New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-28

on the Northern half Of the nation. So
from the first the conflict in American
politics has been between the South and
New England. The almost exclusively
agricultural character of the slave section
of the Union created for it sectional in
terests, and then served to intensity the
feeling of jealousy with which the agri-
cultural States regarded the manufactur-
ing and commercial interests of the
Northern States. There was, it is true,
in old times class of Southern states
men who tried to counteract these Sec
tional tendencies of the South. These
statesmen appealed to the sentiment Of
national patriotism. They promoted the
establishment of manufactures at the
South, and sought, by building up feel
ing in the border slave States in favor of
the emancipation of slaves, to gradually
get rid of the negro question. Conspicu-
GUS among these Southern abolitionists
and humanitarians was Henry Clay,
Of Kentucky. The Wing party of the
South originated in these counter
sectional influences, and for long
while held its ground as q dominant
political organization in Delaware, Vir-
ginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennes-
see, Kentucky, Louisiana and Florida.
But Notwithstanding all this, and the in
fuence of federal patronage, the single
and insignificant State Of South Carolina,
led by John c. Calhoun, threw herself
into the conflict as the representative of
Southern sectionalism, and in time bore
down all opposition and finally indoctrin-
ated the great mass of the Southern whites
in every Southern State with her own
ideas. These ideas were, in brief, State
sovereignty versus national authority,
free trade versus the tariff, and negro SER
vitude as thing right per Sc versus the
spirit OF liberty and the cause of political
brotherhood Of man, for which New Eng
land stood and of which Massachusetts,
was the exponent. The war has only
served to intensity this Southern section
tionalism. Southernism is now the great
controlling sentiment in each late slave
State. Let no Northern man deceive him
SELF in this matter. It is as strong in
Delaw1re as in Texas, and it has in Della
ware its representative in Bayard. who
would make an equally acceptable Senator
for the Texas Confederates. 1t is as strong
in Missouri as in Georgia, and has ban
ished Carl Schurz from the United States
Senate. It is the supreme dominating
social and political influence, therefore,
from Delaware to Texas and from Mis-
sour to Florida.
How should we deal with this Southern
sectionalism? How can this formidable
Confederate South be Americanized?
These two questions must be confronted
at once, and Unanswered in wisdom, and met
with firmness, or We must prepare for a
renewal within the Union, under a new
form, of the same conflict of sections and
forces which have produced one war.
This new sectional conflict would repre-
sent united South resting on race.caste,
or race-prejudice. Negro subordination to
the uhite man on the one hand, seeking q
Northern alliance as balance of power,
holding the negro, in the meanwhile, in
political subjugation. The new South al
ready controls 1873 votes in the electoral
college. It only requires this Northern
balance to add forty-two more votes to 1873
in order to make the united South once
more the government. These additional
forty-two votes, it is understood, must
come from the West, and the Western
Democracy is expected to furnish them.
This being so, the Western Democracy
will be allowed to furnish both the plat
form and the candidate Of the party.
Here. then, we have back upon US the
old order Of things and the old danger,
with this important difference that,
whereas in the past the "slave" South
voted three-ffths of the negro population
of those States, the Confederate" South
now votes the entire negro population.
Many remedies for this state of things
will suggest themselves to different
minds. One proposed solution of our
Southern problem is to make this white
mans government, with a white mans
Congress, the negro citizen to be more
and more ''shufaed out" Of political soci-
ETY. in America. This would be to make
the life of the nation depend on the for
bearance Of the Confederate power. An
other proposed solution of the problem is
to so "divide up" parties as to dislocate
Southern sectionalism and thus bring the
negro back to political life again as
voter, whose ballot will be sought after
in each late slave State of the Union. We
doubt the wisdom Of any such ''divide
up" We apprehend that in such case
every other party would ''divide up ex-
cept the party of Southern sectionalism,
and that the party Of nationality would
be only the weaker for this break of front
in the presence Of its old antagonist.
The one policy Of certain safety in deal
ing with this Southern sectionalism, con-
sists in the North holding the control Of
the national government until society at
the South frees Itself from those sectional
influences which have so long arrayed it
against the nation. By thus holding the