New national era. [volume], November 16, 1871, Image 2

About New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874

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NEW NATIONAL ERA.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS. Editor.
Commnnicatioua fur th? editorial drpirtnent should br
adJraaaed ' Editor New National Era. Lock Box SI."
Buaineaa latter* from aubecribera and advertisers should
baoddreaaad to Pradarkk Dongtaa*. Jr., Lock Box 31.
Thia paper ll not responsible lor the views expressed by
Correspondents.
EVSnbacribort changing thair rwid?nrN, and dealrlng
to hare tha Kxw National Exa forwarded to them, should
ba particular in writing oa to atate fully the new address,
unbracing town, conntjr, and State, aa well m the town,
W'tiotT, and State from which the change te to be made.
Attention to thi? wtll **e* much trouble.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1871.
European Complication*.
When it became evident that the golden age
of monarchists was over in Europe, and King*
and Emperor* found that the people would no
i longer submit to absolute rule, no longer reoog
niae a power above the law, constitutional
monarchy was the expedient resorted to as the
means of reconciling the claims of hereditary
royalty with those of the people. It was a
compromise, a half measure, and an attempt
to unite two principles incompatible in their
ry nature, and therefore doomed to be s
failure! All European States, with the ex
ception of the Russian Empire, Switzerland,
i and the so-called French Itepublic, are nowa
days constitutional monarchies, most of them
a sufficiently long time to show die beneficial re
suits of the system to their full extent. A
glance on them reveals to us, however, a large
part in a state of constant fermentation, as it
it were a kind of chronic inflammation, others
are shaken every few years by great revolutions,
from which they wilt emerge with some
advantages gained, part of which they may
preserve, while others will slip from their hands
again, to be regained only by frosh exertions
and fresh sacrifices. It would be a mistake,
however, to lay the fault of this state of affairs
entirely at the doors of those in power; or
the contrary, it has to be admitted that the
majority of the people are yet far below the
mark in their conceptions of popular sove
reignty and republican liberty* It is true,
there are many earnest and uncompromising
republicans, and their number is daily in
creating, bnt the great masses, the unthinking
multitude thus far believe stilFin the excel
lence and efficiency of their system of consti
tntional representation and monarchical power.
The evils and abuses growing from it do no:
enlighten them, for they will lay the responsibility
on individual men, and shut their eyes to
the truth that the institutions which place
such power for mischief in the hands of the
few must necessarily be the real cause of the
vil. Once in a while some particularly un
scrupulous monarch will meet with his deserts
by being sent into exile, and just at this
moment the circle of fallen rulers, pretender*
and of their descendauta is probabiy as large
as at any previous time?most promiqent among
I them?Mr. and Mrs. Napoleon and son, the
ehildren and grandchildren of Louis Philipps,
the Count of Chambord, Mrs. Isabella ol
Spain with a hopeful fhmily, King Otto ol
^ Greece and lady, and some half dozen of
Italian Princes ; yet, instead of improving the
opportunity and securing their independence,
ithe people have invariably only substituted one
ruler for another, exchanged King Log for
King Stork, to swing ouce more round the
circle of misrule, abuses, and disappointed
hopss.
During the last few weeks the complications
arising from party struggles in Spain and
Austria have attracted general attention. In
Spain the Progressists Ministry of Zorilla has
been overthrown by the combined opposition
of the radicals and reactionists, and the King
% either blind or wilfully shutting his eyes to
the fact that radicalism is growing fast, and
will rule in Spain before long, has thrown himself
io the arms of the Conservatives, who,
under the party name of the ''Liberal Union,"
were the shief instruments of the odious des
potism which became the immediate eauss of
th* revolution of lSltfl and the downfall of
the Bourbon dynasty. Of course, such a
Cabinet has no elements of vitality ; it will
fall and deserve to fall, and we may conse
qaently look for new dissensions, conflicts, and
perhaps even revolutionary outbreaks in the
nazt future. There is one subject, however,
upon which rffl parties, Conservatives, Progreasistas,
and even Radicals seem to be onited
; that is the prosecution of the criminal
and cruel war they are waging in Cuba. For
several years it has been a drain on the blood
aa well as on the treasure of Spain, instead of
famishing an iocorne as in former times; be
sides, cne would think that by this time most
every tolerably intelligent and enlightened
man ought to see that the whole system oi
holding colonies is in itself wrong and unjust,
a remnant of old barbarous times, doomed to
die out sooner or later, and that consequently?
even if the present insurrection could be snppreesed?Cuba
is bound to be independent in
the necessary and inevitable course of events.
Probably some of the Radicals are conscious
of thie truth, yet do not venture to ntter it,
for fear of encountering the odium of the
xnasseo, who imagine the honor of the nation
involved in the preservation of Cuba under
Spanish rnle.
In Austria it is the old feud between the
Czechs and the Germans, anjl the attitude assumed
by the Emperor towards the contending
races, that lead to the anticipation of serious
troubles. The Czechs insist that Bohemia,
under the imperial scepter, be made entirely
independent of German dictation, and the
Poles demand the same for Galicia. They
claim the same rights with the Hungarians,
wuv vuwucu iuo.i nar?uuui> BUiue 11 111e olfO.
The eases are howerer widely different, for the
Magyars are a united and homogeneous people,
and since their demand was granted there have
been friendly relations and mutual goojl feeling
between them and the rest of the Empire. In
the Sclavonian regions, on the contrary, there
is a large German minority of about two fifths
of the whole population, who protest energetic
cally against being delivered into the hands of
a race that, besides entertaining an inveterate
national hatred against them, is moch inferior to
them in intellect, culture, and enlightenment.
