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REV. A. J. RYAN, Editor-
AUGUSTA, GA., JULY 25, 1868.
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES.
In hours of enthusiasm men do not
reason—they feel. Impulse of heart,
not deliberation of intellect, sways them
and their action then. Aglow with the
heat of sentiment, which oftentimes lies
deeper in human nature and is truer and
safer to follow than cold, impassioned
thought, men act at once, without fore
easting consequences ; and, not unfre
quently, when they thus do act with least
of reason, is there most of reason in their
action. In such an hour, swayed by the
storm of sentiment, electrified by a sud
den and universal enthusiasm, with no time
for second thought, with no opportunity for
deliberation, with a spontaniety of feeling
all the more astonishing because it was so
very unsuspected, the Democratic dole,
gates nominated Horatio Seymour and
Frank P. Blair as their standard bearers
in the coming Presidential election. The
enthusiasm that burst forth so uuexpecf
<. dly in the Convention hall, has swept
the country ; and the nominations have
been received with the wildest of web
come by the People. The acclamation
of the Delegates has been re-echoed by
the acclamation of the country ; and the
thrilling cheers which greeted the nomi
nation rang out of the hall and over the
land, and were echoed back by the wild
er cheers of universal ratification.—
Whether that enthusiasm, so sudden, and
by all so unexpected, and so universal, be
significant of present Democratic strength,
and indicative of future victory, we do
not know : but we fain would regard it
as a favorable omen. Now, however, it
lias passed, and men, returning to
to reiiecticn, already begin to weigh
the merits and the chances of the rival
candidates. Who are they ? What
are they ? arc the least and last ques.
tions to be asked. What principles do
they represent? is the first and most im
portant question—and the only one we
care to discuss. For the next Presiden
tial election is to be something higher than
a mere contest of men with men. It is
to be a conflict of principles ; not mere
ly a choice between the men—not only a
selection between the two opposing poli
cies. It goes deeper than man, and
reaches back of policy. Nor are the
principles involved light or superficial.
They touch the very 7 foundations of our
Government, and affect the very exis
tence of Liberty. Not in their individual
capacity, do the candidates conic before the
people. Their personality is nothing
compared to the principles which they
hold, and which they arc pledged to
maintain. Neither man-worshipper, nor
man-hater, we care not who they arc,
whence they came, what their histories,
what their characters as individuals; but
wc do care and feel concern in regard to
the principles which they represent. Did
we regard them in their individual capaci
ty, we could not say a word in favor of
any one of them ; for they were all op
posed to us, and were our enemies during
our war for those very principles repre
sented in part by the Democratic party,
and hated now as ever and as bitterly
opposed by the Radicals. For Colfax
was one of our most relentless foes, Grant
slaughtered thousands and thousands of
our countrymen, Blair warred against us,
and Seymour armed soldiers for Grant.
As individuals, then, wc would oppose
them all—some of them more, some of
them less, in proportion as they, in the
late war, opposed our rights. Wc regard
them, however, only as they personate
principles. The principles personated by
Grant and Colfax are destructive to our
rights, subversive of law and order,
inimical to Liberty, especially and em
phatically hostile to the South, and ruin
ous to the welfare of the whole country.
Opposing such principles, we cannot up
hold, even by silence, the men who re
present them. The triumph of Grant
and Colfax would be the death of Liberty,
we verily believe, on this continent. We
oppose their principles, also, on higher
than political grounds. F’or, we are con
vinced, that whatever principle strikes at
the right cf man is anti-social, and every
anti-social principle is anti-religious. We
believe that, deep in the heart of the
Radical party, lurks an element of bitter
hatred of and opposition to the Catholic
Church. That party will never forgive
the Catholic Church for having proved
herself to be the representative of charity
and of mercy to the South, during the
war. That party never will forget the
crime our Church committed by refusing
to join her gentle voice in the wild howl
for blood of all the Northern Churches.
