigh wrecked the
hopes of the Republic should be I'M
covered2 1t is in the very nature Of the
immeasurable goodness of the God who
is the controller of the destiny Of nations
that such a revolution as we have re-
Gently passed through should be the
legitimate result of such disclosure.
Where was the government drifting in
1876? The head of the government was
obtained by fraud, open and not success
fully Tebuked. All its numerous depart.
ments were manipulated by the aiders
and abettors of this vile conspiracy, and
the moving power supplied TO its opera
tions were in consonance with the spirit
of its engineers. All were for self and
none for the country. Crystallized into
a common mass of corrupted ambition,
every high office in the country was
more or less degraded, until the temple
Of our liberties, the halls of Congress,
became scarcely more than a den OF
thieves, who grew fat and rich and inso
lent upon the toll and poverty and desc
lation of the people. In so rapacious
manner did these moral vultures prey
upon the liberty of the people, that soon
all moral sense was lost, and the crime
| of murder was added to the crime of
fraud, and the country was, by the
assassin's hand, bereft of the leader
whose council it was hoped would have
contributed to heal past wounds and
turn the tide of desolatiOn and ruin to
one of peace and prosperity.
There must in the nature of things in
any great nation come time when the
people will pause and think. The expe-
rience of other nations who have devel-
oDed power and wisdom in political
science in the long past have proved this,
and the uprising of the people through
out this great country on last Tuesday
proved it on that day. The natural causes
which have led to this are clearly dis
cernible. The education Of the last
twenty years of Republican rule has told
upon the consciousness Of the masses.
Brightness has come in where darkness
prevailed; the hideQus pictures Of the
bosses and the rings have been fully ex.
hibited by the light of modern thought
and feeling and the masses Of the North
and South, East and West are solid
for change of the principles upon which
the country has been conducted for the
past quarter of a century, and the inau-
guration Of a new era in our history.
The political upheaval exhibited in
the past few days means more than the
predominance of any party or the sue
cess of any partisanship. 1t means more
than the elevation of any of the political
dogmas of this OF that section. 1t means
far more than the triumph of any set
form of political principles. 1t means
the return Of all the States Of this Union
to their true allegiance to the Constitution
and to the principles upon which 1t was
adopted-in union, harmony and peace,
one and inseparable. If the present
revolution in politics teaches anything, it
Is this truth: that no government, how
ever strong in natural or allied forces,
can exist whose machinery is governed
and worked by political tricksters and
not by statesmen.
Hon. Samuel Hall, who was elected
yesterday by the General Assembly one
Of the Associate Justices of the Supreme
| COurt in the nlace of Judge Alexander