It neeu not be told that the Germans in all
% provinces of the Empire warmly sympathize
with their conntrymen, and insist on the strict
observance of the Constitution. On the other |
side, it might appear strange that the Emperor?
himself a German, should take sides with the
Sclavonics wwre it not lor the incorrigible
reactionary disposition of the Hapsborg tribe, ;
which leads him to sympathise with reaction- i
iete?-no matter or what race?rather than with '
liberal, progressive men. The Ccecha, illiterate,
behind tba civilization of the age, super
stitions, bigoted, and fanatical in their devotion
to the Catholic Charob nod iu prieethood,
are, by far, move desirable adbjects in hie ejes
shea the Germans with their troublesome notions
of progress, political and religious liberty.
Toe Hohenwart Ministry was the fair
repres i.tatire of the Emperor** tendency toward
toe Cseche, but it had to give way before
the Indication and dissatisfaction of the people,
and Count Holigstba*, who was charged
with the formation of a new Cabinet, failed en
-? -
- ' "
- . ? - J
tirely in bis task. It seems neither probable
that the present Kellersperg Ministry will be
iacceseTnl in solving the growing difficulties of
the situation. All complications and troubles, j
however, have greatly increased by the sudden
resignation of Baron Beust, the liberal and
enlightened Chancellor of the Empire, who, of
all others, enjoys the confidence and affection
of the Germans, and their indignation is the
greater because it is asserted that he did
not withdraw voluntarily, but only at an intimation
from the Emperor. It is added that the '
Emperor did not so much act out of his own
impulse, as he was prompted by his wife and
mother, the reactionary, wily, and bigoted
Archduchess Sophia, who osed a trifling occur
rence as a pretext for exerting all their in- j
fluence to eradicate from the government ali
those hated liberal tendencies which found their
representative in Baron Becst.
The incident of whioh such capital has boen
mads, was, although significant in its bearings,
by no means of such a character as to famish an
excusefcr the consequences which were given to
it. A few weeks ago, at the installation of the Rector
Mianificuu of the University of Vienna, the
students received the Ciech Minister of Public
Instruction, with hisses and shouts of perent,
while they greeted Baron Bbust with enthusiastic
vivats. This affair was made a cause of
bitter denunciations, but since the Kmperor had
permitted the Hohenwart Ministry to resign,
in deference to the urgent demand of the German
party, it was confidently hoped that he
wonld sustain the Chancellor. If, as is now
apprehended, he is weak enongh to yield to the
reactionary influences which are made to bear
on him, and to throw himself entirely in the
arms of the Csech party, the experiment may
prove highly disastrous to him, and even force
the wronged Germans of Bohemia to renounce
him entirely in order to become a part of the
powerful German empire.
Biding Tbelr Time!
It is the polioy of that class of Republicans
who, from personal disappointments, have dis
oovered that the Republican party has fulfilled
its mission, and that it should now give place
to another and more 44 conservative" organisation,
with new leaders at its head, to convince
the Northern people that all is harmony and
?ood will at the South, and that further to
withhold from rebels our entire, generous,
unqualified confidence is gross injustice to
ilia m sn.1 <lunwnvAiia a ilia TU,...
VUVUI auu uaiigvivuo tUC VUlUUi A LI*?Y
proclaim from every " tump," and through
all their papers, that the people of the re!>el
States have accepted in good faith all the
reeonstraction measures of Congress, and are
even reconciled to negro suffrage, und, therefore,
clamorously demand that the few rebel
leaders, like Davis, Stephens, Breckinridge,
Ae, to whom the right to hold office?not the
right to vote?is still denied, shall have that disability
removed, and that the chair of the White
House, the halls of Congress, the Supreme
Court, and foreign missioos should be placed
again within their reach.
But the assurance of the selfish Republican
demagogues who are laboring to break down the
Republican party and build ooe upon its ruins,
in which they will play a more prominent and
profitable part than they can now, that the
South is reconciled to the situation, is a dishonest
attempt to deceive the people. It is
the farthest thing possible from the truth that
even a respectable minority of the old rebel
element of the slaveholding States, or any considerable
number of their leaders, have resolved
to acoept the result of the war as a definite
and permanent disposal of the doctrines of
secession and the question of Southern rights.
They lose no opportunity to declare that they
are but biding their time and patiently awaiting
and preparing tor the day to coine which
will justify them in striking another blow for
"the lost cause." The avowal of Jeff. Davis, as j
their great, trusted leader, and the admiration ;
in which he is held among "his people," would I
of itself justify us in m iking this assertion. i
There is, however, abundance of other proof
all over the Sooth, in the declaration of their
press and their orators, to the same point.
Only a few days ago General Bradlkt T.
Johnso* and the carpet bag apostate Governor
of Virginia took advantage of the non-political
gathering at the State fair to utter sentiments as
treasonable as those by Davis in Georgia. Iu
the speech which Johnson obtruded upon the
people he boldly declared, and repeated with j
bitter emphasis, that "so sure as the sun shines s
and the buds blossom, so surely will they in the j
fuUness of time retrieve everything now lost.'1 I
And again: "From Runnymededown their loss" j
(the race from which the "chivalry" sprang) !
"has been temporary, their gains permanent.
In their spirit we look to the future, and you,
our sons, will retrieve everything that has been
lost." The renegade Wai.kkr, who went to
Virginia a mere adventurer since the war, and
was elected Governor on the ground that he
was a better Republican than General Wem.s,
the Republican candidate, made a speech on
the same <?ccaeiou, in which he boasted of his
readiness, as Commander-in-Chief, to lead the J
troops of the State when another attempt to
regain tbeir "independence" shall be made. In j
the same spirit, and part of the same conspira
cy, is the fallowing from the Norfolk Virgin
ian :
"The West, the Northwest, and ths Sosstb,
>rhicb are one in interest, will combine and re I
peal the tariff, the act of emancipation, if ne- j
cessary, and the new amendments to the Con-!
btitution, which are frauds on that instraraent.
