Newspaper Page Text
the weekly constitutionalist |
WEDNESDAY MORNING. MAY 6, I s K
THE RESULT.
It seems to be generally conceded that R
B. Bullock has been elected Governor 01
Georgia. The further concession is made
that this event has been brought about
through the defection of the white voters
of North Georgia, who did not hesitate to
accept a Radical official in exchange for
certain specious promises of relief from debt.
Thou-’h a majority jof the Legislature ap
pears'to be Democratic, the probable, and
almost certain, imposition of the test-oath
may cause a change in the political com
plexion of that body to suit the purposes of
the Washington conspirators and their
tools in Georgia. Blodgeit’s manifesto,
on his return from Presidential impeach
ment, clearly hinted that arrangements had
been made at Washington to pass an en
abling act to suit the cases of those Radical
Legislators elect who could not digest the
iron-clad dose as easily as he, Blodgett,
had done. If there was such a thing in
Congress as impartial justice, or an earnest
desire to restore the State, such an enabling
act would work so as to include the repre
sentatives of either party. But, inasmuch
as such sentiments are completely out of
question, the act will be beneficial to those
who have bowed down to Thaddeus
Stevens and utterly nugatory 4n the case
of others who refuse allegiance to Beast
Butler. It operates, as we have before
mentioned, as a bribe and a snare. The
white men of the State who are bought and
caged by it are certainly reduced to pitiable
straits, and we are sorry to confess, from
present appearances, that their numbers are
anything but insignificant. Even the New
York Times admits the indecency of such a
party manoeuvre, but as Congress has
long since transcended the bounds of deco
rum, and as a considerable number of white
men have put themselves on record as ut
terly demoralized, we see no earthly use
of protest, and hope that the consequences
of their defection may awaken them to
some sense of the degradation to which
they have consented. Should it come to
pass, as we believe, that the relief from
debt which so dazzled the people of North
Georgia is the merest sham ; should it
come to pass that they have delivered them
selves over to a worse bondage than
moneyed obligations—those who have so
recreantly betrayed their race and State
will make a cleaner record in the contests
that are to come. While our brethren in
the White Belt have rendered themselves
liable to censure, we are disposed to treat
their delinquency as an error of the head
rather than a criminal intent of the Heart;
we are rather disposed to win them back
by soft rebuke, than drive them into the
enemy’s camp by vituperative menace.
After they have supped their till upon Re
lief, let us approach them with the subtle
and all-pervading reasonings that cluster
about the kindred ties of blood and tradi
tion. Let us endeavor to perfect organiza
tions among them which will give us
greater strength in other campaigns. Surely,
we ought to be able to offer them superior
inducements to those offered by the sinister
disciples of Radicalism. At all events, the
trial is worthy of attention, and demands a
rousing up equal to the emergency, and
the stake presented.
The Legislature of Georgia, according to
the prescription of the New Constitution,
is ordered to assemble ninety days after the
adjournment o the Convention. This will
bring its day of meeting to the 11th of June.
Unless there be a special call for an earlier
convocation, the Legislature will be inau
gurated tf/iter an adjournment of Congress,
for Congressmen will hardly dawdle over
Southern reconstruction when the great
drama of the Presidential campaign shall
have shaken and absorbed the North.—
Shosld this be so, the admittance of Geor
gia as a reconstructed State is by no means
probable, prior to 1869. What 1869 shall
bring in the way of Radical state-craft is
another problem.
