Year: 1876

past OF bitterness, disunion, battle-oi


arrogance and brute force. Their past


foretells their future, if they are ever


again to come into power.


I'VE have made an entering wedge,


said a Georgian to me, the other day


"and 1t cannot be long now before again


we shall be the prevailing power. OF one


thing you cannot accuse Us" he went on


"Southerners have never stolen the pub


lie funds to enrich themselves, as North


ern politicians have done. / don't recol.
lect of any Southern man who ever took


anything, but John Floyd"


"Yes, but that was for his country" said
the lady by his side. when a man


takes to serve his country, that is patri-
otism,' said the Southern woman, proud
ly.


"His country" that she talked about,
in her sweet, infantile way, is the "coun-
try of every Southern member Of the
House. His country, his only country
is the South. The Northerner, though
he may treat him kindly and in a way
admire him, is to the Southerner forever
a foreigner and stranger. How to get
the better Of him and by some means
reign over him is the very kernel of his
desire and purpose. One has but to
study the aspect and animus of this
House of Representatives to shrink, al
most with sense of horror, from the
thought OF possible Democratic and
Southern ascendency in Congress and in
the Government. Doubtless you think /
have found quite my share of fault with
the Republican party and with its lead
ers. If ! have, it is because was true to
that party-true to its past, true to its
future. 1t has been no exception to 9TH
or 10
has not been true, in the highest sense,
to its highest standard IL fell from its
lofty level 1t obscured the glory Of its
past in the dishonor of its present 1t
covered with the shadow of the living
the graves of its immortal But above
all, in the names of its dead, in the rec
oTds of its deeds in its illustrious past,
undimmed, undimmable, shone its proud
escutcheon. Place-seekers, bribe-takers,
money-grabbers have come into il and
made the most and the worst of it, Its
trusts have been abused, its most royal
memories desecrated. No less mankind
owes it debt Of gratitude. Ii has serv.
ed not one race alone, but all races. 1t
is human and bears the marks Of human
imperfection. 1t is marred by the cupid
ity and passions Of men. But il is the
party Of freedom, of universal brother
hood, Of progress, and of religion. Who
would destroy it2 Nay, let US rather
build it up imperishable, by demanding
day and night, that it shall cast its
money-changsrs and bribe-takers out;
that it shall wash the temple of its action
free from stain, and assume the white
splendor Of its ancient state.


But who. who on earth, who has read
line Of the history Of its past, can be-
lieve that any good can come to the
country by the downfall Of Republican
ism and the triumph Of Democracy ?
What has the Democratic party ever
done to benefit its country or the world ?
1t was the party of perpetual slavery, the
party Of the aristocrat and the serf. the
party Of caste. and ruffianism; and what
it ever was il is to-day. ! am sorry the
Hepubfican party has sekxen IL such ma
terial of wrong-doing to work upon but
only so far as it serves its own political
aggrandizement. Who that knows it
believes for one moment in its cry Of
"reformY Not /. 1t is a whited sepul-
cher and there is no reform" in il. As
a party, there is nothing in it but rotten
ness and deadness and bones. The ma
terial condition Of the Capitol to-day is a
type of what the moral condition Of the
Government would be if the Democrats
should prevail. IL cleanliness is next to
godliness, there is no chance for right
if that party should prevail.