As a question of dollars and cents, of simple
addition and subtraction, not to say of justice
and commoa honesty, the new allies of the
South will find it to their interest to assume
their share of the present debt of the rebel
government, and to pay by a general tax on i
all property the war debt of the South."
'The Richmond State Journal notices, in
connection with it* report of the Voir at which
Johnson and Walksr made these treasonable
speeches, the equally significant indication that
the "flag of the United States" was entirely ignored,
and that the letters " U. S." were torn
from ths cartridge-boxes, the members of the
Virginia Guards declaring that they would not
parade at all if oompelled to do so with the hated
letters on the boxes!
Tljp State Journal draws most gloomy fore- 1
bodings for the future from such ominous sigos
of the times as these and the result of the
reoent election in Virginia. In commenting j
upon the significance of the election, it says : (
' Personally, we have few objections to urge
against the representatives of the Democratic
party elected to position yesterday.. It is the >
priociple involved that excites our* apprehen- <
sioua. It is but the - rattling fire of the skirin
ishers we heard yesterday, presaging the stern
national contest of 1672. It is again becoming *
a aectionul issue and question. As StAte after (
Suite in the South wheels into battle-line under 1
Democratic oolors, State after State North eon- ,
fronts them with the national banner. Vir- 1
ginia goo* Democratic, New York Republican. 1
f he latter takes a new departure and marches 1
proudly and grandly on to a higher degree of ]
influence and prosperity; the former recedes j
fcud retrogrades, clutching still the tireless ,
skeleton of sectiooelism. As each Southern
State rolls up its Democratic hundreds, a shud- 1
Jer of alarm thrills the lojal heart of the great '
West and orth, and thousands answer thoutends
in tows of allegiance to the Christian i
principles of the Bepublioan part jr.
*' Democrats in lbs North may be wedded to 1
certain principles, bat they breathe ne stnti- '
tnent of hate, of disloyalty, to the Union and a
#
THE K~E
the Government. They, too, distrust such De- ?
m< cracy as exhibits iteelf in the whipping-post# t
of Virginia and the Ku K!ux Klans of the far- j
ther Southern State#. Looking to the futons,
and consulting alone th? interests ef Virginia, 1
the spectacle presented gives us the deepest i
pain. We do not disguise it?we feel it but too '
deeply. ,
.'Shall the exclamation of the patriot# be
heard, ringing out the certain doom materially
and financially of the Sooth,4 Ephraim is joined i
to his idols ; let him alone ?' '*
In view of these and the thousand other
evidence* of a wide-spread determination at
the Sooth to keep alive the spirit of disloyalty
tL. n a. L?-? - J
to iuc uuvrriimcni wnicu piungeu wicm mvv
the rebellion, and to prepare for another straggle
against the Union, we can come to no other j
conclusion than the one which an intelligent
observer of Southern sentiment expresses
through the New York Times, that politically,
socially, and financially tbe people there were
reinstated in the rights they forfeited by their
treason too soon for their own good or the good
, of the nation. Iu other wordr, they received
i kindness rather than justice, and, with rare
exceptions, have aocepted that kindness as if
it had been prompted by a spirit of persecution.
It is not only profitable to recall, at this late
day, their condition at the close of the war, to
compare it with the present, but it is instructive
as teaching us the ingratitude of met) who
have been educated to believe themselves to be
masters of the world. They were, at the close
of the war, abjeot and submissive to a pitiable
degree. They expected disfranchisement, confiscation,
and redistribution of property, expatriation,
punishment for treason, and oegro
domination throughout the length and breadth
of the Confederacy. We know how these expectations
hare been agreeably disappointed,
aud knowing it, naturally expect expressions of
contentment, if not gratitude. Instead of such,
however, we hear only the most bitter complaints.
coupled with nroi?hecie9 and hones
? ' ? as r
that the "Yankees will one day get their just
deserts.''
Ti nilee King to the f?overnor.
In our District column will be found a letter,
writteu by Mr. Charles Kino to Governor
Henry D. Cookk, correcting the misapprehension
of power over the moneys for the use of
colored schools acted upon by certain officers
of the new government. We know that the
law quoted by the officers above referred to as
a warrant for their demand that the Treasurer
of the Board of Trustees for Colored Schools
give a boud was not intended to apply to any
but the Board of Trustees for white schools.
To a question asking what effect certain propositions
in a bill making appropriations for
schools would have on the oolored schools, the
reply from the gentleman having charge of the
bill in the Council was, in substance, that the
government of the District of Colombia had no
control of the management of colored schools
in the cities of Washington and Georgetown.
This reply was made to the member from the
First Couucil District by the member from the
Ninth District, called out by the proposition in
i the bill above alluded to to appropriate a sum
; of money for the purchase of medals for the
! use of white schools, the member from the
First District having asked an appropriation for
colored schools for the same purpose.
We hope our colored schools are not again
to be subjected to the malicious opposition of
the negro hating element in this community,
made potent through the control friends of
that element may have over the money belonging
to t^e colored schools established by the
laws of Congress. The correctness of the position
of the majority of the Board of Trustees
for Colored Schools is ably set forth in Mr.
Kino's letter, and we are constrained to believe
that the opposition comes from no regard
for the welfare of colored people; and the attempt
of that opposition to saddle the responsibility
of their hostility upon Governor Cookr
is useless, as no man in the community can be
made to believe that the Governor would do
anything having the least tendency to impede
the progress of colored youth in edncation.
The great need of our race is education, and
whoever does anything in any way calculated
to disturb our facilities for acquiring knowledge
is an enemy, notwithstanding his professions to
the contrary.
The True Interest* of Workingmen.