Whether we have lost or gained by the
late canvass each one can determine for
himself. We trust that it has not weakened
the Democracy North and South. We fur
ther trust that it has not built up and com-j
pactcd the Radical party in our midst. One !
thing, however, we deem to be a certainty, '
that never before was there so much need
of perfect organization and active work.—
Let not those who were so rabid to enter
into the recent contest grow despondent
and negligent; let them, on the contrary,
review the situation with rigid scrutiny, and ;
seek to repair the damage to their shields ■
and battle-axes. Let them pluck up ten-1
fold spirit for more valorous deeds. Let '
them assail the enemy at al! points and in all ■
seasons. By persistent and unflagging es- '
says, Radicalism has won on the side of
rong ; it will be an unutterable shame, a
withering disgrace, if Democracy should
fail to manifest an equally determined vigor
in the championship of Right. As an earn- 1
est of this resolve, and for the better under
standing of all elements of success, we pro
pose, at the earliest practicable day, a State
Democratic Convention, which shall have
the power of issuing a declaration of prin
ciples, as a platform, and for such other
purposes of reorganization as the occasion
may demand.
Hot and Cold.—Forney, who wrote
the Jamieson letter and is $40,000 short in
his loyal account with the United States,
rejoices in the triumph of negroes in the
State of John C. Calhoun and over the
ablest intellects of the white race. In the
same paper, we find an elaborate editorial
protesting against the employment of “ un
educated labor,” on account of the “ loss
and danger of every kind” it involves. The
negro triumph Forney thinks “ sublime ;”
the employment of unscholarly whites de
testable. No wonder the workingmen of
the country are leaving the Radical party
and making even Chicago Democratic.
THE NEXT PRESIDENCY.
The ground swell of Radicalism is making
itself felt along the Southwestern States,
an 1 from the indications it is now descried
that Chase is floating uppermost on the
Radical waves, with good chances of re
ceiving the nomination. Even the black
and white "negro equality” Radicals of
New Orleans have expressed their pre
ference for Chase over “Ulysses the
Silent.” The negro equality Radicals, of
Missouri, in their convention at St. Louis
to send delegates to the nominating Radical
negro equality convention, to be held at
Chicago in May next, have, it is asserted,
sent none Radicals as delegates
from Missouri.
The good old Democratic ship of State is
also getting ready for a new voyage, and
the people are anxiously looking around for
the most able commander to take the helm.
As for President Johnson, we regard It
certain that he has virtually expressed his
intention of retiring in favor of Maj. Gen.
Winfield S. Hancock, who has already
become a general favorite. A number of
other candidates are also being presented
to the people for their consideration.
In Illinois, we believe, the name of Mr.
Justice Davis, of the Supreme Court of the
United States, has been nominated. In
Ch'o and elsewhere. Geo. 11. Pendleton,
of Ohio, for President, R. F. Haight, of
California, for Vice-President, have been
presented. In Kentucky, a portion of the
solid yeomanry have quietly proposed
among themselves Charles O’Conok, of
New York, with either Mr. Pendleton or
Governor Stevenson, of Kentucky, on
the same ticket for Vice-President. 'Mr.
: O'Conor ranks high as a jurist and states
' man, and would no d -übt concentrate the
Conservative clement and the Irish vote.
As it is supposed by many that Mr. O Con
or is ineligible on account of his birth, we
will here state, in justice to that gentleman,
that he was born in New York city in 1804,
and is about 64 years of age. He is descend
ed from a line of literal’}' gentlemen, being
a descendant of Charles O’Conor, the
noted antiquarian, mentioned in Boswell's
Life of Johnson. His father came over
from Ireland with those distinguished pa
triots, Emmet, Tone, McNeven and others,
and settled in the city of New York. His
uncle, Major Jno. M. O’Conok, served with
great distinction in the war of 1812, and
afterwards went to France in 1818, by
order of our Government, to write a treatise
on “The Science of War and Fortifica
tions,” which was afterwards approved by
Congress. While in France he became the
guest of General LaFayette, by whom he
was greatly esteemed and appreciated.
Mr. O’Conor early became inculcated in
the great principles of constitutional liber
ty, of which he has ever been the fearless
advocate, and no one more than himself has
maintained the character and integrity of
the American bar.
If the State of New York shall claim the
right to give the nomination of the next
j Constitutional Democratic President to one
•of her sons, certainly no purer man, none
j more fresh from the people, or freer from
the trammels of party cliques could be
found than Charles O’Conok.
THE CHICAGO ELECTION.
