Year: 1875

and the punishment oil the thieVes.


TIE PAST AND THE FUTURE.


Many of the leading journals of the
country are now engaged in posting up
the political books, and taking balance
sheets to show the probable vote of the
several States upon the Presidential ques-
ton next year. Tabulated statements are
paraded to show that this or that party
may be successful next year. We have
little faith in tables that are pIedicated upon
the elections of last year and this. They
were all more indicative of apathy in some
quarters, and of confusion and panic in
others, than of settled convictions upon po-
litical affairs. Drowning men will clutch at
straws The panic of 1873 and the COM
mercial depression that followed, entailing
scarcity of labor and low wages, quite nat
uraIly led TO lack of confidence for the time
being in the party charged with the admin
istraiion of the Government. 1t is the GUS
tom of all peoples who indulge in the luxury
Of representative governments to attribute
all national mishaps to the party in power;
or rather, perhaps, it could more properly
be said that it Is the universal practice Of
the Opposition to charge the hard times re-
sulting nom commercial revulsions to the
governing party, and endeavor to make
the suferings of the people their road to
success. The masses rarely wait to reflect
upon the real causes of disaster, but jump
10 the conclusion that a change cannot
make things worse, and had therefore best
be tried.


II was revolution of this nature which
lost US the House of the Forty -EnI'rt1t' Con-
gress. 1t was a rsFcllI,iUn that in the light
of experience we lad right to expect. 1t
was a result that brought to US but little
disappointment. We said then that the
second sober thoughts of the people would
lead them to reverse that panic stricken
verdict 1t was but the straw at which
drowning men clutched. 1t was powerless
to save those who laid hold of it in their
madness. With reflection, discussion, par
tial restoration Of business and entire re-
sumption of her thorne by reason, came re-
turning confidence in the Republican party
of the country. Thus in 1875 many of the
Iukewarm who abstained from voting in
1874, and also goodly number of those
who voted for change under the lead of
the so-called Independents, returned to
their first love, and aided to recover much
of the lost ground of 1874 This was an
event which was also to have been foreseen,
or at least to have been expected.


That all or any considerable portion of
those States which had poured forth blood
and treasure to settle much-vexed and
long disputed question should deliberately
consent to place party in power that was
still pledged to restore the supremacy of
State Rights, just because of the interven-
ton of a period Of hard times, was
utterly inconceivable. And it was all the
more certain that they would hasten to cor
rect all Misrepresentation on that head
which might have arisen from any tenn
porary vacillation on their part when they
saw the use to which the Democratic
Legislatures in the lately reconstructed
States put their first accession to power
In their haste to vindicate the justice ofthe
'1ost cause" these States proceeded to make
new constitutions in fsgrant violation of
the letter and spirit of the solemn compacts
under which they were rehabilitated and
admitted to representation in Congress
These organic acts not only recognized the
heresies which had been forever blotted
out by the wal, but also contained provi-
sions intended to abrogate in effect the
new amendments of the Constitution of
the United States. Education was stifed,
the franchise of the negroes was practi-
cally ignored and rendered nugatory, and
system of peonage, which would be more
horrible than the old-time slavery, made
possible.


Added to these acts of the Democrats col
lectiyely was the institution of reign of
terror, and supersedure of legal govern
meut by mob law. This was done by self
appointed guardians of the public safety
under the various appellations of White
Leaguers, Ku-Klux, White Liners and
'Citizens." The pecullarities of all these
mob organizations was their passion for
whipping, shooting and maltreating black
and white Republicans simply because they
were Republicans and would not abiure
tucu ptAhOiplSSs oAu limit bucl never du-
mitted negroes to membership, and that
they were always attacked first by Repub-
Hcens, but none of them ever got hurt al
though they generally succeeded in killing
quite number Of their opponents.


The Northern people are law.and-order-
loving people. When they fight they are
terribly in earnest. They believe in the
legal punishment Of criminals. They do
not believe in mob law at all They see
that white man in the South is rarely or
never hanged for murder in the South,
while it is not uncommon to read accounts
Of the hanging of several negroes at time.
And yet the papers are filed with fatal
afrays and murders by white men in that
section. They know that hundreds of
negroes have been killed-murdered in cold
blocd-by white men, and no one was ever
even indicted for the murders. They viii
never. in their sober senses, approve of this
hind Of terror. They viii not rs.s for
party which excuses or palliases such
,fimeB


In these and other kindred acts Of South