The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1876-09-10
A United South.

Northern Radical orators are working
desperately to make point on what they
call "the United South aud the danger
that the government of the country will
fall into the hands Of q Rebel Congress. MIR.
Wheeler, Republican candidate for Vice
President, was one of the first to start this
absurdity, thereby proving both his own
bad faith and the dire extremes to which
his party is driven.
The assumption is that. because South
ern Representatives are Democrats, they
are rebels that because they arc not sub
missive to the Republican party, they are
not loyal to the Government. Thls 1s as
M much as to claim that the Republican party
alone is loyal and is, indeed, the natioh.
Conceded that the South is unitedly Demo-
cratic, ia it, therefore, Rebelf Certainly not,
unless the loyalty of Northern Democrats
be also doubtful. But, say Wheeler and
Boutwell,, Morton and Butler, you send
Confederate soldiers to Congress. Would
those gentlemen have US send only boys or
aged men. Do they not know that, wheth-
er willingly or unwillingly, every white
male in the South between the ages of
eighteen and forty five was or was sup
posed to be in the Confederate army. or
whom, then, have we to choose, except
former Confederate soldiers7
But, say Wheeler d Co., the South is 30
Idly Democratic, it is a United South, and
must, therefore, be united against the
North. The South is united, but it is against
the Republican party, not the North. 1t ls
certainly not united against the Nerthern
Democrats. 1t is united against system
of plunder which is running it. Is there
any thing strange in thatf Is there any
proof of disloyalty there 1t is united,
not as against the Federal Government, but
against negro misrule and carpet bag
usurpation, and in that no fair minded man
can find anything suspicious or savoring
of disloyahy.
And as to Southern control. Sup
posing the South to be unitedly Demo
cratic, how can that fact give it control in
National affairsf 1t may result in giving
the Democratic party control, but the
Democratic party is not the South. The
| Southern vote in either House of Congress
is an unimportant minority as against the
Northern vote, and if sectional measures
specially and upjustly favoring the Soutl
were introduced, Northern Democratic
would certainly not suetain them. Then
again, the Democratic candidate for Presi
dent is Northern man, which of itself pro
tects the North against any attempt to rur
the government in Southern interests.
The true meaning of this objection is
that Southern Members being bona .fd
ests of their section, and that they viii
struggle manfully against all Legislation
concocted especially for the despoiling o
their constituents. This does not suit Meser'
Wheeler s. Co., who prefer to have an i'm
peral Northern corporation growing rict
on the epoils of fertile Southern provinces
plundered under the guise of sectiona
legislation. Happily the great Democratic
party of the North understands that sucl
course is not only ungenerous and unjus
but of wretchedly bad policy. 1t know
that it is an abandonment of the origi
nal principle of equal union and a contemp
tuous disregard of that prophetic legend
"United we stand, divided we fall"
forsees that au empire bloated with i'll got
, ten wealth will be the ready prey of diseas
and decay, while a down trodden people
, instead of being brethren of their oppref
sors, will but await the frat favorable OF
3 portunity oftreedom and revenge.