Tbe Republican policy of protection to Amor
ican industry has done more to promote tbe
true interests of tbe workingmon of this country
in the last eight years than all tbe trades'
unions, eight hour leagues, and other co^thinations
to force up their wages and force down
the hours of labor that will be organised till
the end of time cm ever accomplish. These
men might ns well attempt to tarn back the .
sun in its course as to annihilate the great law
of trade, which c*utrols the price of labor as
everything else. No one but a mad man or an 1
idiot would encourage a combination designed 1
to increase and keep up the price of agricultu- 1
ral products, regardless of the demand there '
inny be for them?when, for instance, Europe 1
has grown more thau enough to feed the na- 1
tion, and when, by the general prostration of (
our manufacturing industry, a home market '
ha* been destroyed. A union of every farmer 1
in the United States, pledged to increase the '
price of wheat and corn beyond its market (
value, regulated, of course, by the abundance c
of the crops and the foreign and domestic de- *
inana tor mem, couiu not lurce tne price be- "
yond that established by the law of supply and
demand for a single month. They might assassiuate
all who dared to sell below the arbitrary
price they had established, as labor
uuions do, or threaten to do, when other means
tail. In the end, they must sell their wheat
and corn for what it will bring.
It is just as true of labor, as it is of wheat
and corn, that those who own it roust sell it
for the price which the same law of supply
and demand has established, or they roust go
hunzrv It has been the nolicv of the Re
" ? ? T ' ?- ? J
publican party from the day it assumed the ^
government of the nation, to increase the
price of labor and thns best improve the oon- *
dition of the workingmao, by creating a greater
demand for it. This they have done to an ^
extent that has wrought a wonderful improvement
in their ooudition, and made them the ^
most prosperous, self reliant, and independent
class of American citizens, by protection
to hoine manufactures and other branobes of
A(n|fican industry. This policy has brought
into existence manufacturing establishments of a
rarious kinds in every part of the country, p
And these have not only oreated a market, f<
>ften at their very doors of the prodncte of y
>ur farmers, but have made a demand for the a
abor of many hundred thousand of working- *
nen, at remunerative prices, most of whom i
ivould otherwise have been out of employment, tl
ind the rest driven to farm labor at starvation a
jricos. The supply of labor wonld them have a!
>een vastly beyond the demand, and price* a
vouki have gone down as certainly as wheat el
vould when there it more produced than ie is
equired to feed the people. tl
No layering man ie eo dull, when left to the p
tzeroise ef bis own judgment, who ouunot 01
inderatand the! if oar muoafacturing industry el
vers crushed, as it woeld be by adopting the el
mti-American doetrines of free tredera, and a
iiiiiirfaittiiiM ,rr , -,v hmt
W NATIOKj*
nilli.io of men now employed in them thrown out
)f work, the intetests of the workingraen would
?e crashed with it, and that no combination of
trades' aniens could keep up wages,however numerous
their members or proecriptire their laws,
rhe Republican party b^encouragingAmerican
industry in preferenoe to foreign, hare averted
this great calamity to the labor of the nation,
and we hare a right, therefore, to claim that
that party has done more to promote the true
interests of the workingmen of onr country in
the last eight years than trades' unions ean ac
complish through an eternity of time.
BP!-*?-"HSHBHSAn
Incredulous Legislature.
The Georgia Legislature has recently passed
a joint resolution denying in most indignant
terms that there is, or ever has been,
any such an organisation as the Ku Klux
Klan, and that any outrage baa ever been committed
by each a combination at the South.
They utterly ignore the overwhelming amount
of testimony taken by the Congressional Com
mittee, the convictions of a large number of
the ontlawa in North Carolina upon the test!
mony of members who turned State's evidence,
the voluntary surrender and confession of several
hundred of them io South Carolina, and the
flight of a large number from the State. But
the unbelieving members of the Georgia Legislature
might as well deny the existence of the
rebellion, or assert that the Southern people
were from the beginning the only true friends
and defenders of the Union, and that they
were always opposed to the institution of slavery.
/
It may be that the Copperhead Democracy
of the North can use such official assurances
as this to deceive the inore ignorant of their
followers iu regard to the existence of this
band of rebel assassins. But the people of
the South, even the "poor white trash," who
.... .... .L. i i .r .u. i. t.. L.._ ...II
?ic pv uroi iu? i?d?ct ui iuo uruice, ftuuw outu
organisations extend throughout theSouth. The
Congressional Committee have not yet entered
upon the work of bringing to light the secret
bands of cut-throats in Qeorgia ; but they are
there nevertheless, and probably constitute a
large portion of the rebel majority of the very
Legislature which has stultified itself by passing
such a resolution as we have noticed. Wherever
the committee have prosecuted their work, as
in North and South Carolina, they have found
that the half had not be >n told by the public
press.
This is especially true of South Carolina;
and every day furnishes new proof of the necessity
of the measures adopted by CongresB for
unearthing the ruffians, and by the President
for looking up and dispersing the Klan. Senator
Soott, whose labors as the chairman
of the Senate Ku-Klux Committee cannot be
too highly appreciated by the friends of law
aDd order everywhere, received, a few days
since, a letter from Yorkville, in that State,
assuring him that some of the most influential
and infamous of the conspirators in that section?among
them Avert, Toxltnson, and
Bratton, together with twenty-five or thirty
less notorious ruffians?had taken alarm and
ignominionsly fled from justice. About one
hundred and sixty of the Klan have voluntarily
surrendered and made a clean breast of it.
The evidence of the existence and criminal
aots and designs of the Kiau are rapidlj uccn
initiating, and it is a fearful confirmation of all
the facts that have been stated in regard to
parties concerned in a large nninber of whippings
and other outrages, and in hanging Mr.
Williams, the murder of Mr. Brown, Mr.
Lbst, Mr. Rguxdtkrr, and five other Republicans,
which had not hitherto been made public.
Thirty of the Klan concerned in various murders,
according to ttteir own confessions, committed
by authority of Avtar, the grand chief
of the order, are ia Yorkville jail.
Yet the rebels of the Georgia Legislature
send forth to the wurld the solemn declaration
that there is no such a combination as Ku
Klux, and that the Southern people are all
peaceable, law abiding, and resolved to accept
the situation in good faith !
