The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1874-08-19
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RE
CENT SOUTHERN ELECTIONS.

CENT SOUTHERN ELECTIONS.
The recent elections in Kentucky,
Tennessee, Mississippi and North
Carolina, teach the same lessons as
those of New Hampshire, Connecti-
cut and Oregon earlier in the year,
and indicate as we'll great demorali-
cation in the Republican ranks, as II
widespread popular reaction against
the party in power. Local divisions
and factions are still pleaded IN cx'
planation of the late Republican re-
verses, but they are doubtless much
more largely owing to a want OF
harmony between the President and
his party, which is slowly but gradu-
ally breaking up the Republican Or
ganization. Grant for q long time
has thought himself to bo stronger
than his party, and has been at no
pains to conceal it. In none Of his
appointments has he made any effort
to conciliate Republican favor, and in
none of tho recent elections has the
power Of the administration been ex-
erted to save tho party from defeat.
Grant SEEMS clearly to be an aspirant
for reelection for Third Term, but
not to be relying on the support Of
the Republican party to secure it.
If he is to be q candidate, he is to be
the candidate of the whole people,
upon q new platform, presenting new
and broader issues.
But that which more than anything
else seems to have brought about the
recent Republican reverses, is the
pertinacity with which the party is
seeking TO press the Civil Rights
. Bill, and which is exciting every
where, and especially at the South,
a, strong popular reaction against its
supporters. Southern journals and
Southern statesmen urge that We have
conceded to the black man every
proper privilege in emancipation.
citizenship and suffrage, and that
any attempt now to make him the
social equal of the white man, will
only develop those antagonisms OF
race which, whilst inimical to both,
are especially so to tho weakcr-that
whilst there is no disposition to take
back any privilege already granted
to+the black man, it is time that one
sided concessions and compromises
should cease. Hear on this point the
Courier Journal, which has been long
the firm and consistent advocate Of
the rights of the colored race, and
which now may be regarded as the
exponent of the average public senti-
ment of The South
"lYc can afford to have the politics
of the country subjected to a good
deal of auack-doctoring; but the civil
rights bill, which is logically debata-
bic, is an Invasion of those laws of
God and nature which override the
logic Of men. We would leave the
negro where he is. We would try
and educate him into higher use
fuIness. We would avoid an impend-
ing war of races by moderation, by
the dissemination of recip. ocal inter.
ests and kindly feelings, by the
all-hcal ng effects of time, by mutual
concess ons and compromises. Thus
far all the concessions and compro-
misses have been wrung from the
whites. There is limit to the spirit
which has gone so far; and VIC would
pause and rest on the confines of that
hitherto broad and tillablc domain.
The civil rights bill is revolution it is
the proclamation of gradual war of
races, or else an equally destructive
covert war of suppression ruinous to
the blacks. We seek, for the good Of
both races, to avoid it. Resisting the
idea of o third term as VIC should
rosist the bare-faced proposal Of a
coup detat and an Emperor, wo
should prefer it, and all that it implies
and portends, to any further progress
on the line marked out by tho Repub.
lican managers"
Here is q journal whiea, whilst
opposing the Third Term Principle as
destructive to Republican institutions,
is yet Wiling to accept it rather than
assent to the Civil Rights Bill. Such
we believe to be the popular senti.
ment of the South, and that between
even Casarism and Civil Rights, the
public would not hesitate long.