The Washington correspondent of the
Cincinnati Commercial attributes the late
reverses of Radicalism, and especially the
Waterloo defeat in Chicago, to a movement
of the workingmen, who have become dis
gusted with “Republicanism” and turned
their attention to Democracy. The corres
pondent says:
“ Most of the men who belong to these or
ganizations have heretofore voted the Republi
can ticket. They have kept the Republicans in
an immense majority in Pittsburg and Phila
delphia, especially, until recently. They have
more political power than the Grand Army of
the Republic, and are now certain to use it for
what they conceive to be their best advantage.
They number six hundred thousand voters.—
Fifty-seven thousand votes, properly distribu
ted, would have given the last general election
to the Democrats, notwithstanding the Repub
licans have a two-thirds majority in each
House.”
This revelation should open the eyes of
the Democracy to the fact that no candi
date for the Presidency can hope to suc
ceed, if pledged to the bond-holding inter
est. These formidable workingmen are evi
dently determined to use their influence to
equalize taxation, if nothing else, and any
movement to keep them in the clutch of
gold-feeding capital will inevitably alienate
them from its support. The Democracy
are in imminent pcr.l of betrayal, if not
scrupulously circumspect ; and if any dis
aster supervene, we predict that the treach
ery will come from the bond-holding wing
rather than from the copperhead, so-called,
faction.
To estimate the importance of this singu
lar victory at Chicago, it must be borne in
mind that Chicago was thought to be the
, very Gibraltar of Radicalism, and, for that
very reason, selected as the headquarters of
Presidential caucusing in the National
Convention. Furthermore, the Tribune, of
that city, on the day of election, told its
readers that “ as Chicago went, the wlk>lc
Northwest would go in Novembcr?=
When the election resulted in a Democratic
gain of sous thousand eight hundred, we
* f, “ hot wonder that Illinois Congressmen
| were so taken aback and even Grant com-
I polled to quit smoking for at least ten min
utes. It was a fair and square contest.
Ihe Republican, the official paper of the
city, confesses that It was a “strong and
oidcrly contest at the polls.” It continues:
“ Thanks to a stringent watchfulness and
the existence of the registry system, there
was little fraudulent voting, and that
which promised but a skirmish has proved
a field encounter.” The Washington (Jhroni-
; de (Forney’s delectable sheet) laid the news
I but did not publish it. It must have been
’ stunning intelligence, when so brazen-
I fronted an organ was struck dumb. Per-
haps Forney was too much bothered about
the $40,000 deficiency in bis trooly loil ac
count with the United States.
As Chicago has a great number of Ger
man citizens, it wllf be of interest to know
what the Radically inclined Teutonic ele
ment thought of the election. The Illinois
Staats Zeitung said on the day of the elec
tion :
“ Chicago is recognized ns the Republicair
metropolis of the West. Her claims to this
honor are acknowledged in the East by every
body, and it is tor that reason that she was
chosen as the seat of the Republican National
Convention. It is the only great city west of
the Alleghenies, and in fact the only great city
in the whole country upon whose political
faith the Radical party can rely. Chicago is
the recognized guardian of the Republican flag.
She will not disappoint those who trusted in
her. She will not prepare the shame to the
Radicals that they should have to hold their
National Convention in a Democratic city.
Should this be the case, the consequences of
discouragement in the ranks ot the Radical
party will be invaluable.”
These are strong acknowledgements that
Radicalism was known to be waning in the
“ metropolis of the West.” Here are some
more refreshing revelations from the same
journal:
What do the Democrats care, whether they
wiu in little skirmishes with insignificant
enemies, as they have done lately ? What is a
victory even in Connecticut to them, compared
with a victory at Chicago ? Our city is the very
Malakoff, the key to the Republican Sebastopol,
and they are right. For all these places, where
the Democrats have succeeded during the last
few weeks, were doubtful during the war,
whilst Chicago stood like a rock then and after
wards iu the storm of reaction.
