The Red Cloud chief., 1884-03-07
The New irrepressible Conflict.

champions assume the false to b. true.
and then argue upon the false premises
thus laid down. Thus, il is Claimed by
them that the Southern Democracy ac-
cept in good faith the am .ndRents to
the Constitution, as they claim to have
accepted in COOL fath the result of
their appeal to arms. They say that Of
course or mes are committed at the
South as we'll as at the North, bat that
these are not political nor to be taken
as evidence of resistance to the accom-
plished fact Of the equal and civil and
political rights of all men. 1t is very
difficult to argue with people who pub
liclv deny the truths which privately
they admit.
The Democratic party is at war with
negro suffrage. 1t will conceal and
condone any crimes committed against
it. 1t has not votes enough to cope
with it. and it does no mean to be out
numbered by the aid of negro votes. 1t
dare mo- attempt to nullify it in North
ern States, although in several OF them
it often has the balance of power. but
in the South the negro is no more a pO-
litical factor than is the brute creation.
All pretense that the fifteenth amend
ment is respected by the Democratic
party of the South is 4 sham and IN i'm
posture.
The States of South Carolina and Mis-
sissippi have negro majorities. Senator'S
Butler AMI Lamar. of those States. are
able men. and IS fair as it is possible for
men to be in their situation. They
knew that in 1867, when the johnson
Governments at the South were legis-
lated ont BY Congress. they could easily
have been the leaders of honest MAORI
ties in their respective States. The ne
groes had then no carpet-bag leaders.
and could have been nodded to the will
Of the natural governing classes of the
South. But, in.lamed with the hope of
retrieving the lost cause through the
agency of Andrew johnson and his
Presidential power. the Southern lead
ers deiied the Reconstruction acts of
Congress. and made the Presidential
campaign of 1868 on the declarat on in
the National Democratic platform that
those acts were unconstitutional, revo-
lutionary and void. and rallied under
the war-cry of their candidate for the
Eice-Pre ,idency that the President
ought to d.sper.e II the point of the
bayoret the State Governments recog-
nized by Congress as legitimate.
The negrOe, we're forced in the first
instance by their old masters to follow
the lead of newcomers. some of whom
were no doubt unprincipIed adventur-
ers. Sullenly the main body of the
Southern whites refused to yield an inch
to the march of events.
The Reconstruction acts would never
have been passed if the JOhn-on pro-
vis:Onal Governments had not refused
to guarantee civil rights by ratifying
the fourteenth amendment The tif-
teenth amendment would have been in
definitely postponed or greatly modified
but for the violence of Southern hatred
Of the Government, so badly mani
fes.ed.
The fifteenth amendment was adopted
by the acts of State Governments which
the Democracy of the whole Nation had
voted ought to be dispersed at the point
of the bayonet-as being Legitimate
usurpations. 1t is the Democratic
doctrine that nothing done bv a Repub-
lican Congress has n binding force
in law. All laws enacted by Republic
ans are unconstitutional. and all
amendments to the Constitution have
been inserted irregul ,rly and in viola
ton of that instrument itself. In short,
the Government was suspended in 1861.
and there has been an interregnum dur
ing the entire period Of Republican Adj
m~in:siration.
But the Democratic party decided IN
1871 not to insist upon the extreme
doctrine until it obtained possess on of
all the branches of the Government.
Meanwhile ii resolved to profess acgui-
escence in the amendmeuts-nOt to ad-
NIT their adoption, bu. to suspend open
resistance to them. Upon the attitude
of the Democracy toward these amend
ments Roscoe Conkl;ng gave this warn
ing to the people in 1880:
the amendments were legally ado oted. They
did say in National Convention. in ls.2. that
they opposed rsOpening the questions settled
by the amendments, and they did say. in lS.6.
that they would accept them. but that they
were legally valid they have never said.
With a thrOu yhbred Democratic President,
whatever mas happen In form to the amend
melts, they will become more n dead letter
than a QuickeninR spirit.
That tire right of suffrage is a dead
letter. so far as the million and a quar-
ter of black voters in the South are con-
cerned. is as much n matter of history
as that the Democratic party has for
years falsely pretended t. the contrary.
The Democratic editors and speakers of
Mississippi and South Carolina freely
admit that they terminated Republican
rule in those States. not by honest vot-
ing, but by revolut on. Senators La
mar and Batter could not, and prob
ably would not, deny that the confess
sion is true. Nor can they deny that
the white Democrats of those States
have firmly determined to rule them
with or without lawful majorit es at the
polls. The same is true of every Dem
Ocratic State in the South. Does any
one doubt that Maryland, Kentucky or
Missouri would resort to the shotgun
policy if the Repu ,lican party. conta n
ing a it does the most of the negro
zoe, were to seem likely at any cleo
ton to carry the State? THIS is the
despotism of a faction. 1t is an open
revolt against the Constitution. 1t is a
total subversion of Republican govern
ment in States. and is therefore a sub
version of the Constitution of the United
States. 1t has seized by revolutionary
violence the House of Representatives
and holds it with bloody hands, as at
n time it did both houses of Congress.