Year: 1878

When-last August-the New York Til
buHe intimated its willingness to support
General GRANT in the event OF his renoln-
ination in 1880, the fact was heraldcd broad
cast throughout the country, under the sig
nfcant caption, The Return Of the Liber-
erals. Since then the Tribune has done yeo-
mans service In the ranks of the party, and
seems to have overcome entirely its former
tendency TO captiousDess In short, it Is
now entitled to recognition rs q straightfor-
ward, if not Stalwart, Republican journal.
This is all very natural and easily explained,
in view OF many current facts. In the Grst
place. the experiment of Cancellation proved
TO be such a colossal failure that
no reasonable man in the North could
any longer affect to believe in the
integrity or gratitude of the South
ern Democracy. This exposure rendered
it apparent that there is no middle ground
between the two parties on which the Lib
erals or true Conservatives of the North can
stand, for Liberalism in the South is sham
and Conservatism q 1imsy pretense, both
being used rs a disguise for B0urbOnism
and Notification. In the next place, the
Tribune saw at once that all the concessions
made by the Liberals to the South were
sellshly accepted and nothing proilered in
return; that the advantages thus gener.
ously yielded were being used for the ad-
vanCement of sectional interests, and that
the most influential Southern leaders, those
whose domination will certainly remain un-
disputed for the present generation are not
imbued with a proper and loyal regard for
the changes in our governmental system re-
sultant from the war In short, the very
methods by which the Republicans and
Liberals of the North intended to re-
claim the South to loyalty were
being, and are yet, used to strengthen
the cause of disloyalty. The increase Of
representation by the enfrnnchisement of
the blacks, which naturally belongs TO the
Republican party, is thus absorbed to the
whelming destruction of all liberal or
conservative sentiment.


From this brief statement il is apparent
that The Return of the Liberals is due not
to any concession by the Stalwarts, but en-
tlTcly 10 tHe ItpulSlOu VI INC oouthclh bein-
ocracy, for the Republican party has not
changed its policy since the Liberal exodus
in 1872, nor have the Nullifcs changed
theirs since they recovered themselves from
what is now known among them as the
disgrace Of having voted for GREELEY
But the Liberals are welcome back to ths
fold, no matter what influences may have
induced them to return. Of course we shal
not rush lrantically forward TO re-enact the
scene, in u political sense, of the Prodga
Son, but we shall all rejoice with each othel
! that the bitter lessons Of experience have
resulted only in the renewed development
OF nOn-sectional patriotism, which is 1
guarantee of future success to the party
which alone can claim 10 DO the party 0
the entire country. And when these ole
friends 30 so far as to say, as the 7ribuR
has, that they will support GRANT again
they set an example worthy of imitation b,
every Stalwart in tho land. They subm


themselves again TO the discipline Of thu
party, and in the campaigns just CLOSED
have given proof Of the integrity of theil