THE REPUBLIC.

Devoted to the Bissemination of Political Information.

VOL. VIII.

WASHINGTON, D. C., APRIL, 1877.

No. 4.

PRESIDENT HAYES' NEW POLICY.

The policy of the new Administration is not yet fully developed. Enough, however, has been made known to indicate its general character.

Certain Republicans fear that it is to be an abandonment of the Republican party in the South, and the virtual throwing overboard of all that has been done in the line of reconstruction since the close of the war. Certain Democrats hope and believe that it means the acceptance of Democracy, the elevation of its old leaders, the abandonment of universal suffrage, and the abnegation of all right on the part of the Federal Government to protect citizenship in the Southern States.

the earnest support of every true friend of the Government, irrespective of old party lines. Its complete success calls for no abandonment of the right of suffrage on the part of any class. The humblest citizen is to be protected in his rights, and it is hoped that under its friendly influences this protection, wherever needed, will come promptly and willingly from the States affected. If this should prove to be the case, the military arm of the Federal Government will not be invoked to do what the States ought to do themselves, and the withdrawal of United States troops from Southern localities will follow as a matter of course.

The new policy looks to the elevation of the best men to offices of trust and author

South cannot produce men to come up to the requirements they will be sought after in the Democratic party. In other words, good men are not to be ignored because they are Democrats, nor bad men preferred because they claim to be Republicans. Republicans are to have the preference, all things being equal, but merit is to be the test, and whoever fills an office must come up to this test.

Both Republicans and Democrats holding these views will be disappointed in the new policy. It neither means the de-ity, and if the Republican party in the sertion of Republicanism nor the acceptance of Democracy. It means the blending together of a large and influential ele- | ment in both parties, and the breaking down of the color line in the politics of the South. If it fails of success, the fault will be with those who have complained of abuses which have grown out of the color line, and who are now to have an opportunity to correct them by an honest effort on the part of the President to afford a policy that will, if accepted in good faith, secure local self-government, and the ultimate removal of those irritating causes which, since the close of the war, have tended to disturb the peace and retard the prosperity of many of the Southern States. The policy is on trial, and it should have

It has been claimed, and the truth of the claim will be tested by the new policy, that there is a large and influential party in the Southern States who do not countenance the violence and outrages perpetrated upon the colored voters, but are forced to look on with indifference because they have been ignored by the Administration. It has

been set forth, from time to time, that the | the reform will be hailed as genuine and political crimes committed have been by a substantial. lawless class that could be controlled and On the whole the outlook is a cheering suppressed by the better element, if that one, and the new policy promises good reelement was invited to advise and co-oper-sults. While we may entertain opinions ate with the General Government. at variance with some of its features, we

forth. The President is in earnest and will do his best to bring about peace and good will without sacrificing any one's rights or betraying a principle. If his policy fails he will be among the first to change it. While he hopes for success, he is not so wedded to a policy as to pursue it after it has proven a failure.

The appointment of a Democratic Cabi- | cannot deny the honesty of the efforts put net officer and the general invitation extended to the Southern people by this act means that an honest endeavor is to be made to bring to the front this better element of the South, that has thus far stood with folded arms, unwilling to help in the preservation of order, on the plea that such help was not invited. President Hayes has extended the invitation, and time alone can tell whether the invitation is to be followed by those good results which are earnestly hoped for.

If the new policy has no other effect than to bring the best men of both parties closer together and thus dull the edge of partisanship it will not have been tried in vain. Party spirit, of late years, has become excessively bitter. The natural tendency of its continuation in the same line would be to invite to blows, and this would involve a civil war, the most disastrous of modern times. If the new policy begets more justice and charity than were found in the old one it must lead to the pacification of all sections and to the speedy restoration of public confidence, and, thus, to prosperity. The new policy also means a healthy reform in the civil service. Perfect independence of political influences is to be infused in the offices of the Government. Merit is to be the door of admission, and merit is to be the basis of promotion. We have claimed, and still claim, that the civil service of the past eight years has been, in point of honesty and efficiency, equal to any in our history. But there is room for improvement, and it lies in the direction indicated by the new policy of President Hayes. Government officials should feel, at all times, that their positions depend upon their merit, and that faithful service to the Government is a surer road to advancement than service to any man or party. If the President succeeds in bringing about this feeling of independence among the Federal officials of the land,

