Year: 1877

The Republican party is frequently re.


preached by its opponents for arrogantly as
Stunning that it is the nation. The party so


completely identified itself with the national
cause during the war of the rebellion that it


became the sole organization which repre-
sented the national idea, and in common ap.
prehension all over the world it was the ma


tion. In any other country and in any other


time it would have been held entitled tor gen.
eratlons to voice the national will, and to


assume the sole administration of national
affairs. In all history the successful faction


in civil conflict has been recognized as the


nation, and the defeated faction has not been


recognized at all. The North by custom


and tradition and all provisions of national


law is the nation, and the North is Republi-
can. 1t is only by the unexampled Glenn
ency OF the nation, that is, of the successful


North, that is of the Republican party. that


the rebels against the national authority. that


is the South. have any voice in national


affairs. Men do not easily forget the tradi-


tlons OF centuries, and the Republican


assumption is not an unnatural one.


Under our form of government and in ac-


cordance with the liberal terms granted to


the vanquished the assumption has no recog-
nlzed basis, aud IS technically unfounded.


But the fact is that the vote of the North is


the vote of what was during the war, and


still is, in all but the purely technical sense,


the nation. The vote of the North is the vote


OF the states which maintained the Union,


which made great changes in the constitution,


which gave new direction to the national


spirit. And it is only by the generous suf-


ferance OF the North that its defeated oppo-


nents have any voice in the government.


In any other country than this the North


alone would for generations to come elect the
President and administer the laws. In no


other country would the section or the fac
ton defeated In civil war be so soon restored


to its old-time privileges, and permitted to


regain power by peaceful means. The Re-
publican North with lavish generosity un-
paralleled in history, has taken its vanquished
enemy into full fellowship. and given it an
equal start in the race for power. If it has
been fairly beaten it will not complain, but
it cannot help thinking that its so-called ar
rogance is excused If not justified by circum-


stances, and it Insists that its defeat shall be


brought about by fair means, not effected by
open disregard of those conditions which it
imposed upon the conquered, and made a
part of the law Of the land. It restored the
South TO fellowship on condition that the
colored men of that section should be granted
the right of suffrage, and it insists that the
South shall not return to power by violation
of the condition through the acceptance OF
which alone it was restored to its old-time
privileges. If the Republican North is de-
feated on fair vote it has no right nor dispo-
sition to complain. But it does have the
right, and will exercise it, to dispute victo-
ry won by disfranchsement OF the freedmen
for by that disfranchisement the South vio-
lates the pledge the giving of which led to its
restoration to the Union. The North i'm
posed no hard conditions, and it insists upon
compliance with the mild ones it did impose.