Thus far, it would so'em that, with any
thing like proper management, the Demo
cracy should make a speedy end of the
more.than Russian despotism of Radicalism,
having conquered its greatest stronghold.
We sincerely trust that these magnificent
opportunities may not be brought to death
and defeat. We admit that they may be
by the continuance of jarring interest and
stubborn pride of faction. Will the De
mocracy be wise in time and heal all old
wounds, looking only to the present and
the future ? We hope so. If such should
not be the case, wo to that man or those
men,
“ Whose treason, like a deadly blight,
Comes o’er the councils ot the brave,
To blast them in the hour of might.”
NEGRO SUFFRIGE.
The Round Table, of April 25th, has a
thoughtful and comprehensive article on
the vexed question of “ Negro Suffrage.”
We reproduce it prominently, as the most
enlightened view of Northern Conserva
tism, and as a breakwater to the impetuous
spirit of some who, for the sake of spoils,
may possibly be led into a bog, from which
extrication will be difficult and well-nigh
hopeless. The poor South is sadly tor
mented and miserably tempted; but she
need not unnecessarily add to her miseries
by becoming a driveler and a show. The
Round Table says:
“ Negro suffrage in the Southern States is
commonly looked upon as involving no
thing more than the admission of an ad
ditional number of the people to a share in
the government. It is taken to be like the
recent extension of suffrage in England.—
Practically it is no such question. Negro
suffrage in the South is not a mere exten
sion of the governing power to a larger
number of the people; it is a proposition to
give power in our public affairs to a new
and strange people. It is not to bring a
larger proportion of the community to the
polls; it is to introduce a new community.
It is like, but worse than, a proposition to
admit the Republic of Hayti into the Union.
“ Practically there are two separate com
munities in the South ; a black community
and a white one. They are separate now
and will always remain separated. No
human power can blend them into one. —
The white race in this country will not
mix with the black any more than it will
with the native Indian. The whites and
the blacks will not intermarry; they will
not visit each other’s houses ; they will not
go to church together. An effort will be
made to force them together in the public
schools ; but, like all laws which seek to
twist human nature violently back from its
instincts, this effort will simply intensify
the repugnance it seeks to overcome, and
the law will be violated and evaded so ex
tensively that little or no education will be
afforded to any one.
“ The blacks at the South constitute a
black people; the whites a white people.—
They cannot be blended into one people ;
for whenever the black and white blood do
intermix, the mulatto progeny is rejected
from among the white people and remains
a part of the black community. What is
really proposed in negro suffrage, then, is
to constitute one state of these two repel
ling elements, they being in nearly equal
proportion; to blend together these two
distinct and repulsive elements in the work
of a common government; to blend togeth
er races which, even when they are mixed
for a moment, start back from each other
instinctively, and remain separate; to mix
these elements harmoniously in the great
and difficult 'York <?f public government,
while in none of the every-day duties of
life can they be made to mix. If the blacks,
Instead of being here, were in their native
Africa or in Hayti, and had all the intelli
gence of our negroes, and it were proposed
to Import into any Northern State as many
negroes as were equal to its white popula
tion, with the condition that the negroes
should share, man for man, in the common
government—such a proposition would ex
cite universal horror. It would be looked
upon as the wildest absurdity to attempt
to compose an orderly and harmonious
stat'’out. of two discordant elements.
“ No successful, orderly and prosperous
state ever was so made tip. Celt and Sax
on, who are very much nearer in blood re
lationship than are the white man and the
black, could not, in England, make up a
state, a common government, in which each
were to take part; one race ruled. Nor
man and Saxon, who, by going but a few
years back, could trace up a common an
cestry, could not make up a mixed govern
ment of the two until intermarriage had
effaced the distinction between them. The
distinction cannot in this instance be ef
faced, even in time, fo'r the mulatto con
tinues to be a black. If all the Southern
population became mulattoes, that would
not solve the difficulty; for the mulatto, as
a race, will not live. It is practically not a
race, but< as its name imports, a mule. In
the mixed governments now proposed for
the South the effort is to be made, in spite
of all the warnings of history, to blend to
gether the two races which are the furthest
apart in nature, and the most unlike of any
two races in the world. The white man of
this country stands at the head of civiliza
tion ; the black almost at the foot of the list
of savages.