Let American citizens, of both parties, stand by him in his work and render him that support which is necessary for success. If the results do not come at once to justify the promise let all be patient and exercise the charity which encourages welldoing. A fair trial is all that the President asks, and a fair trial is the least that can be accorded his policy.

THE New York Bulletin publishes the comparative statistics of the debts of New York city and the United States, the former at the present time and the latter in 1860. The debt of New York city is $160,000,000. The taxes are $33,000,000 a year. The population is 1,200,000. The debt, $133 for every man, woman, and child of population, and the taxation, $27.50 per capita. In 1860 the debt of the United States was $65,000,000, or $95,000,000 less than the present debt of the city of New York. The taxes upon the United States were at that time $3,000,000 a year, or only $21,000,000 more than the present taxation of the city of New York.

Is it any wonder that New York feels the pressure of hard times; that her great stores stand empty, and that there is an irresistible call on landlords for a reduction of rents?

Of the thirty-eight States of the Union, twenty-four will be represented in the next House by a Republican majority. Even the great bull-doozed State, New York, will have a majority of its Representatives on the Republican side of the House.

VIEWS ON THE SOLUTION OF THE SOUTHERN PROBLEM.

BY A CORRESPONDENT.

In June, 1875, at the date of the meet- Third. The permanent pacification of ing of the Republican nominating conven- the Southern section of the Union, the comtion at Cincinnati, the unfortunate condi- plete protection of all its citizens in the tion for years of Southern affairs, with to which the Republican party is sacredly free enjoyment of all their rights, are duties its fruits-revolts, massacre, and outrage; pledged. The power to provide for the the unyielding hostility of the property-enforcement of the principles embodied in holding and educated whites of the section the recent constitutional amendments is to the rule of the colored majority; the vested by those amendments in the Conunceasing demand of the latter for military it to be the solemn obligation of the legislagress of the United States, and we declare assistance from the Government, and the tive and executive departments of the consequent use of the bayonet in organiz- Government to put into immediate and viging and supporting their local Legislatures orous exercise all their constitutional and governments; the deaf ear with which discontent on the part of any class, and powers for removing any just causes of Congress had nevertheless met all the securing to every American citizen complete representations of the President respecting liberty and exact equality in the exercise the condition of the South; the refusal of all civil, political, and public rights. of the Republicans to seat To this end we imperatively demand a age and fidelity to these duties shall not Congress and Chief Executive whose courfalter until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall.

some of

Upon this plank it nominated as its candidates for President and Vice President, Hayes and Wheeler. General Hayes, in his letter of acceptance, dated July 8th, 1876, says:

66 "The resolution of the convention on the

its colored representatives in the Senate, and its refusal or neglect to adopt the legislation recommended by the President as demanded by an adjustment of Southern affairs-all these and other similar causes had combined, with the excitement throughout the country attendant upon the ruin of business and the scandal of never-ending brawls and outrages, in making reconstruction odious subject of the permanent pacification of even to the loyal mind. It had been emthe country, and the complete protection phatically condemned at the recent elec- all their constitutional rights, is timely and of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of tions. The Republican majority in the of great importance. The condition of the Senate had been greatly reduced. The Southern States attracts the attention and heavy Republican majority in the House commands the sympathy of the people of had been sponged out, and an overwhelm-ery from the effects of the war. the whole Union in their progressive recoving Confederate majority had been returned in its place. The nation was manifestly disgusted-evidently surfeited with the long and apparently endless wrangle, so profitless even to the Southern Unionist, and so injurious to all the material interests of the nation. It had commanded a halt, had ordered the bloody farce to cease, and the Republicans, weakened by the successive loss of State after State, were in danger of permanent overthrow.

