Year: 1876




RADICAL STRATEGY.


Hitherto the Radicals have always
been fertile In resources. Their cam.
paigns were, planned In advance, ana
they availed themselves. OF every advan-
tage which party prejudice and the un-
scrupulous exercise Of party power
afforded. Their loyalty, their love OF
the Union. their love OF liberty, their
love OF the negro, and THOUSAND other
professions, made in their own behalf.
passed current during the first years Oh
their administrative rule rs the genuine
elements Of political capital. But one
by one these party coinages have worn
out, or have been thrust away into the
lumber rooms of tradition, and at pres
ent there is little left but the faded
fragments of "the bloody shirt" ana
pretended fear that Southern political
opinions may again become supreme ID
the councils Of the nation.


Their loyalty they proved by the pun
der OF all those who disagreed with
them In opinion; their love OF the Union
by the reckless manner in which they
plunged the nation into debt; their love
OF liberty by denial of the rights OF
republican self-government to the con-
quered States Of the South, after they
had laid down their arms. and their
love OF the negro by instilling into his
mind the dark teachings OF hate, malice
and all uncharitableness. Is 1t any
wonder that such base proofs were at
length invalidated In the high chancery
OF public opinion, and that the strate-
gists of the party were compelled TO
seek new machinery with which to lire
the Northern heart and carry the wild
enthusiasm Of the war into these piping
times Of peace?


All this talk concerning the Confed-
crate Democracy, and the possibility OF
its becoming an instrument OF oppres-
sion to the loyal people OF the North
and West, is the most wretched and
shameless cant imaginable; though 1t
is entirely in keeping with the crimson
rag so conspicuously paraded as proof
Of blood -guiltiness against the Southern
people, and that immaculate honesty,
which established Freedmen's Bank
in order the more conveniently to steal
from the freedmen their honest earn
ings.


In every case where conflict arises
betwixt the white and colored people OF
the South the teachings Of Radical in
cendiaries are the real causes OF the
difficulty, and wherever the fruits are
most bloody the teachings have been
best observed. To this rule no excep-
ton can be found. BY nature the freed
man is disposed to be peaceful and
polite, and he never is otherwise except
when he becomes the tool OF unscrupu-
lous and aggressive leaders. II left to
work out his own destiny, with such aid
and advice as his old master can best
furnish, he would soon become q SELF
sustaining, self-reliant and worthy citi-
zen. II left to the tender care Of the
Radical politicians he almost invariably
becomes q curse to himself and to his
race. 1


AS to the pretended fear that the
Southern Democracy may yet take posi-
ton as q controlling factor in our ma
tional concerns, and WELD them for the
special benefit Of the Southern people,
nothing more ridiculous was ever In
vented by the soothsayers OF declin-
ing party. Political power in this coun-
try is controlled through the double
agency Of numbers and Of wealth. and
as the South, compared with the other
sections, is weak in both these ele-
ments Of political supremacy, her con-
trolling power need never again be
dreaded. Indeed, she is at present q
supplicant for justice, not candidate
for supreme authority.


AS matters now stand, there is a cruel
mockery in the Radical assumption
that the Southern people, weak and i'm
poyerished as they are, aspire to control
the material and political destinies OF
the Republic, and it is even more ridtc-
ulous to suppose that they are anxious
to kill the toilers on whose labor they
RELY for the culture Of their fields.