“ The present population of the South is
divided by a law higher than our laws into
two classes; distinctly marked classes.—
This division is sure to be permanent. It
is a natural instinct in men so situated to
cling to their own class, to counsel only
with it, to act only with it. There will be,
then, no political parties there but the
white party and the black party. A few
renegades from the whites will, for the sake
of power, go over to be leaders of the blacks,
but in the main the division will always be
as now—whites on one side, blacks on the
other. Whichever of these parties may get
the ascendancy in local politics, the gov
ernment will be a ciass government; seeking
the interest not of a people, but of the ruling
class. The blacks have the ascendancy
now not by their own force, but by the aid
of machinery supplied by the General Gov
ernment. In some of the States provision
has been made for such test-oaths as will
deter most of the whites from voting. In
others, military arrangements have been
been made for controlling the dissatisfied
whites. In some, large bodies of white
men are directly disfranchised and shut out
from a share in the government. So long
as these mixed governments exist, there
will be a constant struggle for one class or
the other to get the upper hand. If the
whites were in the ascendancy now, no
doubt nearly all the blacks would have been
shut out from a share in the government.
“ There can be no such thing as a blend
ed representation of the community as one
people when the community itself is not
blended. The State governments are sure
to be class governments, representing not
the whole people, but either the blacks as a
ruling class or the whites. We are, in fact,
narrowed down to this choice: shall the
white men rule in the South, or shall the
blacks there rule the whites ? Strive as we
may, we shall be able to bring the problem
only to one or the other of these solutions.
“ The great evil of negro government
will not be that a few negroes may get into
Congress or into the State Legislatures;
that would be a small evil. A few well
chosen negroes might teacli good manners
to some of the white members of the pres
ent Congress. The great evil ot negro suf
frage is that it means, in many districts,
negro justices of the peace and negro con
stables. The home government of neigh
hoods are the governments most important
to the mass of men. If those are not such
as to conduce to order, content and com
fort, the country at large cannot have its
just measure of peace, industry and pros
perity. There is no Northern neighbor
hood which could endure negro magistrates
and negro local officers; either the negro
officers would be expelled by violence or
the whites would abandon the neighbor
hood.
“ There is no such thing possible as put
ting the negroes and the white men at the
South on a footing of equality. Nature
forbids it. Unless they can be put on such
an exact footing oi equality that in every
relation of life the distinction of color is
lost sight of, there can be no sucli thing as
tlie representation of one people in the pro
posed governine its at the South. The pub
lic officers of all kinds will represent one
people or the other; they will represent the
majority, and the majority will always be
either the black people exclusively or the
white people. Class governments under
universal negro suffrage at the South are
inevitable. The whites, being disfranchis
ed, cannot now assert their natural supe
riority ; and the negro governments which
may get into power will resort to continued
disfranchisement as their means of retain
ing the control.
"Negro suffrage, enforced by the North,
means, practically, not negro equality, but
negro superiority; that the negroes, as a
class, shall rule the whites.”
Black Mail.—A carpet bag leaguer in
Greene county, Alabama, has forty colored
boys in his school. He recently taxed them
25 cents each ($10) for a water bucket.
He will be able to get a handsome new car
pet bag with that amount.
Signs of Conviction. —President John
son’s granddaughters, hitherto courted by
their female companions, are now shunned
Or snubbed by the aforesaid misses. They
were both candidates for Queen of the May,
but the children who have suffrage on that
question took a Ben Wade view of the
matter, and so they were badly defeated—
all because grandpa had gone under a
cloud.
“ Among the Proudest.” —The Phila
delphia Age has a poor opinion of Southern
Senators to be. It probably had Blodgett’s
testimony in view when it spoke thus :
“The expulsion ot President Johnson is sup
posed to be a party necessity, and to secure
scats in the Senate the newly elected Senators
from the South will promise to vote any way
required of them. ’
What obliging fellows, to be sure.
