National Republican., 1876-10-05
A United South,

To the Editor of the National Republican:
SIR: If we elect Hayes and Wheeler
it must be done by the electoral votes of the
Northern States, for we cannot confidently
rely on single Southern State. l know as
well as you do that we ought to have the two
Carolinas, Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Missis-
sippi and Louisiana. l know that majority
of the electors of all those States are Republi-
cans, and would vote the Republican ticket if
elections were free, and each man left free and
unmolested to vote as he desired; but we all
know that this is not SO; that reign of vio-
lence and terrorism such as has not been
known since the close of the war prevails all
through the South, and therefore it behooves
the friends of liberty and good government at
the North to view the situation as it is, and
not as they would have it. have every hope
of North Carolina and South Carolina, but
there is no certainty as to any of them, and
the most hopeful of the Southern States are
more doubtful than Connecticut and New
York. And why do say so: For the reason
that | know that the ex-Confederate Sendits
throughout the South have determined to carry
the elections in all the States, and get control
of the State governments at all hazards, and
that they propose to use the shotgun and the
rifle just so far and as much as may be neces-
5dl1 W EcoUlI Anu LucSc Gull
clusions are borne out by the history of the
late elections in Southern States. Texas, Mis-
siesippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Ar
kansas have all been Republican States. All
gave Republican majorities so long as elections
were quiet, and voters were protected; but the
gush of independents and the sentimentalism
of fools created generally false impression
throughout the North as to the situation in
the South; troops were withdrawn; the old
slave oligarchs were left, as they demanded,
| to local self-government, and the riot in New
Orleans, and the revolutionary seizing of q
State government by red handed murderers,
| the Hamburg massacre, the riot at Charles
ton, and the hundreds and thousands of muir
| ders OF blacks and whites for opinion sake
| that have occurred all over the South are the
results. deny most positively that there
can be anything like fair election in any of
the Gulf States without the presence of troops
in every county, and in some counties at every
voting place.
Alabama went Republican by ten thousand
majority in 1872, but the Inauguration of the
shot gun policy, and the murder of thirty or
forty negroes at Eufaula, and a few dozen in
other localities on election day gave the
traitors the State in 1874, and by diligent
following of the same policy they carried it in
August last by 42, 900 majority. With these
facts written in letters of blood so that even
fools may read and know, emblazoned on every
pdSCJ anu flslDlc III every lut VI Iue CuEItHG
history OF the last eight years, can any patriot
in all this broad1and fail TO see how impossi-
bic it is for the friends of the Government,
the lovers of the Union to vote in the Gulf
States?
We are tired of apologies, defenses and ex-
plantations. The glorious record of the Re-
publican party is good enough for us; and if
the loyal people of the nation are successful
we shall be more than content with an Admin
istration as good as the present. We want
aggressive war; we want some of the old-time
fire of Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens,
Charles Sumner and Ben. Butler
Let the loyal people elect Hayes and
Wheeler, as they can, provided they will fight
treason with ballots as they did with bullets,
and when the contest shall be over let them
set about reconstrUcting and so regulating
things in the South that human life can be
protected, so that citizens can assemble peace
ably and express their views without being
raided by jayhawkers and assassins, and SO