The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-11-04
Union OF the South and West.

any Importance to the various conventions
recently held, whose object was closer
union between the sections, would nave
been prejudice to the interests under their
patronage. For the West is already we'll
nigh overshadowing power; the South is
already rebuilding her ruins and renewing
her harvests; an alliance of the two would
control the finance and the policy OF the re-
public. The sphere entered by the new CO.
partnership would afford them monopoly
against which all the resources OF New Eng
land craft and bluster would be expended in
vain.
/. Such coalition may not be established
speedily; but sooner or later it must take
place. Nature has related the two sections
too intimately to allow of their artificial sew
erance. They gravitate toward each other;
and perchance the abortive attempt to ac-
ceterate the movement may arise simply
from the circumstance that it is Influenced
BY causes which operate with the steadiness
of a law. But let it be remembered that
force which cannot be intensified, cannot be
arrested by human expedients. An ava
lanche cannot be hurried; but let not the
simple cotter below take courage from this
fact. The ponderous accumulation to which
days and nights and months and years have
contributed their stores, is already in mo-
ton; it is coming down silently, solemnly,
like mountain cloud; soon it will be upon
him, and there is no bulwark he can erect
that will stay its progress for moment, or
prevent the overthrow it brings.
The Southern people, who are in minor
ity, are constrained to seek for protection
and real restoration, in concert Of action
with others. Nor have we occasion for de-
spair in the failure of similar attempts in
former years. The reasons for our i'll sue
cess are apparent now. Thus, for example,
we vainly hoped, during the war, that the
interests OF England would lead her to in
terfere in the struggle. We did not know
how deeply the working classes of that coun-
t had ae been e psaea q aS2Rfe african slavery
would cheaper cotton and elevate the fac
tory laborer. The system which reared the
products of the South was thought to infect
the free hands that wrought upon them-to
enslave the swart artisans of Lancashire,
and to depress the social status Of Lowell's
-ssfaetory girls
With cotton sticking to their curls."
Thus the appeal of the South to England
was neutralized, and the statesmen most ia
vorable to our cause were impotent against
an unreasoning, groundless jealousy Of sta
ton.
Again, the recent failure of the Western |
Democracy to renew the political fellowship |
Of the West and South, is susceptible OF an
equally simple explanation. Mr.. Secretary |
Boutwell, in his Philadelphia speech, struck |
the keynote and sounded the rallying cry |
of the Republican campaign in Ohio. The |
opinion was industriously circulated that
the Democrats were repudators; that the
credit of the government, and so the light
ening Of the burdens of taxation, depended
upon the success Of the Radical party; that
the most creditable reductions in the na-
tional expenditures and the public debt had
already taken place under their manipula-
tions-and so without exactly convincing
the people that all was right, he succeeded
in persuading them that public interests
might be injured if any change Of policy
should now take place. Yet the appeal to
I,o into Of 70 yoH
pie but partially succeeded. There was,
after all, Democratic gain-a sensible ap-
proach Of the West to the South-a defeat
that augured victory hereafter.
1t is folly to prate, as the Times does, that
the "ties of trade" and the common in
''terest" will not eventually result in COM
pact between the South and Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, and the other great Western States.
It is folly to reproduce the traditions Of the
war as q proof that such union cannot be
effected If the ty. sections have common
sends to serve and common enterprises in
"view for their promotion" (and such are,
indeed, the facts Of the casc) what "patri-
"otic duty" now exists to prevent The coali-
ton Of their counSels and energies for the
attainment of q common good?
Narrow observers fail to recognize the
fact that the South has become less and less
concerned in matters OF party politics-the
only difficulty that now divides the two sec
tions. Whatever interest we may have in
the success Of the followers of Mr.. Hoffman
or Mr.. Pendleton, it arises less from parti-
san considerations than from the assurance
that the Radical policy of repression and
prescription is coming to an end. But the
interests that concern us most are those
which we cherish in common with the West.
The people Of that vastregion, Us we'll as we,
desire to be relieved from oppressive taxa
ion, which rests with special weight upon
he agricultural classes; they desire that the
conditions OF their former prosperity shall
De restored; they desire thai the current of
rade so long diverted by tariffs Of protec-
ion and by bounties and monopolies, shall