That party well knows that, though our
Church has nothing to do directly
with politics, yet her teaching and
training are eminently fitted to make
her members conservative ; and hence,
our Church stands in their way. The or
gans of that party let no opportunity
pass without endeavoring to hold our
Church up to the odium of ignorant and
prejudiced minds. And, therefore, while
we stigmatize the principles of that party
as anti-social and, consequently, anti
religious, wc brand them as especially
and markedly anti-Catholic. On this
highest ground of all, wc oppose that
party, will combat their principles, and
cannot but oppose and combat Grant and
Colfax, the leaders of that party and the
representatives of those principles.
As men of the South, our opposition of
them becomes stronger and more intense.
Their part}’ has mercilessly crushed us.
They have placed over us a set of petty
tyrants, who are trampling us down. They
wish to leave us to the tender mercies of
the Negro race. They have heaped sor
row upon sorrow in our desolated land,
and they brandish the sword of despotism
over our heads if we dare to protest.
They have done against us what they
would not have dared to do had we arms
in our hands. They have violated their
pledges—broken all their promises ; and
while they would bind us to our paroles,
they consider themselves free to do with
us and against us whatsoever they please.
Rule for them is ruin for us. Their elec
tion would entail upon us a permanent
despotism. Grant, as the slaughterer,
was bad enough—as President, he would
be infinitely worse.
Oil other grounds, and for other rea
sons, not less just, wo oppose them, their
party, and their principles. The Radical
party has broken the Constitution, and,
therefore, forfeited all right to administer
the Government. Elected under it, and
according to its provisions ; receiving
their powers from it; sworn to uphold it
and act under itj; limited by it, and sol
emnly pledged to preserve it, they have
disregarded it—treated it as a dead letter
—and they have made the dark hatreds of
their own hearts the only constitution
under which they would administer the
Government. They have attempted to
silence the Judiciary, and to fetter the
hands of the Executive, and to centralize
and consolidate all powers in their own
hands. And thus they arc revolution
izing the Government, and the people
have the right of revolution against them
even by arms ; and if the people of the
North were men, they would have hurled
them from their places long since. Per
haps, however, to wait in patience and en
dure a while, was the better course. Per
haps it was not. Time will tell. This
we do know, from history and experience,
that the longer a party holds power, the
harder it is to w T rest that power from their
hands. Not without a desperate struggle
at the ballot-box will that party yield.
If beaten by ballot, it is not altogether
sure that they will not appeal to arms.
Only one thing will prevent drat—their
cowardice. Since, then, that party has
broken the Constitution —since its princi
ples, proposed and practiced, are op
posed to the principles of the Con
stitution ; since its history has been
a series of infractions of the Consti
tution ; since its acknowledged leaders
boast that they have acted outside of the
Constitution; since the interests of that
party are plainly subversive of law, and
order, and civil rights, if their candidates
are elected, then one of two things: either
tho Constitution is officially abrogated by
the people; or, if it be still in force, the
supreme law of the land, then that party’s
candidates ought to be prevented from
taking their scats.
On the other hand, whatever little of
t
pure putitical principle is left in the coun
try, is to be found in the Democratic or
ganization. It is a Constitutional party,
with Constitutional principles ; and, be
cause Seymour and Blair personate their
principles, do we hope for their success.
The South, we are confident, will be over
joyed at their election, and will labor
strenuously and with might and main to
secure it. They elected, our oppressions
will cease, most of our wrongs will be re
dressed, and prosperity and plenty will
be ours once more. Their election is cur
only hope. God grant that in November
that hope may be realized.
IMMIGRATION.
Wc think that the people of the South
will best subserve their own interests by
encouraging immigration to this section of
the Union. Wc want population, and a
laborious, thrifty, enterprising population,
Such a population, Ireland and Germany
will afford; and, with proper induce
ments, they will gladly conic here. The
North, too, with its teeming population,
will furnish some, who will find here op
portunities for improving their condition,
which their present sterile and over
crowded section does not afford. But we
should be careful in inviting and encour
aging immigration, to give countenance
and support only to those who will be
friends of Southern interests and Southern
prosperity. We must not warm vipers
into life that they may sting us when
they grow warm, But we must have
men who will stand by us in our trials as
well as in our triumphs, in our sufferings
as well as in our rejoicings, in our adver
sity as well as in our prosperity. And,
to secure this class of people, we should
organize Land and Immigration Societies
in every Southern State, who should send
out to Europe and to the North the right
kind of men to select farmers and labor
ers. Some uniform system of bringing
them hither, of employment, and encour
agement, should bo adopted, and every
tiling possible done to make the new
coiners satisfied and well disposed towards
us. Our papers should, also, publish sta
tistics of land, agricultural, and Southern
resources generally, and to this end we
invite communications from all parts of
the South, giving the amount of land for
sale in tho county, or neighborhood, price
per acre, terms of purchase, price of
labor, probable number of farmers, me
chanics, laborers, or house servants want
ed, and any other information that might
be useful to parties wishing to settle in
the South. Such communications, plainly
and briefly written, we shall gladly
publish.