The Record Made trp
The last of the series of elections for the year
1871 has been held, and the judgment of the
people upon the comparative merits and cluims
of the Republicau and Democratic parties
is before the country. Except ia two States,
where the people were overawed by rebel violence,
every one of them which ever gave a
loyal vote recorded their verdict of approval
in favor of the administration of President
Grant and the measures and policy of the Republican
party. They have pronounced at the
polls their uentence or "well done good and
faithful serTauti, as you have been true to us and
your pledges thus far, ws have resolved still
longer to retain you in power."
The people of Connecticut wore the first to
declare their faith in President Grant's administration
and Republican integrity and wisdom,
in April last. Maine and Vermont followed in
September with an equally emphatic indorse
merit. In October California, Ohio', Pennsylrania,
Nebraska, Iowa, and Rhode Island re;orded
their judgment on the same side; and
ast week Massachusetts, New Jersey, (electing
i Republican Legislature,) Wisconsin, Illinois,
Kansas, Minnesota, and, last and best of all, the
rid Empire State took up the shout of " well
lone," and gave their voices for Republican
mnestyand in favor of a continued Republican
ule.
If the October elections did not settle the
text Presidential question, even in the minds
>f the most inoredulous and hopeful of the Denocracy,
those of November certainly have
lone so. At any rate they settle the fact that
he next President of the United States will
>o a Republican, and that the policy which has
von such popular approval for General Grant's
administration must be continued for four
'ears from the end of his present term. That
s now as certain as any future event
ver was. Pence men, sore-heads, new party
lemagognes, and all olasses who are "waiting
or something to turn op," may as well pre are
for that event. The time of "Conserveive
Republicans" and new departure Demorats,
or any other half fish and half flesh
ime-servers, has not come yet. The people
rant well-tried, bold, honest, positive men, and
hey will have none others.
Trades' Union Tyranny.
In Anna Dickinson'? lecture on "Demagogues i
,nd Workingmen," she dwelt with espeoial em- <
basis on that tyrannical and very mischievous i
mature of Trade*' Unions which denie* to j
oung men the right to learn any trade, and to i
ny extent, they may chooae. Seeretary Bout- i
r*LL, in his recent lecture on " Questions <
Meeting the Publie Prosperity," criticised 1
tis oppression and outrage quite as severely <
Miss Dickinson did, and he asserted the j
beolute right of young men to learn any trade i
na Miter any pursuit their interest or their in- <
lination may dietate, without interference from i
ibor oombinatioos or anybody efse. Yet a
mm Trades' Unions do dietate to a master \
rinter, mason, carpenter, cooper, and ail 1
ther employers bow many apprentices they t
tall take as weU as what journeymen they a
tall employ. i
These are questions that dssply concern the s
nai&it. .linn ? fiyahii . .. ..... .rf.- . .
% 4
lL era: .
whole pnbtie, and upon which the great body
of the people will decide, as Mr. Boctwsu.,
Miss Pickurson, and all lovers of fair play aud
equal rights do. The coarse of the Trades'
Unions io this respect is a gr ?ss wrong, and in
plain violation of the rights and liberties of
the citisen as well as of the spirit of the Declaration
of Independence.
No reasonable man will deny the position of
one of oar exchanges, " that oue of the dearest
and most practical of all our liberties is the
right to a choice of occupation, the right to
learn and work at any trade one fancies?in
brief, the right to be honest, industrious, and
independent, and to earn a living in one's own
way. This liberty, the dearest and most practical
a poor man has, the Trades' Unions deny. >
Does a poor man desire to have his son learn
a trade, the unions interfere with their rules,
and say, 'No, we will only allow one appren
tioe to each dosen or twenty journeymen ; so
there is no room for your son. He shall not j
learn the trade yon desire for him ; he shall i
not work in the shop whose master is willing
to reeeive and instruct him.' He needs no
argument, beyond the mere argument to show
how wrong and oppressive this is.''
4 Homo Market.
In their war upon protection to American
manufactures, the champions of tree trade, an
is their uniform practice, utterly ignore or
treat with contempt the idea of. a home
market for our agricultural products. The
very corner stone of their free trade system is
that we should abandon ail efforts to compete
with England in the manufacture of cotton,
woollen, irou, and other fabric^ constituting
the necessaries of life, and confine ourselves
mainly to agricultural pursuits, relying solely
on a foreign market for the disposal of our
surplus agricultural products.
Yet it is a fact, according to Commissioner
Wki.i.s himself, in his last official report, that
the three branches of manufactures we have
named?iron, uolton, and wool?consumed in
the year 1869 three hundred and twenty-one
millions of dollars' worth of the agricultural
products?an amount which exceeds our total
exports of every kind, including gold, to ,
foreign countries during that same year. Still
so blindly bent on destroying our tminufactorirtrf
and jllutainini* Kl. l-~ '? ' ~
? .....aiuiiig uio MOV II il'JC lilCUI lt'9 IB
Mr. Wblls, that in this very report he xealoosly
labors to demonstrate the trivial importance
to the farmer of the market made by
our manufactures, and to show the superior
advantage of a foreign market.
In plaiu English, the advocates of free trade
are in favor of a policy which requires our
oottou to be sent to England to be made into
cloth, and then to be sent back for the use af
oar people, the consumer here having to pay not
only the expense of shipping both ways, but
the cost ?f manufacturing it abroad. And all
this money goes into the pockets of foreign
capitalists and foreign laborers, when it ought
and might be kept at home to enrich our own
laborers.