Under these circumstances the Republican nominating convention met at Cincinnati. In its platform it adopted as its third plank:

Their

first necessity is an intelligent and honest administration of government which will protect all classes of citizens in all their South most needs is peace, and peace depolitical and private rights. What the pends upon the supremacy of law.

"There can be no enduring peace if the constitutional rights of any portion of the people are habitually disregarded. A division of political parties, resting merely upon is always unfortunate and may be disasdistinctions of race or upon sectional lines, trous. The welfare of the South, alike with that of every other part of this country, labor and immigration, and to capital. depends upon the attractions it can offer to But laborers will not go, and capital will not be ventured where the Con

men.

perial authority, England was compelled | frightful melange of blood and fraud-to to yield to Irishmen the rights of English- command the peace-without relinquishBut it robbed them of their home ing or jeopardizing the liberties and rights government. It substituted for its military, guaranteed the Southern Unionist by the in support of the imperial authority, an organic law? Is it not obvious? So long as armed constabulary, drilled and disciplined the color line in the South shall be preas cavalry and infantry. Hence, to-day, as served, so long as the "unfortunate" and disastrous seventy years ago, Irishmen still clamor an l "division of political parties war for local independence-for home upon sectional lines" shall continue, just rule --for "Ireland for Irishmen," and to- so long will the colored man be a "nigger” day, as a hundred years ago, the Pole is ripe —a pariah—hated, hunted, and murdered. for rebellion. After centuries of military With the division of his own and the white violence by the Turk, in sanguinary efforts vote a new era will open out to him—an to maintain over his provinces alien govern- era of fraternity and peace. With a new ments, the Sclave, to-day, for the hundredth division of parties obliterating the color time, is in arms for independence for local line, all parties will have the highest mohome rule! All mankind, German, Sclave tives to secure him in the unmolested exerand Celt, instinctively rebel against all cise of the franchise-in obtaining at the such agencies--against alien governments polls the largest number of colored votes, supported by the bayonet; and rebellion, and the inducements to secure his vote will bloody resistance, is their only fruit, even establish him, permanently and in peace, where maintained in the name of the ma- in all the enjoyments of life, liberty, and jority for the purposes of freedom! Can property. we hope for better success in the South?for acquiescence in a rule, in local governments, which in themselves are inimical to the will of the dominant classes, and which utterly fail, even with the support of the army, to maintain peace, to enforce justice, to protect the citizen, colored or white, in his liberties or life, or to secure him in the unmolested possession of his property? The colored man, the Southern Unionist, under them, is a victim of bloody persecution. Suffrage, which should have been his protection, the fortress of his independence and power, has, by its management, by its enforcement in blood by the military, been made his curse-t -the justification and cause of his massacre and murder, and positively threatens him with extermination.

Shall that continue forever, to the great injury of all the interests of the countryto the great scandal of the nation? Does justice demand such sacrifices? Does liberty or peace? The voice of the Republic, the judgment of all parties emphatically pronounced at the ballot-box, has decided that they do not-that the injurious and scandalous brawl shall cease.

What, then, is the remedy? What the statesman's remedy? How to untangle this

To accomplish that is one of the grand purposes of the administration—to secure to the Southern Unionist the rights guaranteed "every American citizen" by the Constitution and the laws, while removing from the States the odium of military rule; and, in its righteous efforts, it will be sustained and applauded by the patriotic of all parties!

DEWINTTON.

[While the REPUBLIC will always afford to correspondents an opportunity for a free expression of opinion on all national subjects, it must not be supposed that their views are always indorsed by the editors of the Magazine. While the necessity for a military police in the South must always be regretted, it is not clear that a better course could have been adopted in the past. Its withdrawal or retention now will depend wholly upon the future deportment of the people in the localities where its presence in the past has been deemed necessary for the preservation of peace, property, and life.-ED. REPUBLIC.]

No government ever saved a dollar by repudiation, which involves always the loss of credit.