Year: 1870

Our Political Parties.


Tho late formidable rebellion Of the South
ern States against the sovereign authority OF
the United States for the establishment OF an
Independent Southern confederacy, resting on
the corner stone of negro slavery, has resulted
in one or the greatest revolutions in the his
tory Of nations. It has swept this peculiar
institution" of slavery from the face OF the
land; il has transformed four millions OF
negro ohattels, who had mo rights which q
! white man was bound to respect, into citi-
zens, possessing the same civil and political
rights as white men; it has introduced into
our political affairs negro balance Of power
of eight hundred thousand voters; 1t has
radically changed the general government
established the subordination OF the States to
the central power, placing even the enforce
ment of equal civil rights and equal suffrage
in the hands Of Congress.


In 1852 the old whig party was broken to
pieces and dissolved; in 1854 the republican
party, upon the broad and revolutionary idea
of 'thc extinction of those twin relics of bar
barism, slavery and polygamy," took the field.
From the drifting elements Of the old
whig party in the North and of the Van
Buren, Stree soil" elements of the democratic
party, this new party sprang at once into Wig
orous life. In 1856 80 strong had it grown
that but for the third party movement Of Fill
more it would have carried its candidate, FIRE.
mont, into the White House. But the result
which was adroitly evaded by the pro-slavery
Southern democracy in 1856 was boldly invited
in 1860, in deliberate breakup of the Charles
ton Convention, thus in the division Of the de-
mocracy upon two tickets clearing the field for
Lincoln and the republicans. The Southern
object in thus opening the way for Lincoln was
a convenient pretext for secession and the
confederacy by force Of arms. They had lost
their Northern democratic balance of power,
and open rebellion was the only alternative
left them for the maintenance of negro slavery.


The consequences, step by step, in the work
Of revolution and reconstruction thus invited
are fixed in the radical changes of the govern
ment we have described. Saving the question
of Mormon polygamy-a mere incident, and
''reic Of barbarism," which will soon be re-
moved-the republican party has fulfilled its
mission, and must now prepare for new de-
parture on new issues. The abolition of slavery
demanded some new regulations touching
the status Of the African race, civil and po-
ltical, and in adopting the doctrine of the
equality of all races and colors the simplest
and the only complete solution of the problem
has been made. But what next? The libe-
rated and enfranchised blacks have naturally,
as the rule, become the political allies Of the
republicans, from whom they have derived
their liberty and political equality. But with
these things secured the Southern blacks have
other interests to look after. The Southern
whites opposed to the republican party, are
the landowners, the planters, the employers
of negro labor; and herein they have the
means for speedily conciliating and winning
over the negro balance Of power in every
Southern State, from Virginia to Texas. Will
they do it? They can if they will.


| We have, however, before us Southern
democratic paper, the Montgomery Gala


Mail, in which we find conspicuous editorial
in opposition to negro suffrage to the extremity
Of appealing from the fifteenth amendment to
the Supreme Court, and urging the New York
democracy to this experiment The unrecon-
structed Southern organ in question says that
''in Alabama the democracy will not accept
negro suffrage;" that sit has been forced
tho tafo Inv foda hou hvrt
shall resist it to the bitter end" that ''this is
our determination, and we ask our democratic
friends of the North, and particularly of the
Empire State, to assist us in our efforts to cast
off this infamy and oppression by which we Of
Alabama are crushed down under the heel of
miscreants and mongrels !" that ''now is the
time for the democrats Of New York to plant
themselves firmly on this issue, the greatest
issue of the day." and that they will be sus-
tanned by the conservatives in every section,
and ''may be sustained by the Supreme Court
| Of the United States"


| All this is very absurd, but there is some
thing in it as an exposition of Southern demo-
cratic sentiment touching negro suffrage.
There is an instinct which directs the wild
goose northward in the. spring and southwark
in the fall, and there is sort of instinct
which directs Northern and Southern demo-
Gratis OF the old school dead against negro suf-
frage. Hence the late repeal at Albany of
New York; ratification of the fifteenth amend
ment is hailed with applause in the
Kentucky Legislature and with admiration
by this Alabama democratic organ. The
Northern democrats very well understand that
they can never get back again into the White
House without the aid of the South but we
can tell them and the Northern democrats that
henceforth there is no other way for them to
recover the Southern balance of power except
by gaining the negro balance of power in most,
if not in all, of the Southern States. We can
tell them that this policy of recognizing the