It does not require a very profound mind to
decide whether it is better for the farmers of
Virginia to send their products to Richmond,
Lynchburg, or Alexandria, or those of Georgia
to Atlunta, Savannah, or Augusta, where a *
ready market has been made by four or five
cotton or woolen mills, or blast furnaces, forges,
and rolling mills, and manufacture their owd
raw material, or look to England for a market '
for one and to manufacture the other. The
one system will build up American industries, |
provide a demand for American labor, and ,
create a market at our own doors for what we (
raise; the other encourages and sustains foreign |
capitalists, foreign labor, and foreign interests ,
of every kind. Which will you choose ?
Tlie Improvement Lonii.
I
Before another issne of the Nkw National Era ,
appears the people of the District of Columbia
will have taken their stand either for or against
the measure for improving and beautifying the
District occupied as the capital of one of the
greatest nations on earth. Those who feel tU*t
we have lived long enough after the manner
and style of the age of oppression and slavery ;
those who desire to have the old lankmarks?
footprints of tyranny?blotted oat, the emblem ,
of a time when skilled and educated labor was
intolerable, and when the best energies of the
o-called best people here were bent to the
work of riveting closer the fetters of slavery
and ignorance, not ouly npon the black race,
but upon all poor men, white or black, and all
such as would see the property of the District
appreciate in value, and enterprise take the
place of slothfulneas, wiil vote for the fonr
million loan on the 22d of this month. The ,
opposition to the loan has emanated mainly ,
from a class who belong to the olden time,
who were content to live in darkness, and who
imagine that the dowufall of slavery and the j
incoming of freedom is the doom of the world, j
to whom the entemrise and snirit nf tKu? t I
?-- -?- I
liberty has drawn to the I>tscrict of Columbia '
is bewilderiog and past all understanding?an
enterprise akin to that which has covered the '
vast prairies of Illinois and the West with 1
beautiful towns, cities, and villages, to the '
awful astonishment and wonder of the con- '
tented and non-enterprising savages who occu
pied the land. s
We trust that every colored voter in the 1
District of Columbia will show an appreciation 1
of the new order ot things by voting the means 1
of eradicating the stains and blotches left to 1
remind us of the old and detested days of *
slavery and a geueral lack of enterprise.
t
" t
Verdict Agniimt the Tamuiany c
Thieve*. e
TU- ->-..1* v' *?? - I '
a uu iLoun vi uiu ciuvtiuu 1(1 X UI'K Cliy
on Tuesday week, is the most extraordinary, as
well as the most gratifying, expression of the
people against official corruption and knavery
to be found in the history of politics. Such a
rebuke of thieves and scoundrels was never
before administered, and it should prove a
warning not only to New York robbers, but to
that race of public enemies everywhere, and for
all times. Last year the Tammany Democracy
oarried the city by a majority of forty-five
thousand. This year Gen. Sioxl, the Republican
candidate for Register, baa been elected by
twenty five thousand majority, and Judge Barsit,
the Democratic reform candidate in oppofition
to Tammany for Judge of the Sapreme d
Jonrt, was elected by over forty thousand t
majority. Thie shows a change in a single tl
pear of more than eighty thousand votes. The t
reformers have also elected four out of five e
Senators in the city and sixteen of the twenty- it
me members of Assembly, all the judges for ii
.be various city courts, and made a elean sweep h
>f both branshes of the city Legislature. Every ti
Alderman of the fifteen is anti-Tammany and L
ill bat four Assistant Aldermen. Every branch ?
>f the city government has therefore passed o
nto the hands of the Reformers. Twrkd him- si
lelf is eleoted to the Senate by the most stu- ci
>endoas fraud, and is with another thief named pi
Tibld, both of whom are onder arrest for rob- ec
pry, the solitary monument left of the Tarn- n<
any plunderers, and he is more likely to he m
on i to Sing Sing penitentiary than to gel a pi
tat in the Senate. That the whole infamous hi
4 m
9
?
gang bare brcn squelched out utterly and forever,
and only to be remembered hereafter for
their ehatuelesa^and enormous crimes.
Cost of Collecting the Revenue.
For the fiscal year ending June 30,1870, the
expeuse of collecting flGfi^Tfi,*-^ of internal '
revenue waa $2,321,51)1. The amount of internal
revenue collected for the fiscal year end- '
ing June 30, 1871, waa $190,864,141, which
cost for collecting $2,132,462. The amount
collected in 1871 was about $38,000,000 leas 1
than in 1870, owing to the repeal of the income '
tax on alt Mow $2,000, and other reduction of 1
taxes. But the total expense of collecting was
$it>y,WU less, besides a reduction io the ex
pense of the Internal Revenue ltureau hereof I
?155,000, making a total saving to the Government,
in this one item for the past fiscal 1
year, of $344.<XM). The amount of taxes as- 1
9essed for 1870 was $189,272,182, and for 1S71 1
only $140,045,633, or $49,000,000 less than in '
1S70. In the former year the amount collected 1
was $21,000,000 less than the amount assessed, '
and this year the collection was only ?10,000,- 1
O00 less. But a large portion of these amounts
will lie collected. The statement only means
that they were not collected diying the year
for which they were ali ased. It will be "seen
from these figures that the entire expense of
collecting the internal revenue for the year c
1871, including the expense of administering '
the luternal Revenue bureau of this city, was : '
less than two and a half cents on a dollar. This is *
much cheaper than the revenues of any State or 1
city government are collected, and exhibits the '
economy and honesty of the Administration in
* mnat atrikinu liurht
n
l
Orermuch /raloux.