NORTHERN NEGROPHILISM.
Greeley has been tearing his hair and
sitting ou ashes because Ohio has not only
refused negroes the privilege of the ballot,
but even strengthened tiie prohibition to
include persons who have the least visible
tinge of Ethiopian blood: The predominant
idea is, of course, a purely selfish one, viz :
To get rid of the blacks. Massachusetts, tn
her first State organization, so loved the
negro that he was forbidden to enter her
realm, requested to leave, and, failing to do
so, was to be “ severely whipped,’ once
every ten days, until he vamosed the
rauche. Massachusetts compelled the ne
gro to shun her border, by the most savage
edicts; Ohio and other States of the North
very quietly legislate him out of the way.
The New York World has published
tables showing a per centage of negro
males over twenty-one years of age and
dares the honest Horace to put them in his
Almanac. This is the table of five New
England States:
, 1860. ■
Per centage of
Col’d Males White Males Africanized
Over 21. Ovr2l. Americans.
Maine 357 162,320 0.22
New Hampshire . 144 88,954 0.16
Vermont . 120 84,883 0.14
Rhode 151 and..... 991 44,877 2.21
Massachusetts.. ..2,527 327,921 0.77
Commenting upon these figures, this World
says:
“ And the- Senators and Representatives of
these five States, in all cf which put together
there are not negroes enough of all shades, sexes,
and sizes to make up the seventh part of a con
stituency for a single member of Congress, are
now combining together to force negro equality
and miscegenation upon the people of ten Ameri
can St ites in which the negroes are counted not
by the dozen, but by the hundred thousand ! And
in this infamous work they are aided and abet
ted by the representatives of fifteen other free
States (including Nevada, admitted in 1864 un
der the “sainted martyr’’ Lincoln, and Ne
braska, admitted in 1867 by the Reconstruction
Rump,) all of which by their constitutions ex
pressly and most properly exclude from the
suffrage this race which the five New England
States first mentioned would never have dream
ed of ad nitting to the suffrage unless it had
dwindled among them into a shadow as signifi
cant as the ghost of King Philip ana his Pe
quots! It is on such facts as these —dare the
Tribune lay them before its readers ’—that Mr.
Tilden bases nis assertion of a great govern
ing principle in American history. For that
great governing principle the Democratic party
propose to do battle. March up the issue, Mr.
Tribune, and meet us! No skulking behind
conundrums I Go before the country like a
man with your flag. Proclaim your purpose
to bring the negro into the State and into the
family, and let the American people pass upon
you in the daylight, not in the dark !”
[For the Constitutionalist.
Thoughts on the State of the Country-
The state of the country is such as to
awaken profound anxiety in the breast of
every man who feels any concern for the
welfare of o.ur people. This is no time for
party strife. Affairs are too critical to be
treated by the ordinary arts of politicians.
The people must now think and act for
themselves. Let us for a moment review the
events that have brought us to our present
condition: For some four years a desolating
war waged in this Southern country; the
result of it was the overthrow of the Con
federate Government and the emanci
pation of our slaves; the whole social
and industrial system of the South was
suddenly changed; impoverished by our
losses, we had to begin once more our
plans of life. The large body of persons in
our midst recently set free formed a new
clement in our system of labor. It remains
to be tried whether that kind of labor can
be conducted successfully. The result of
the experiment has, to some extent, been
satisfactory. It is evident that with a good
understanding between the white man and
the colored laborer we may conduct our
various systems of industry satisfactorily.
Now it is all-important to promote this
good understanding. There must he no
conflict between capital and labor. I assert
that if the colored race are properly
treated by ns they will regard us as their
friends. In every instance they have
been misled by selfish and designing men,
who have spared no pains to alienate them
from their former owners. Now this is, in
my judgment, only a temporary mischief.
