Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-28
THE FORCE BILL.
Harrison Advised to Dismiss it to the Limbo o .
Dead ''Isms."
New York Herald.

Dead "Isms."
New York Herald
Our Washington correspondent tele-
graphs, as was published in our edition of
yesterday, that President Harrison has
resolved to make the force bill an ad-
ministratIon measure. 1t is hard to re-
aliZe such purpose on the part of the
president. AS party man we can I'M
derstand how he might be willing to try
the experiment of any measure COM
mended by his friends in congress, and
that, if the force bill we to pass, he
would see that it was honestly ard rigid
ly enforced. But to make it govern
ment policy-to drive it through con-
gress-and by implication if not directly
secnre its passage by the use of patron
age, as President Buchanan did with the
Lecomption constitutlon-would be dis
astrous to his administration and his
fame.
The force bill is not even acceptable to
the Republican party. Audible MUIR
murs of dissent come from Republican
sections. Mr.. Halstead, q representa-
tive Republican, named by Mr.. Harri-
son as minister to Germany, is opposed
10 1t. Republicans are tired of war
ssues. They see that the last force bill
was repealed at Appomsttox by mighty
senate, representative in its character,
presided over by Ulysses s. Grant and
Robert E. Lee, and that no power leg
islative or executive, has been able since
to revive it. They feel that if, after
twenty-five years OF peace, it is neces-
sary to resort to war measures more
severe than those imposed by the war it
self, then Republican statesmanship has
been q failure. Nor can they believe
that a force bill which even the over
mastering influence of Grant could not
attain will be of practical value in the
modest and not overstrengthened hands
of Mr.. Harrison.
If the president identifies his admins
tration with this measure it will be as
much of a blunder as il was in President
Adams to accept the alien and sedition
bill. A president must think of the
country as above the party, remember
ing that the judgments of histories are
pitless. If the force bill we're to pass
tomorrow by the unanimous vote of the
Republicans in the senate the admins
tratiou could never carry it out. There
are things which even governments
cannot achieve, and this sinister expert
ment is one of them. We cannot change
Southern conditions aud must accept
them. The frat condition is that no
community Of white men will ever con-
sent to be governed by an alien race-by
the Indian. the Chinaman or the AfrI-
can. Mr.. Harrison would be the first to
resent it were the alternative before
him.
What we expect from the white man in
the South is the utmost tenderness, con-
sideration and help for the negro. While
there are spasmodic outbreaks of ruffian-
ism toward the negro, disheartening in
their character, we believe that the SEN
timent as well as the interest of the
Southern men incliues them to absolute
justice and kindness in dealing with their
colored neighbors and friends. There let
the matter rest! Let the president keep
his hands off! Let our Northern people
look well to their own homes and mind
their own business. They will find at
their thresholds problems more appalling
than in auy Southern community-pov-
erty, want, ignorance, crime nd shame,
largely resulting from the manner IN
which we govern ourselves and our peo-
pie. An observer will see more to grieve
him in a week g tour through the mining
districts of Pennsylvania than IN q jour-
ney to the uttermost limits of the South
ern commonwealth. So, Mr.. President,
and gentlemen, let the South
alone! Dismiss the force bill to the lin
bo of secession, abolitionism, Know
nullificationlsm and the
other dead and damned ''isms'' which
for so long a time cursed the nation.