| t
Paring the existence of the great Chicago *
fire, one General Qrosvemok was shot by a a
guard placed by General Sukridan to protect c
certain property. Governor Palmer thera- r
upon issued and had published, even before it ii
reached the officer to whom it was directed, a <%
letter to the Attoruey General of the State, ; J
requiring liitn to procure an indictment by tho d
grand jury of Cook (*nunty of General Sher i
idan and everybody else connected with the ' c
atfair, for the murder of Grosvkxor. The
letter is a very extraordinary as well as a very
long one. making not the slightest reference
to the fire, or to the terribls responsibility i<
thrown suddenly upon General SuCrtda*, and d
seems only anxious that he should be indicted j c
for murder. And what is as extraordinary as ' G
the spirit and temper of the letter, is the fact ai
that it should have been made public at all? h
much more so that the first intimation the J
Attorney General had of its existence was ^
when he saw it in the city papers. This can
lead to no other conclusion than that Governor ni
Palmer was playing the demugogue rather ft
than performing the part of a faithful and im- lu
partial executive, and that he was more anx- p
ions to gratify gome personal feeliug towards n
General S. than to protect the public interest. ci
I'tie Judge before whom the case would come T
very sharply rebukes the Governor for his ol
remarkable course, especially for bis indelicate
and improper attempt to influence the graod
jury in the matter, and make political capital 01
for official teal. Hut it will injure him more j8
than General Ssiicaidam. s
Governor Bullock'n Rextlgiiafion. ei
Last week we published the reasons given
by Governor Bullocx, of Georgia, for his resignation
of the office of Governor. But neither
that letter nor anything we have seen in the
public press in regard to the matter geeui to ^
us to constitute a sufficient cause For the-act. \ ^
Yet it was a step he had a perfect right to take,
either with or without cause. The first impression
made on the public inind, notwith
standing he gives as his reason an alleged conspiracy
to impeach him without evidence, was
that be had been tampering with the public
fuuds of the State. But now, after the ex- 0
piration of nearly two weeks, no charge of c
fraud or dishonesty is preferred against him, ^
and A. II. Stephcn's paper, the Atlanta.Sun, \ >'
admits that no official delinquency had been P
discovered on his part up to that time. Per- ?
hnna nrn nnuhl n.il Ia IaaI. l-:- "
r .V ivun inuiuli uia own
statement for his motives, which are what we l'
have s'ated, and that he has withstood the 81
bitter assaults of his opponents as long as the t
public interests require, or is consistent with
his own interests and inclinations. We trust
it will turn out that he has no other motives,
for our sympathies have all been with hiui in ^
his struggles against his rebel and 7nasi lie- "
publican enemies for the last three years. Few *
men at the South have had to encounter a more '
relentless and unceasing opposition than Gov- d
srnor Bui.nocr. a
.. a . - . d
llew Free Trade Doctor* DiflVr. t
Gbohok H. Pendliton, the free trade expouuder
of Democracy in Ohio, and for a while
an aspirant for the Presidency, asserted during
the recent canvass in his State that the entire I ^
jarnings of the country yearly are "supposed" i
to be $1,600,000,000, and that our tax is equal a
to twenty-five per eeut. of that amount, or *'
000,000 yearly. Ex-Commissioner David
\. Wat. 1.a, who is accepted as authority on the ^
mbject of free trade, and whose speeches and
'eports are used as text bouks by the free trade *
>ress of the country, states, on the other hand, i
hat our yearly earnings amount to $5,000,- ''
100,000, or more than three times as much as ^
tia Ohio co-laborer " supposes" them to be. j O
So far, therefore, from the people being ^
axed twenty-fire per cent, or one-fourth of all j H
heir earnings for the support of the Govern ol
nent and to meet our national obligations, they
ire taxed only eight per cent., or less than one- j
welfth part of their earnings. f And that tax, >
,s Mr. Pknm.kton very well knows, is not as !
essed prorata upon the industrial classes of j *'t
he country. It is paid almost exclusively by u
he P.ftnmimPrt nf wViiaU^r. e 1
? - ? .. ? , wu?ttu, lureigu ;
uiuries, the sixty thousand men who have a *'
lear income of two thousand dollars beyond j^1
,11 drawbacks, and other large capitalists. jl:
.'he wbrkingmen of the country do not pay a | as
loll^r of it, only to the extent that they use 8t
whiskey, tobacco, and foreign in preferenee to ^
American manufactures.
5C
Making Assurance Ooubly Sure. s i
The people at large of New York, feeling th
oubtful whether New York city would be able th
o shake off the gang of thieves who had had
heir telonietts fingers so deep and so long in
be city treasury, and having no faith that Oovrnor
HorrxAN would co-operate in good faith
J ?? IP J
i the reform measures, resolved to leave noth- taj
ig to aoch a contingency. They therefore Us
tade olear work of it by electing not only a Jec
vo-:hirds bat a thregfourtha majority of the j3^
.egislature. They have thus taken from the jjt
;pperbead, Tammany-sympathising Governor
f the State the power of defeating by his veto
forts to legislate the remaining New York on
ty thieves oat of offloe, create a non-partisan UP
oliee, give the city a new charter, and enact
ish other reforms as are demanded. It does "if
Dt matter now what oourse bis Excellency ha
lay take,the Repeblieans have the power to ^
iss all reform meastres over his head, as we
its ao doubt they will. ^
ii 1111 ^ ,-J*S iMSwsvfa -.
"Wb
11 - '
Oup In Srren Thousand.
There are not far from teventy thousand officers
of the General Government of all grades,
twenty eight thousand of whom are postmas
ters. Of these seventy thousand officers perhaps
ten have proved defaulters during President
Ghaut's "
- .'" uipirmiton, the Government
losing by them not more than half a million
of dollars of the one thousand million of dollars
of revenae that hare passed through their
hands in that time. In other words, at the
rate of one officer in seven thousand hae,
each year during two years and a half of his
administration, turned knave, and one dollar
in tw ?thousand si.deu. But every on^of the
defaulters have been promptly removed and '
prosecuted by the Government. An yet, in
view of these remarkable facts, proving that
there are not a fifth pan as many rogues in office
as in civil life, excluding the more degraded
classes, the m<?n who have for years upheld and
help perpetrate the iu.?at outrageous frauds, as
d New York, and arraign the Republican officeholders
of the Government, almost without
liscrisiination, as peculators and plunderers.
