Year: 1876

POWER, MOT PEACE.


1t is very evident to any one who has
the least sympathy with the fluctuations of
public opinion that the debate on the am
nesty bill, or on the amendment presented
by Mr.. Blaine, has created widespread
agitation. Every voter in the country has
been more or less disturbed in the security
Of his judgments on political affairs, and
untold thousands without doubt have
changed their minds respecting the atti-
tude of parties. For some time there has
been tendency towards peace at any
price. That has now been replaced by
policy of alarm, and the public attention is
alert to understand and appreciate the
thought and purpose underlying the dis
cussion in Congress. If the Republican
party has lost any votes throughout the
country since the last Presidential election
the votes have not been fairly lost. but
have followed upon Misrepresentation, de-
ceit and prejudice, and upon shadowy
and vague desire upon the part OF the
people for reunited and harmonious
country. The danger that has menaced
the party has been the same that is the
greatest danger to the republican form Of
government, ie., the want and interest of
watchfulness. The plea for peace always
carries an enchanting cloquence with it.
The desire for congenial harmony, like the
thought of millennial days, is a,dream of
bewitching power. Into this condition
and hope the people have been falling in
some degree. A false generosity has in
toxicated them. and the theme of any
possible scheme of aggression on the part
of the South has been laughed over and
snecrcd at as an impossibility. What Pat
rick Henry called the delusive phantom of
hope has been hugged, not, indeed, until
our enemies have bound us hand and foot,
but certainly until they have captured one
of the main citadels of the Government
and aspire now to put an exponent Of their
ideas, their plans Of reconstruction, their
weak business principles, their fallacious
and cruel policy, and, in general, their
despotic ideas, into the Presidential
Office Among other things it has
become the fashion nowadays to
decry any agitation. We have become so
thin skinned that philosophers Of the Cox
school can crush us by pointing the filger
of wit, and an allusion TO the "bloody
shirt is enough to drive member discom-
fitcd to his seat, amid the jeers of his fel-
lows Public sentiment, perhaps, has not,
for the delusive reason assigned, upheld the
debate Just closed. On all sides there is
pressure felt to put an end to it, and good
men-men of wisdom and foresight in
other aff,airs-complain of it as lacking in
taste, and that it is impolitic, and tends to
reopen wounds and occasion discords. Mr..
Morton stands in the Senate to-day with
mass of incontrovertible proofs as to how
wounds are closed in the State of Missis-
sippi in this year of grace and yet so weak
and paltry is the party he represents that
il is their entreaties and their prayers, and
fears and mistaken kindness that delay
their presentation, and threaten to consign
them to entire forgetfulness. A spell Of
witchery seems thrown about us. The
Republican party is to-day dreaming and
idling its hours of power away and meets
its fate because it follows abstract vagaries,
based upon fears and hopes, and dares not
assert and maintain real, practical issues.


The great cry, as We have said, Is for
Centennial year of peace. Let us have
harmony throughout our broad land is the
plea of the orator, while his face shines
with beatifc fervor Since when, we ask,
has peace made its home among the chill
drcn of humanity? Do the records of
our Northern courts indicate peace: Do
our Southern election days swell the har-
mony of the Centennial symphony? Does
peace exist between neighbors and rivals
in trade: Docs it exist anywhere, except
in the Imagination OF dreamers? No. II
is mere abstraction-a vagary, unworthy
of thought, and much less worthy of being
the rallying cry of great party.


What is the peace that we must extend
toward the South? That is the vital ques-
ton upon which so many votes seem to
hinge. Can any Republican, in his calm
judgment, ask for more than the party has
willingly-aye, gladly-extended toward
that section already? Is peace so dear that
it must he purchased at the price of danger
and hostility to our dearest principles, and
to the results of our fearful wal? Such
peace would shame us before the world.
There is no glory or honor in it, or any
thing worthy of more than contempt. The
agitation that has sprung up in Congress is
an honorable protest against dangers that
are real and growing. The Confederate
spirit still exists, and will continue to
threaten the nation until the generation
that gave it birth has passed away. There
is no security until that time, and the
statesman in his place, and the Republican
voter in his, are recreant to their trust if
they fail to put all possible safeguards be-
tween it and the life Of the country. We
hope and trust that the debate that has
sprung up will be continued until every
Republican in the nation is aroused to the
real fact that it is not peace, but po'Osr,
that is wanted by the Southern section of
this country.


The Confederate brigade in the House appear
to look upon the Centennial bill as Republi-