If we are wise, we shall gain complete
control over the colored people. We are
their best friends, and this we will prove to
them. Let us show by our acts, our en
couragement, that we are—that we desire
them real prosperity and happiness; con
cede to them all their rights under the law.
Providence has brought the white and col
ored races together in these Southern
States; a great future opens before us; it
is our plain duty to cultivate the kindest
relations with them ; let us encourage them
to labor faithfully, and let them feel that
they can trust us. We must encourage
them to do their duty, to improve them
selves, to be honest and industrious. In
all our contracts with them we must, in
good faith, comply with the terms, while
we require them to do the same.
I assert that if we pursue this course ; if
we exhibit a true interest in the welfare of
these people, we shall find that they will
come to us naturally for counsel in all mat
ters ; there will be no conflict of interest,
but everything will work well.
I must say that the tone assumed by
some who discuss this subject, in my judg
ment, tends to produce mischief; and I pro
pose, in some future articles, to say some
thing more in reference to the best mode of
treating this great social problem.
H. F. Russell.
Southern Reconstruction. —The New
York Times thus discloses the milk iu the co
coanut :
“ The Hartford Cowant remarks that there
is no pledge on the part of Congress to admit
the Southern States, even if their new constitu
tions have been adopted, until enough of the
Legislatures have adopted the constitutional
amendment to make it part of the fundamental
law. Five more are needed, and no State will
be admitted until the Legislatures ot them all
have taken action. The elections were held in
the South, wc think, under a different impres
sion. We trust it will be definitely settled in
due course of time whether the Southern States
are to conic in or not. If they are not, it ought
not longer to be deemed a crime, on one side
more than on the other, to keep them out.”
Et tu Brute !—Rumor says that Mrs.
11. B. Stowe has seen cause, from personal
observation of the Southern negroes, to
modify her opinions as to the intelligence,
honestv and nobility of that race.
[From the Philadelphia Age.
Radicals.
We have before pointed out the likeness be
tween our Radicals and the French Jacobins,
and might have spared ourselves the pains fo>
we find the Radicals admit and glory in the re
semblance. Three days ago the following ap
peared tn the Press, from its correspondent,
“ Occasional." His letters have the more sig
nificance because he holds a lucrative office
from the majority of the Senate, and, in return,
promulgates their views, and villifies their op
ponents, in his two newspapers : “I recall the
incident in the French National Assembly when
Louis XVI. was on bls trial. Many appeals bad
been made in his behalf, and his release or ban
ishment was demanded as an of humanity
to his years, and to his wife and children. At
last the name of one of the ‘Radicals’ was
called, when he rose and said :
“ ‘ I sympathize with much that has been said
by my. associates. I also pity Louis—l pity his
wife—bid family; but, Mr. President, I pity the
hunted, starving, despairing people ot France.
I pity them and my tortured country more.—
Mr. President, I vote for death.’
“Occasional.”
Here is the model held up for admiration in
this age, by a Radical journalist! We know
not whether it betrays more depravity or igno
rance. -History has long since pronounced the
execution of Louis XVI. a crime, a wanton,
a useless crime. Few, in our country, evei
saw it in any other light. His death was gen
erally regarded here with horror! He had aided
our revolutionary struggle with ships, armies
and treasure. Mr. Jefferson thinks without
that aid our independence could not have been
achieved. To the revolution in France the
King made no resistance. At the time when
it delights a Radical to gloat over his sufferings
he was a wretched, deposed prisoner the
most harmless and helpless of kings. But the
Radicals, or Jacobins, slew him, his wife and
sister, and starved his son to death. They
wasted, too, the one golden opportunity to
give free government to France, which, after
years of domestic strife and of foreign war,
received back with apathy another Bourbon for
a king. The speech at the trial, which Forney
quotes, was a part of the cant of the hour, in
which each hypocrite tried to surpass the other.
