The Cincinnati Platform adopted by the Liberal Republicans contains promises
which, if they are realized, will go far to undo the results of the Civil War. The Liberals affirm the abolition of slavery and the right of negroes to vote, but they declare that "local self-government with impartial suffrage will guard the rights of all citizens more securely than any centralized power," and demand "self-government for the State" and a " return to the constitutional limit of power." In the address, moreover, which precedes the platform, the Liberals blame General Grant for re- sorting "to arbitrary measures in direct conflict with the organic law, instead of appealing to the better instincts and latent patriot- ism of the Southern people by restoring to them those rights, the enjoyment of which is indispensable for the successful administra-
tion of their local affairs." Fully amnestied and freed from military interference, the Southern whites would in two months terrify the negroes into quiescence, and, in full possession of the legislatures, pass Labour Laws which would nail the emancipated slaves to the ground, to work for just so much pay as would suffice to keep them alive. It is nonsense to say they can be trusted with such power. Could English farmers or manufacturers be trusted if they were absolute ?
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