Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-03-25
THE sorTHERY PRoGRAKNE.

O~NN eA~~
programme of the slave aristocracy of the
South, as regards the humble classes
among them. "As proof" says the Courier
THAT these Southern aristocrats intend te
control the laboring population of the
South may be cited the public declara.
tons and the conduct Of their foremost
representative men. They believe that
cheap labor is the only method by which
they can restore their ruined plantations
And they prefer to let the masses go un-
educated and with bad food and clothing,
to keep them in the condition of seris, III
stead of exercising the business sagacity
and economy necessary to be practlsed IN
the regulation of affairs of every success
full farmer and manufacturer in the North.
Instead of raising their own food they will
buy it at the enormous cost that accrucs
by reason of transportation from sources
of supply thousand miles distant. They
expect to make up for this slovenly and
improvident way of getting along by tax
ing the difference out of the sweat oftheir
ill-paid laborers. Knowing, as they al
ways have that only the Ignorant can be
kept in a state OF scrfdom. the Bourbon
leaders in the South employ every means
to fight down all movements to educate.
improve and elevate the masses; and the
ignorant, whiskey-drinking, lawless whites
are, as they always have been, the chosen
instruments by which they expect to main
tain their supremacy. The class of aris-
tocrats referred to ascribe the falling of
of the agricultural products in the cotton
States to the inability of the planter to
control labor. In speech before the State
Agricultural Convention of Georgia, in
1873, Hon. James NJ. Smith, Governor of
the State, said: We may hold inviolate
every law of the United States. and still
so legislate upon our labor system as to
retain our old plantation system, or, in
lieu of that establish baronial one This
is what is meant by Home Rule; a die
tatorship from the mansion of the planter,
absolute control over the labor Of his SER
wants with no outside law or officials to
interfere with his arrangements. we
believe that capital should own labor, ,
said Alexander II Stevens, before the war.
That he believes and advocates the same
thing now may be proved by an article
which he published April %, 1873. in the
Atlanta Sun, over his own signature.
In that article he says: IF the liberties
of this country are to be rescued from Rad
icalism, and ultimate despotism, it is to
be done by assaling the iniquitous meas
ures of the party-the principles on which
it rests-and not the man or men to whose
hands their execution is committed The
'radicalism' to which it is well under
stood he referred, was no other than that
which seeks to make labor Independent
and to give the laboring man an equal
chance in the race for educational advan-
tages, the refinements Of home, ETC., as
employer To all of this Mr.. Stephens.
OF course, decidedly objects, as it is en-
trely antagonistic to the Southern pro-
gramme. Hear also what Mr.. Benjamin
II. Hill, another Georgia champion for
Home Rule says:
"The first thing to be done is to secure home
government for home affairs. This is our right
and our necessity We must get control of our
own labor and regulate our own industry. Mas
sachusetts and New York cannot do the things
for us wisely or well. With State Governments
for State affairs every other good will follow.
Without this every evil is inevitable. In other
words, if the State can regulate its own industry
and control its domestic institution without the in
reference of the National Government, the
planters can again control labor
These are only a few illustrations of the
course in which the political current is
now drifting in the South. The Louisi-
ana struggle has been nothing else from
the beginning but contest between the
old feudal lords of the plantations of Lou.
isiana, Mississippi Alabama, Georgia,
and other States, and the working people
to gain the control of labor. New Or
leans was chosen as the battle ground for
convenience sake, as that city is the polit
cal centre of the cotton States. This talk
is for money and power, which the cotton
lords mean TO have and is only foreshad-
owing Of what the democratic platform of
1876 will be. The Southern wing of that
party already own the Northern wing and
they can make it subservient to any policy
that they may choose. The duty Of re-
publicans under such circumstances is
very plain. They must adhere rigidly to
the principles laid down when the party
was organized, consolidate their strength
and unite with the progressive men in the
South to defeat tyranny that would. in a
few years of power, undo all that was &C.
complished by the war;"
POLITICAL.
Judge L. r. Hoar saws he is glad TO be out of