The Democratic Parly, Dr.
Since the close of the Democratic rebelliou
he Government of the United States has paid
>ne hundred and fifty millions of dollars in
lensionsto the widows and orphans and maimed
oldiers made by this wicked Domocratie war J
men ' vtMuiu.-nc, and i.- now paying J
ham Ht the rate of thirty millions of dollars a .
ear on the s*me account. And yet this same
temocratir party has the sh.imeless effrontery
o assail preaeut Administration with the
aaliguitv of " lost spirits" for imposing MU'h
ieavy Uw? on ttn people! Bat for their
reason the entire expense* of the tJovermuent
rould not exceed ninety millions of dollars,
nd that would be raised on im^airta of artiles
of luxury. There would be no internal
avenue tax. no public debt, and, therefore, no
aterest on a public debt; uo pension list ex
ept for soldiers in previous wars, and uo bur
ens of any kind upon the people. Kvery
ollar of tax now raised is the reault of
)emocratic treason to the I'uion, and must be
harged to them.
In spite of the repeated and very emphatic
eclaratiou of Vice President Colfax, that he
i not and will not he a candidate for Presi
eat, but on the contrary that he is most deidediy
in favor of the renominatiou of Lien.
Ieant, the marplots of the Republican party,
? well as some of the more desperate and
opeless Democratic leaders, persist in their
isingenuous efforts to create doubt as to his
ood faith by using his name to give weight
nd respectability to tlWM- disorganizing movelont.
But they may as well abandon their
audulent scheme. Mr. Colfax ia one of" the
ist men to lend his nuine to the enemies of lieublicanlsin,
whether outside the party or in it.
ie is ton sound headed to oomiuit political suide,
and t?>o honest and patriotic to turn traitor.
'hat business he will leave to "Conservatives
r the Soni*R7. school.
It is reported that Ceo. W. Cuetis, Chair- J
au of the Civil Service Reform Commission, ?
booo 10 suoceed Mr. Fisu as Secretary of
tate. Our opinion is that however inexpert- j
iced Mr. Curtis may be in the art and sei- '
ice of statecraft, the best test of his fitness
t the position is a few weeks' experience iu
s duties. But Mr. C. don't think so, and he
innot consistently accept the rumored appointent
until he shall submit to that rigid "com .
clitive exam.nation'' which he declares to h?# R
leolutely necessary to renovate and purify the -
ivii Service. We trust, therefore, that he
^11 prove his sincerity by subjecting himself
i the same test that he would apply to aspimts
for mere clerkships.
David A. Wri.ls, the most remarkable speimen
of a free trade political economist any
ountry has produced, has made the basis of
is crusade against protection to American '
idustry the assertain that the people are J
oorer now than they were in I860. But some ]
ne, who prefers fact to assertion, upsets his
ne-spun argument bv showing that.
. .DBuin-n ouu pupils -Hiinscribe now Tor the
'hool f)utival?they all need it. It coats only
I cents a year, io advunee, or 15 cents for a
iigle raruber.
The publishers were very heavy losers by
e great fire, but tbey don t propose to allow
eir subscribers to lose anything.
Send, by mail, to Alfred L. Seweil St Co.,
iblislters, Chicago, Illinois.
_? ^ ?
Thk Xrw National Era, published at Washjton,
D. C., is ably conducted and has atued
a large circulation. We find in every
ue brief and pointed articles upon the sub- j
>t of Protection to Homo Industry, which J
list have the most wholesome infliwma Iinnu !
readers in the Southern States ?In hutrta
tlletm, Johnstown, Fa.
? ^ ^ w
?Four ladies of Galesburg, 111., who were
t collecting for the Chicago relief fund, came
on a venerable copperhead who said their
lole story was an abolition lie, but Anally
narked that he had a patch of potatoes, and
!" they were a inind to dig them, they could
veall they wanted." Not at all daunted, the
lias got soma shovels, dug twenty bushels
at afternoon, and same bvk next day and
ishad the patch, to tha old man's intense
igust.
w ? o " *ovtr }
ie people's deposits in the New England
avings batiks have increased from $140,000,000 1
> >422,000,000 in 1870! j
Wk understand that Miss Fanny M. Jacii>N,
the accomplished Principal of the Institute
>r Colored Youth in Philadelphia, has a stand
lg offer of one of two Professorships in Howrd
University at a suliry of $2,1)00. We trust
be will accept this offer. We know she is
oing a noble work where she is ; but still we
re selfish enough to believe that the work to he
one here is no less important. Let Howard
>uiversity procure so valuable an acquisition
> its present force, if salaiy is au object.
Kevekdy Johnson, of Baltimore, has been
stained to defend the Ku Klui assassins of
oath Carolina. The Baltimore American, in
nouncing it, states the singular fact that his
>n, l.o?i8 Johnson, is the Republican United
tates Marshal of South Carolina, and the very
tan whom his father charged with arresting
;u Klux "without warrant" in ? recent sj?eech.
\vr see by the Philadelphia Pre** of the 10th
istant, that oar correspondent. Mr. R. T.
recnsh, has oeen appointed to succeed Prof.
. V. Catto in the Principalsbip of the Male
'apartment of the samj school, an 1 Iter. W*.
L Josrphl's succeeds Mr. Okrcmek as teacher
r History, Rhetoric, and Kn^lish Literature.
After tbe Fire.
Tutt- schtwit. Festival.?Quarterly Magane,
dev..ted to original matter, for Day School
ul Sunday H ho ?l K*h?liitton?, and Public
eeaaiotia.
The Ui tober i.utnber of this popular Magane
(which was destroyed by the greut Chicago
re. when all ready to mail) has h sen reprinted,
id has just reached us. As its subscription
st was burned, the publisheis request us to
k their subscribers to send their addresses,
ating what numbers were yet due them, and
remit their subscription f?r next year. Let