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4 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