With such organizations and such pub
lications, wc think that much good can
be done, and the South soon be recon
structed in a more profitable and accept
able manner than by the Reconstruction
Acts of any political party.
- • •
A MILITARY INQUISITION.
One of the favorite charges against the
Catholic Church is that it upheld the In
quisition—a charge false and unfounded
—disproved even by the enemies of that
Institution in Spain, in a Report pre
pared and published by a Committee of
Investigation. The Spanish Inquisition
was a Government Court, the Ecclesias
tical side ofwdiich was authorised by the
Prelates of the Church, to soften the
rigors of the civil side, and the cruel
D 1
laws which it executed. It was not a
Catholic Institution, only so far as it ex
isted in a Catholic country. But what
can be said of the American Inquisition ?
The American Government is not a
Catholic Government. The American
Congress is not a Catholic Congress—
thank God for that! Gen. Meade is not
a Catholic Ruler. Fort Pulaski is not a
Catholic Bastile, and yet witnesses are
there subjected to torture, to force them
to testify against innocent men.
In the City of Atlanta a Military
Commission is sitting for the trial of citi
zens of Columbus, Georgia, charged with
the murder of one Ashburn, a renegade
Southerner, who perished by the hands of
the assassin some few months ago.
These citizens are men of the highest re
spectability ; and yet, upon the evidence
of suborned witnesses and perjured de
tectives, they are torn from the bosoms
of their families, and cast into loathsome
dungeons, deprived of the comforts of
life, and forced to submit to the heinous
charge of murder ! Here is an Inquisi
tion for yon, in the heart of Georgia, in
the free land of America, in the light of
the 19th century, and not a hand dares
to lift itself against the iniquity ! But
that is not all In Fort Pulaski, there is
a steam torture, or sweat box, which is
thus described by one who was thrust
into it, after having a cannon pointed at
him, and his head lathered with two
scrubbing brushes:
“A closet in the walls of the Fort, a
little wider than the deponent’s body; the
door closes within three or four inches of
the breast; the only air admitted, is
through a few auger holes in the door !”
This is from the sworn testimony of
John Stapler, who was kept in this terri
ble instrument of torture for thirty-three
hours ! This, Democrats of the North,
is what the people of the South have to
endure. This is one feature cf the
tyranny under which we suffer. This
tyranny is what we appeal to you to relieve
us of. We should hear no more of the
Spanish Inquisition. There is one closer
home—an American Inquisition—and
Gen. Meade is its presiding genius!
With this Inquisition is connected a
number of spies and informers, who track
the footsteps of gentlemen and honest
people, and bear false witness against
them, that they, the said detectives, may
reap the reward of their villainy.
Yes, this is what our people have to
suffer and submit to; and from which
they ask you, Democrats of the North
and West, to relieve them. You can
upset the mockery of Government which
now exists; you can “disperse the carpet
bag Governmentsyou can overthrow
the military Martinets and Poppinjays
who now lord it so cruelly over the
Military Satrapies of the South. This
you can do, if you will, and re-establish
the Government of the Constitution, and
the principles of Freedom.
CHURCH AND PEOPLE.
