Year: 1876


Tho War Department Order.
q New YORK, August 10, 1876.
8 In yesterdays letter l stated that the
"war order" issued on the fifteenth to Cen
4 eral sherman would not effect the morale
J of the Republican party. The response OF
the independent" Republican press to that
/ order confirms these views. The order is
now regarded as the proclamation OF the
President to the law-abiding portion of the
Southern people to abstain from violence
or participation in violence in the approach
ing presidential election. 1t indicates
clearly that President Grant is not to be
trifed with in this matter. The Lord reso-
luton, adopted almost unanimously by the
House Of Representatives before its ad'
iournment, added to the recent Hamburg
massacre, gives such strength to the exec
utive purpose in regard to the maintenance
OF law at the South that General Grant
will be supported in every just effort to
protect the ballot box at the South. In
proof of the "quiet" state of the Repub-
lican mind on this question, l quote the
following article from the Tribune of tc-
day:


THE VAIL OF A FORLORN HOPE.


The platform adopted BY the State Dem
ocratic convention Of South Carolina is q
General Wade Hampton before the CON
vention is the speech of a gentleman who
sees clearly the wretched condition of his
State, but not quite go clearly the way out
of it. 1t is not enough always for a party
to recognize and denounce political evils:
and especially in State in q condition SO
anomalous as that of South Caro- lima,
wisdom higher than the wisdom of mere
party .is demanded. The Democratic or
gar;zation, as such, can do nothing there.
1t may, it is true, set forth "the venality
and corruption which have characterized
every branch Of the government" but it
has no right to ignore the efforts made by
the best men of the Republican party to
purify Republican politics. 1t is neither
strictly drawn when a little iberality
might be followed by the hsppiest effects.


1ts true course was to sustain those Re-
publioans who were resolved to purify and
reform the government. It could gain
nothing by making separate nomination.
1t was advised against taking thie course,
and was exhorted to support Governor





Courier, one of the ablest of Southern jour
mails. Indeed, immediately after the last
presidential election it was evident that
the Republican party might be made
throughout the South something very diff
ferenr from what it had been-a party of
order, of frugality and Of wisdom-if only
the best men among the Democrats would
abandon an organization which, even with
the most patriotic intentions, could effect
nothing, and exert themselves to make the
victorious party what it should be. In.
stead of this, we have had more rhetoric,
more complaint and more exhOrtati0ns to
voters to do what they were not IN the
least likely to do; while those who were
really the salt of the Republican party
were left to fight alone their battles with
its cOrruptions, and were included in the
fiercest resolutions of Democratic conven-
tons.


Another Conservative Republican paper
holds this language:


SHALL THE FLAG PRorE CT THE CITIZEN!


The order of the Secretary of War, issued
IN the fifteenth to General Sherman, shows
hat in the approaching presidential elec-
ion the American flag will protect the bal
OF box in each late Confederate State, and
,hieid every citizen, however humble, from
outrage and intimidation.


With all other lovers of peace and of civil
ule, we deeply deplore the necessity which
hus calls for the national arm to be thrown
around Southern society to preserve it from
reign of violence, as We deplOre the ne
,essity which forced war in 1860. But we
I'VE, as a government, the same duty to the
,eople of the South to-day which we owed
a 1860 The American flag did not, in
$50, protect the non-slaveholding, Union
owing whites of the South from Confed
rate violence. So, in 1876. We find this
anne party of violence armed and organ.
led for the suppression of the rights of
citizenship in these same revolutionary
Confederate States. The question, there
ore arises: Shall the flag protect the
American citizen at the South as we'll as on
he high seas or on foreign soil? Shall the
latiOn rule? Shall the ballot stand! Shall
rational law be respected! In this case it
the government which is once more
Orced to come forward as the protector of
ts own life-we say of it's 'life," because q
lnited Confederate South based on negro
erfdom means the death of the republic.
The colored citizens of the South must be
protected in the exercise of the ballot.
The flag must protect the citizen.


Will the peace-loving citizens of Louisi-
ma be wise in time! The Confederate
Democratic coalition can not capture the
general government. The national Repub-
lean party can not be disbanded. The
vay of safety for all parties in this crisis
through the election of Hayes and
Wheeler. b.