The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3719, 23 January 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 1875.

Matters are not in a very satisfactory condition in the United States. Ten years have passed since the capture of Richmond, but prosperity has not returned to the Southern States—the visions of the enthusiasts who forced the adoption of a protective tariff and negro emancipation by the sword, have not been realised. Another lesson, shewing the folly and impolicy of : physical force, has been laid before the world; it can compel submission to arbitrary decrees, but it is the parent of confusion and discontent. Before the war of secession began, two great parties were opposed to each other—the Democrats and the Republicans, Their names do not convey to a stranger any conception regarding the political differences between them. In fact a stranger would almost necessarily be led to imagine their doctrines precisely the reverse of what they really are; for the Democrats were the advocates of negro slavery and the Republicans were abolitionists. The latter inhabited the Northern and the former the Southern States. It will be seen then that the Democrats, the defeated party in the war, have nursed a bit,ter feeling of antagonism against the Republicans, not only because of the forced confiscation of their property in human flesh, but because of being compelled to submit to the injustice of a heavy tariff, which fetters trade with the manufacturing countries of Europe, for the sole purpose of enriching the Northern States. These causes lie at the root of the antagonism between the two parties, and ' form the key to the feeling of opposition to .the re-election of General Grant, a Republican, to a third term of Presidency. He was the successful general through whose skill the seceding populations were reduced to submission, and he has been the organ for , the reconstruction of the Southern States. Necessarily, when the settled relations of society were broken up, confusion arose. The liberated slaves acquired rights which their former masters have been slow to recognise, and new combinations hava grown up that very much complicate American politics, and render us at a distance unable to estimate rightly the present position of affairs. From what cause is not clearly traceable, but owing to some widely-spread feeling, what people term Conservatism is at present in the ascendancy throughout the world. In some countries it assumes the florin of retrogression, as, for instance, hi Spain, and probably in France, where the tendency is to the resurrection of monarchical institutions. Where representative constitutions prevail, and changes have been effected through moral conviction based on sound knowledge and principles, what has been gained is held ; but, as in England, there is a disposition to stand still and resist further change. In the United States, the Democrats, who answer to ( onser-

vatives, are rising in power ; there is a disposition to modify the Constitution, with the working of which large parties are discontented. It is not necessary to believe all that is said ip opposition to General Grant in reference to his alleged railway transactions and other financial speculations, or to his being likely to attempt ix> become Dictator. The people of the United States are like people in Otago, they .elect a man to office, expect his whole time to be devoted to their service, pay him a moderate salary, grumble if he has been wise enough to provide for his family when his term of office closes, and allow him to sink into obscurity,

while they fawn and flatter some new favorite. Elective presidentcies, superintendencies, or monarchies never yet worked permanently beneficially for those elected. Many able men in the United States, in view of the prevailing official corruption, have arrived at the conclusion that the British Constitution is the most perfect the world has witnessed. It is for us, in these democratic Colonies, to prove that we can realise all its benefits without its drawbacks. The frequency of elections in the United States keeps party strife in continual ferment. Republicans, Democrats, and negroes are each aiming at power, and it is therefore difficult to form a clear idea of the circumstances which have led to Sheridan’s interference in New Orleans. Perhaps the following extract from the * Times’s ’ correspondent’s letter, published in the ‘Mail’ of the 14th November, in anticipation of the election, will give some clue to the state of affairs : In New Orleans and throughout Louiaianna there is considerable excitement about the approaching elections, and if there should be an outbreak it would not be astonishing. There are all sorts of legal and other difficulties con

tinually arising which have a tendency to make sections of the people angry. Thus the Attor-ney-General of Louisiana has given his opinion that the “Second District Court” in New Orleans is without common law jurisdiction, or any jurisdiction excepting that of a Prohate Court. This disfranchises every alien whe has been naturalised in the Court since 1864, and there are about 5.000 such cases. Consequently the Registrars of voters are to be instructed by the “ Superior District Court ” to strike out ail these names from their voting lists, and the Conservative or M'Eneby Committee, knowing that this is a blow, at them, have protested , against it as “a conspiracy by Kellogg, Packard, Beckwith, and others to secure by fraud the same results in the parish of Orleans which they are attempting to secure in the country parishes by intimidating white voters through the prostitution of the Federal Judiciary and the degradation of the United States’ Army to local police purposes. ” The Committee recommend every registered citizen, nothwithstanding this decision, to present himself at the polls and cast his vote. The United States’ troops in New Orleans are reviewed daily on Canal street, while Kellogg’s Metropolitan Police, who have not been paid foi three months, threaten a strike. Outside New Orleans matters are quiet. The total registry of voter* in Louisiana is said to be 105,000, the negroes exhibiting about 6,000 preponderance over the whites. There ha 'O been a few arrests made at Shreveport for offences arising out of the election excitement, but these are the only troubles of the kind outside New Orleans.