The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-11-19
FIGHTING RADICALEsaz
What Senator Gordon Says Checked the
Tidal Wave.

What Senator Gordon Says Checked the
Tidal Wave.
The Issues Upon Which the National Can
vass Must be Made.
The other day, while Senator John B.
Gordon was in Charleston, he was inter-
viewed by q reporter of the Neacs and
Courier.
THE INTERVIEW.
Reporter-Gen. Gordon, / shall be very
glad TO have your views as to the causes
which have checked what we call the
Democratic tidal waveY Has the cur
rency question served to defeat the DEM
ocrats at the North?
Gen. Gordon-Well, sir, in one sense,
it has. In another sense, the currency
question has had nothing to do with it.
Let me explain what l mean. If you in
tend by your inquiry to ask if the plat
forms on currency adopted by Ohio and
Pennsylvania defeated the Democrats in
these States, | answer no. They would
have lost those States upon hard money
or contraction platform just as surely,
and, perhaps, by larger majorities. You
see, in New York, on hard money plat
form, the Democrats, while they have car
ried the State, have in truth lost far great
er strength, as compared with the last
vote, than have the Democrats OF Ohio
and PENNSYLVANIA on greenback plat
form. So that the currency question, eli
Their because the one side or the other was
popular or unpopular. right or wrong,
has had nothing to do with the defeat of
the Northern Democracy.
Reporter-1n what sense then, has this
currency question aided in his defeat?
Gen. Gordon-Why, sir, in the sense
that it served to direct the public atten
ton from the corruptions and maladmin>
istration of the party in power. 1t the
Democratic party had absolutely united
either upon the one side or the other of
this currency question, and had made it
leading issue in these compaigns, we
should still have been defeated, for the
Democratic party of the Union, upon any
other issues except those haye mention.
ed-the corruptions and maladministra-
ton of the Republican party-fght at
great disadvantage. They go to war up
on new issues on which, the public mind
is not made up, with a strong party
backed up by all the departments of the
administration, and with which the ma
jority of the northern people have long
been acting. In other words, when we
confne ourselves to thework of exposing
the extravaganza, the prohigacy, the
gigantic frauds, the Southern policy of
the Republican party, and it's efforts to
keep alive, for its own purposes, sectional
alterations, then we have on these issues,
furnished good reasons to the people
for abandoning that party. Then we have,
| sincerely believe, the honest men of all
Al ! !
these alone, the Democrats would, in my
Judgment, have carried both Ohio and
PENNSYLVANIA, and the State of New York
would not have lost its fifty thousand ma
iority Any other questson which served
to divert public attention from the true
grounds upon which the people ought to
be asked to expel from power the Re-
publican party would have been Just as
disastrous to the Democrats as this cur
rency question.
Reporter-Then General, you do not
consider the elections as so discouraging
to Democratic prospects in 1867
Gen. Gordon-No, do not. Of course
it would have been more satisfactory to
me to have seen the Democrats success
full in all these states; but if the reverse
serves to set aside this question of f.
nance, and sir, every other question which
distracts public attention from the expo
sures which we have already made, and
may yet make, of Radical corruptions
what we consider reverses may prove ben.
e6cial to the Democratic party in the
end.
Reporter-Then you think the Repub-
licans would be very glad to have new
issues introduced.
Gen. Gordon>-Of course they would,
and it does not matter with them much
what these new issues are; whether they
be the currency, the acquisition of Cuba
or war with the Pope-anything rather
than their own record. They know very
well that the people are against their
Credit Mobiliers, their Indian their rail-
road and their Washington city govern
ment rings and on these would vote them
out ofpower. They have tried wal pref
udlces, Southern outrage ISLANDERS, Sec
tional hatreds, dispersion of lawful legis
latures, carpet bag government, and they
have seen that the people are heartily
tired of all these; that the North as we'll
as we'll as the South wants honest govern
ment, peace and sectional concord, and
Southern prosperity restored. Hence |
say the national Democracy will make a
serious mistake if they permit any of
these new issues to DE brought into the
next presidential year; and what | now
say after the elections | have said again
and again, publicly and privately, long
before the elections. | have not at all
changed my views upou the financial
problem; but in truth it is too great 2
question to be brought on the hastings:
1t ought not to be made party question;
it should be discussed with deliberation,
and kept free from all party animosities
and feelings.
Reporter-Do you think that the ma
tional Democratic party will, after the
lessons on Tuesday, be disposed to drop
the currency question in the Presiden-
tial canvass?
Gen. Gordon-I am satisfied that they
WILL that the currency question will not |
be made either paramount or prominent;
and that both wings of the Democratic |
party, on the currency question, and the
Liberal Republicans, will unite in 76 in |
favor of the Constitution, local govern.
ment, honest and economical administra- |
ton.