Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1871 — The Party Line. [ARTICLE]

The Party Line.

The serenade to Senator Morton was . not merely a memorable incident ip that statesman’s personal experience. It was, rather, an event in the political history of the country, for, as the Timex asserts, it struck the key note of the Prcsidental campaign. It was not “the new departure” for which the Cincinnati Tooley tailors and the “yard stick ” of the Chicago Tribune sigh. On the contrary it was a declaration, clear and far reaching, that the Republican party holds fast, and will continue to hold, its original Southern policy. Under whatever form the issue may be raised, the same fidelity to the interest of the Union and its friends will be maintained. The evident object of the serenade was to reassure the public on the point. The. Indiana Senator repeated what he had formerly said in the Senate, namely: that while all Democrats are not Ku-Klux, all Ku-Klux are Democrats. This accusation against the party was admitted to be true by Bayard, of Delaware. It may therefore be set down as an indisputable fact. This was the first point made in the speech. The membership of the Klan is estimated at 300,000. It may be more, it may be less. The exact figures are not at all important. It Is enough to know that hundreds of thousands of Democrats are now enrolled in an armed organization for the avowed purpose of overthrowing the reconstruction works of Congress. That such is the object of the organization is not denied, and it is admitted that violence is the method of overthrowing agreed upon.

So far, there is no reason for controversy. Now, the question comes up. What is to be done? The system endangered was established by Federal and not State authority, and the laws which it is proposed to render null aud void were passed by Congress. The President of the United States has sworn to execute those acts of Congress, as he has to enforce all other national legislation. What, then, could be plainer than the duty of the Chief Magistrate of the Republic to maintain law and order in the South ? Yet the Tribune devotes a column editoiial to the subject, elaborately denying the authority of the President and Congress, and insisting that the suppression of the Ku-Klux outrages should be left entirely to State authorities. Its opposition is, however, of no consequence, except as a token of its own apostacy. Last Thursday the Republican members of the Lower House of Congress were unanimous in the support of the bill which the Tribune cries out against, and even so conservative a man as Senator Trumbull approves it. Never was the party more harmonious than it is to-day in the support of the pending measure to secure througliont the whole country “equal and exact justice lor all men.” Until that is done the Republican party will raise no other issue, and the people will trust no other party.— Chicai/o Journal.