The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-07-14
General Grant, the South and tho
Republican Party.


this committee should feel bound to issue
such an address shows that the leaders of the
party are influenced by more than ordinary
anxieties. The condition of the South, the
unsatisfactory disposition of the currency
question, the uprising of the granger
movement in the West. the fear that
the West and South may unite
and East upon financial issues, the growing
impotence of the country with the statesman
ship which finds expression in the third term
aspirations, the appointment of Shepherd and
Williams, and the trucking of the State De-
partment on the Virginius and Alabama ques-
tons, all lead to the conclusion that the re-
publican party, as represented in Congress,
begins to see the wisdom of new departure.
But the problem which the republican party
has not solved is the fact that in all its efforts
to consolidate its power it has aban-
doned and betrayed the South. We sup
pose there can be no doubt that q
considerable class of Southern citizens, i'm
pressed by the abuses and fearing the future
horrors of negro rule, would welcome third
election of President Grant if they could see
in it promise of deliverance. The events
of the last fourteen years have done much to
shake the confidence of the South in republi-
can institutions. The military government
which Immediately succeeded the war was not
so baneful and ruinous as the negro suprem-
acy afterwards established by the reconstruc-
ton acts. Many Southerners would willingly
exchange their present rotten State govern
ments for the military subsection which only
offended their pride without robbing their
pockets and destroying the value of their
property. And when they carry their political
recollections one step further back they find
little to strengthen their belief in the safety of
republican institutions. They went volun-
tarily into secession by the free political &C.
ton of the Southern whites, committing a
stupendous blunder, of which the whole blame
rests upon their misguided voting population,
then consisting wholly of white citizens.
1t was neither federal constraint nor
negro suffrage, but their own free
activity that precipitated them into
the colossal blunder of rebellion. Free white
suffrage in that calamitous step and free
mixed suffrage since have proved equally
disastrous to Southern prosperity. The in
termediate military rule was practically better
than either and it is not surprising that many
Southern citizens are losing their former
repugnance to imperial federalism. Whether
they will support Grant for a third term
depends on a calculation of chances. If they
thought he could be elected under virtual
pledge to rescue them from negro ascendancy
they would welcome his third election as a
choice OF evils Governor Kemper has virtu-
ally said this even in respect to Virginia,
where the negroes are minority, and Sena-
tor Gordon, of Georgia, looks upon such a
result without any of the passionate repug-
nance which secession general might be
expected to exhibit.
In one narrow aspect this tendency Of
Southern sentiment is not so very absurd II
Grant could be not merely nominated but
elected for third time he could undoubtedly
enable the South to emancipate itself from
negro supremacy. Of course the fifteenth
amendment cannot be overthrown, and it will
never be seriously attempted. 1t is one of
be undone. But it is no obstacle to
changing the basis of suffrage on any
other principle than Grace, color or pre-
vious condition of servltude." 1t neither for
bids property qualification nor an educa-
tional qualification for voters so long as it
applies alike to both races, although either
kind of qualification would exclude o majority
of the negroes from the ballot box. With q
President actively exerting his influence in
favor of such change it could be carried in
nearly every Southern State. The whole body
of federal ofice-holders would work for it in
all sorts of open and all sorts of underhand
wavs if they understood it to be the desire Of
the President. By bestowing large proper
ton of postmasterships and other offices on
such negroes as the new rule of suffrage would
not exclude he could enlist the pride and self
importance of large class Of the colored
voters in favor Of q rule which would honora-
bly distinguish them from the mass of citizens
of their own color and from the ''mean
whites,' whom they held in contempt in the
days of slavery. A President thoroughly in
earnest in this business could easily, by his
patronage and influence, control negro votes
enough to carry property qualification or an
educational qualification in most of the South
ern States And it is in this view that third
term would be accepted by many Southerners
if they thought they could rely on the candi-
date to act in their interest.
Blu. this seductive view will not bear mQ,
ment's examination A pledge of this kind,
either open or implied could not be kept from
the public knowledge, and exposure would
explode the whole project. The Northern
: republicans would turn in q body against
Grant as soon as they understood that he was
in league with the Southern whites to circum-
vent the fifteenth amendment They would