The Church never makes war upon
the people, but always battles for their
interests; it is oily inimical to that par
ty, which, though at heart an enemy to
the people, assumes the part of one who
would serve them faithfully. It is very
remarkable in this connection, that never
yet has there originated and proceeded
direct from the people an attack upon
the Church of Christ ; but, wherever
such attacks have been made, they have
invariably come from a party of men
who understood how to avail themselves,
for their own party purposes now, of the
powers of government, and then, again,
of the people. Even by glancing only at
the history of the last few centuries, w T e
shall sec that all the opposition movements
gotten up during that time against the
Church, did not originate with the Chris
tian people, but were opposed, both in let
ter and spirit, to their real wishes. When
the Saviour entered into Jerusalem, on
Palm Sunday, it was the people who
greeted him with their hosannas of re
joicing, and only after they had been led
astray by the Scribes and Pharisees, who
were partisans of the deepest dye, did
they give utterance to that cry of blood,
‘‘Crucify him! Crucify him !’’
thus it has remained to the present day
Consequently, whenever the powers 0 f
the State are pledged to the supports
partisanship, or whenever the State in a
measure identifies itself with any party f ( r
the purpose of casting aside the Church
of Christ, then, that Church is driven
more than ever to identify itself with the
people. And in all such cases it
that help, which the powers of State
have refused, more than compensated for
in the support which is given it on the
part of the Christian people. “When
Kings will no longer listen to the voice
of the Church,” says the Archbishop of
Westminister, “then the people will hear
and heed it all the more conscientious'y.”
lie remarks, moreover, that the Church
in our day, is always the strongest them
where it lias most earnestly taken the part
of the people, and in proof of hisa-ver
tien, he refers us to North America and
to England. Now, this is a fact of tb.
greatest importance. The Church, of
necessity, is bound to respect existing
Governments, because she recogni p,
them the lawful bearers of a, ivy ! v
delegated power. For that very p
she must also demand of every ex!.- p
Government that protection to which s'
entitled. But the more the Church p
her dependance on this protection, a
weaker she will grow, and the mere 1
will accustom herself to do without ?
patronage, and to devote herself, with . '
her saving powers and all her pecul
adaptive graces from on high, to the
fare of the people, that much stronger 1
more effective will she become. Thar, , >
doubt, will be the position of the Chur*
the future. That, it would seem, wid U
the distinctive nark of the coining cvc r
ics, just as it was the distinctive mm k .
those passed, to lean more upon the
tectioh of the State. Again, tho Ch r i
alone has the power to protect tho p
against the tyranny of an unchr b i
Government, or against the usurps ?
of a moneyed aristocracy, and as
-on she will be recognized more • 1
more as the only true friend of all Cal -
ian nations.
And, for this very reason, the Churn
is obliged, not from a feeling of ennr .
but rather a sense of supernatural love
for the world, to oppose, in the nr -t
decided manner possible, those fa: 1
systems of Government, which, underlie
pretext of progress, liberty, and emLF
enment, seek to gain a foothold anion,
the people by announcing their claims as
some incontestible, self-evident truth,
while their real object is simply to e n
possession of the reins of Governm -at.
for the sole purpose of afterwards -:u
their power as a means to deprive ■:.<
world at large, and the Christian p 1
in particular, of the blessings of Mi; . •
tianity. We cannot deny that sum :
system is really in existence, and that it
threatens many and great dangers t >
community. That which many ar
pleased to call the ‘‘modern State," i
nothing more nor less than the emu di
luent of this system. We Christian-- nr 1
cried down because we subject our ren-or
to a dogma of faith which comes I run:
God. On the other hand, we are viiifiF
becausc we refuse to accept, as anini'r.:!:-
ble and incontrovertible dogma of |fai*b
that product of some high-strung pro!- -
sor’s brain,known as the “modern Sin:--.
This new State dogma is afterward n
a State law, and, by this means, the
Government, with all of its avail 1 - '
powers, becomes the organized adver-ar;.
of the Christian Church, What o’-
therefore, can the Church do, but opp
this system ? She is forced to look upon
it as the most degrading abuse that Ft*
ever beeu made, either of men or ct
measures, by an unscrupulous and tyran
nical power. We do not derogate Iron:
our dignity as men when we accep
dogmas of which we believe that the}
came from God, because it is no disgrace,
but rather an honor, to subject our re;>
to Him who made us. But that, indeed,
would be the very depth ot degrad ;;
to freemen, if we accepted without a pro
test, or submitted uncomplainingly, eit’-tf*
in mind or heart, or both, to any wib