For instance, the Duke of Orleans, a monster
of profligacy, and an a-pirant to the throne of
his kinsman, Louis, was one of his judges. He
placed his hand on his heart and said (why
did “Occasional" omit this?): “Exclusive
ly governed by my duty, and convinced
that all those that have resisted the sov
ereignty of the people deserve death —my
vote is death.” A thrill of horror went through
the convention at this vote —they were, per
haps, not so steeled to all humanity as our
Washington “Radical.” But true American
principles found a voice. Lafayette, the adopt
ed son of our country, iu trying to save the life
of Louis, bad, in the eyes of the Jacobins, for
feited his own. He had barely saved it by
flight. But Thomas Paine, fresh from America,
the renowned advocate of true liberty, in his
great work, “ The Rights ot Man,” had been
chosen, in compliment to his fame, a member
of the French convention. We will give a few
words of his address for the instruction ot all
degenerate Americans.
He said: “ Citizen President—My hatred and
abhorrence of monarchy are sufficiently known,
bv my compassion for the unfortunate, whether
friend or enemy, is equally lively and sincere.
* * * Let the United States be the safeguard
and asylum of Louis Capet.” For this Robes
pierre sent him to a dungeon. This bloodiest
ot the Jacobins talked, in advance, the language
of Ben Butler, and the inipeachers. The argu
ment of Robespierre admitted that the laws
protected Louis, but said be: “ There ore
sacred forms unknown to the bar; there are
principles superior to the common maxims.”
And now, let us not forget the fact that while
Louis was condemned to death by the Jacobins,
the intimidated moderates were largely in the
majority. They quailed, and soon the guillo
tine was dripping with their blood also. Na
poleon afterwards said : “Had they but dared
to oppose the Jacobins, they would have easily
overcome them, and the administration of the
government would have been in their bands.”
George H. Pendleton.
From a biographical sketch of this gen
tleman, written by Edward A. Pollard and
published in the Baltimore Southern Home
Journal, we learn that he was born in Cin
cinnati in the year 1825. The writer says :
It is remarkable that Mr. Pendleton has
none of that coarseness or excess usually
attributed to the Western politician. His
appearance is singularly cultivated ; his
dress, decorous and becoming; he suggests
recollections of the old school gentleman ;
and in his style he has the merit of reviving
the graces of literature in politics. He
calls to mind those better days of the re
public, when the politician was also the
gentleman and the scholar. We name him
confidently as the best living model in
America of a pure and lofty literary style
in party politics ; in abstinence from per
sonalities and low fancies, in dignity, in
well knit and justly adorned language, he
has no equal among the public speakers of
his day. He uses but few ornaments of
speech, but his great enthusiasm for his
party occasionally rises to a flight of fancy.
«■ * * * * * *
The value of literary style in such cases—
that is where mere literary effects are not
sought—is not in ultimate advantages, but
in captivating attention and obtaining an
audience, where a dull rehearser of the same
argument or the same facts would be neg
lected. We find the distinction well illus
trated in the pleased and ready attention
which Mr. Pendleton secures for whatever
he speaks and writes even on subjects where
other men of equal intelligence are shunned
as bores or cried down by impatience. It is
not so much the personal importance of his
opinions as the agreeable dress in which he
puts them. Even if he writes on the “ res
olutions of 1798 and ’99,” we are attracted
by the charm of his style, and fancy we are
obtaining new information of a subject
which other instructors have made trite
and threadbare. It is a style in which are
most ingeniously distributed all the ele
ments; in which the argument is well
braced with illustration ; in which the logic
is neither too dense nor too desultory ; and
in which ornament is so judiciously used as
to draw without dividing attention. That
Mr. Pendleton is one of the first political
scholars of the country no candid person
will dispute; and that he is so without
prejudice to the familiarity of his inter- , <
course with the people is the effect not only
of his amiable person, but of the happy lit
erary style by which he obtains admission
to the minds and hearts of even the most
ignorant of the populace.
The Danville, Virginia, Times has started a
report, for the accuracy of which it says it can
vouch, viz: That there is a female child near
that place only fifteen mouths old, having quite
a large moustache, nearly an inch iu length,