Year: 1877

President Hayes was unquestionably
sincere in the inaugural declarations by
which he set forth his Southern policy.
Every public and every private source of
information confirms our impression OF the
candor, honor. good faith and conciliatory
intentions of the President, and his earnest
desire to make local sclf-government as un-
trammelled in Louisiana and South Carolina
as it is in Ohio or New York. There
is every reason why he should make
this the basis of his Southern policy.
We lay no stress on his personal commit
tails and sense of consistency, for II con-
vinced that his letter of acceptance was
hasty, and his reaffirmance OF it in his IN
augural address an error, it would be his
duty to act on his present judgment, how
ever mortifying it might be to confess. in
the face of the country, that the maturest
ideas he could form up to the time of his
Inauguration were blunder which wiser
counsels compelled him to recant. But if
convinced that the Southern policy pro-
claimed in the letter Of acceptance
and inaugural address is wrong it
would be more high toned and manly
to make frank renunciation than to
mask his retreat behind simulated pre-
tences which ''keep the word of promise to
our ear and break it to our hope" If Presi-
dent Hayes has not changed his purpose he
should carry it out with steadiness and avoid
even the appearance of irresolution or
wavering The confidence of the country
in a statesmasein his exalted station depends
on his giving the impression that he is a
man to lean on that his judgment is so
sound, his public statements so cau-
tious, his knowledge of his own mind
SO perfect that purpose once announced is
equivalent to fact accomplished. There is
no quality which so strengthens the moral
influence and capacity for usefulness OF the
head of q great government as unyielding
persistence in his own ideas Of justice. And
yet if President Hayes has seen treason to
think that his Southern policy is wrong or
if his confidence in it has been shaken by
the representations of others, he would
suffer less by renouncing it frankly than by
trimming subterfuges resorted to in vain


hope of concealing his change of purpose.


We do not believe at all, we must not be


understood as meaning to intimate at all,


that President Hayes is embarrassed by his


public and reiterated pledges to restore self
government in the South. They were right
in purpose, sound in judgment, and they
rest on reasons so absolutely conclusive
that remuneration, either open or covert,


is morally impossible. We therefore regret
even the appearance Of hesitation which
can serve no purpose but to encourage
Packard and Chamberlain and make
the task of the President more difficult by
keeping alive On opposition which
would speedily die out in the pres
ence of prompt and resolute action.
From the moment the President makes an
explicit declaration of his purpose to recog-
nize Governor Nichols and Governor
Hampton the opposing factions will see
that further resistance is vain and will
quietly disband and disperse. Within six
days from that time there will be no pre-
tence of more than one State government in
Louisiana or South Carolina. Delay only
feeds false hopes in the ricketty organiza-
tions which cannot stand alone. Why
should they cumber the ground Why
be encouraged to continue a
sistance which must necessarily end
in disappointment and humiliation?
Why should President Hayes do aught or
forbear aught to prevent the breaking up
the camps Of the enemies of his Southern
policy? His mere breath would sweep them
out of existence. They maintain their atti


tude of opposition merely by his sufferance.


The only thing that can be said against
his Southern policy is the worn out pretence
that it would expose ''the wards of the
nation" to maltreatment by the Southern
whites. This pretence is as shallow as it is
impudent in face of the fact that four
teen of the sixteen Southern States
have democratic State governments and
that the condition of the negroes is better
in those fourteen than it is in Louisiana and
South Carolina. The President is under
no greater obligation to protect "the wards
of the nation" in these two than in the
other fourteen In the fourteen local self
government has worked for the benefit of
| both races. There have been no disturbances
OF the peace, no symptoms of disorder, in
any of these States since they regained con-
troll of their own affairs. fPresident Hayes
is as rational and fair-mnded as we are will
ing to suppose him he will not recognize any
ground of distinction between Louisiana and
South Carolina and the other Southern
States. If he is q man Of ordinary prudence
he cannot wish to keep his administration
in constant hot water MS General Grant did
his, by propping up bastard State govern
ments with federal bayonets. We are conf
dent that nothing is further from his inten-
ton than to renounce his Southern policy.
1t is not only sound, just and wise, but it is
heartily indorsed by both sections Of the