New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-12-27

bJlUutOnal means, ana tnat the RESULT Whatever IL
is shall be peaceably acquiesced in; but they will
not, in advance of the decision. by indrecton,
doanything to weaken their party. How they would
receive an invitation from Gov Hayes should he be
the next President to assist him in raising the
South from the political degradation into which it
has fallen, do not know. / believe liberal and
statesmanlike policy would meet with an immediate
and hearty response but this is matter which it
is now too early to discuss and leave it for the
present.
suppose there is no candid person, we'll informed
in Southern politics, and not having personal or
pecuniary interest in the perpetuation of the present
condition of affairs in most of the States south OF
the Potomac, who will not admit the ne
cessity of a complete regeneration and reor-
ganization of the Republican party there If it
is ever again to make its influence felt in
the politics of the nation. say nothing now Of the
means by which the white people have obtained
complete control Of all but three of the Southern
States and have placed themselves in a position to
dispute the result of the late election in those three
even those means have sometimes been fair and
legal sometimes unfair and illegal but the fact that
the Republican party, even when 1t has had n ma
Orty of the voters in State enrolled In its ranks,
has been unable to cope with the oppo-
sitiOn, and that, in spite Of Federal sup
port, it has been losing ground year by
year, is a stubborn one which no reasoning can
dispose of. Four years ago. Alabama, Arkansas,
Mississippi North Carolina, and West Virginia were
strong Republican States; to-day they are as
strongly Democratic. This year, South Carolina,
Louisiana and Florida may be saved, but, if so, it
will only be as by fire." and unless there is turn
in the tide they too viii be carried over TO the Demo-
cratic side in two years from now, and the South
will in fact be solid. Nor can this be prevented
even under a Republican natio0al administration,
without a change of policy. Public opinion In the
North has again and again Tebelled against the
measures which Gen Grant and his cabinet have re-
sorted to in order to their parry i'll the Southern
States; and in spite Of all that has been done, oe
after another of them has been captured by the ~
position.
Is there then no hope for the Republican party 10
the SOUTH Are the politics of the country drifting
more and more into sectOnalisn, and is the Solid
South" not only to become a fact but permanent
onef 1t is difficult to see any other outcome of the
present political situation except by thorough re-
organization of the Republican party in the South
1t is natural that the present generation of coored
voters should stand firm in their support OF the
party which gave them their freedom and conferred
upon them all the civil and political rights they now
enjoy, but 1T is not natural that the white people
should be equally united under the Democratic BAN
uer. There are the same differences of opinion
most political questions among the intelligent white
voters of the South that exists in the North. They
are not all agreed the currency question: on the
tariff on internal improvements nor even on the
question of State rghts-One single tie binds them
together and that is the necessity which they be-
lieve exists of adopting measures of self-defense
against the perpetuaton of the corrupt carpet-bag
State governments which have robbed and plundered
them.
The Hon. Randall L. Gibson in conversation the
other day defined his political position in these
words: al am in favor of hard money. protective
tariff internal improvements, and local self-govern-
ment. and am opposed to secession. If that creed
makes me National Democrat, then / am one.
act with the Democratic party because believe if
il trIumphs it will lift the burdens that have been
nlaced upon my State and other Southern States by
the aid of the Republican party" Gen. Gibson is
the representative of very large class OF the best
white people in the Southern States-people who
are in perfect sympathy with the best men Ill the
Republican party of the North. and have been kept
from Joining its ranks only by the Southern policy
of the Admir- stration.
Look at the State of Louisiana, for example-and
refer to it because having visited it so recently
am more familiar with the present condition OF
politics there than with that of any other state
The Democratic Conservative party there u split
aAuudpr
actually be divided to-day did not the white people
believe that the only way to overthrow tho Kellogg
and Packard regime is TO act in harmony. In every
recent State convention there has been an almost
life-and-death struggle between the old Bourbon
"Iast Ditchers" and the Conservatives One wing
is in favor of a"White Line" policy and chngs to
all tho old Democratic doctrines that weTo III vogue
before the war; with very little modification They
do not desire to have slavery restored, but the little
else they have learned from the events OF the last 10
wears has had almost effect upon them eXceptto
roale them grow moro sour and bitter every year.
They were Democrats before the war-secesslonists,
fire-eaters.
The Conservatives, as they call themselves, are
progressive They have accepted the situation III
the best Of faith they detest the Last Dtchers,
and even object being called Democrats. Gen. Glib
son is one of their leading men, and his political creed
which have already quoted is theirs. The older
men among them were Wings and Know-NOtmngs
before the war, and went into that struggle against
the dictates of their Judgment This samc class of
men NAV be found in all OF the Southern States. L
met many men in Alabama in 1874 who told me that
they had not voted since the war; simply because
they would nottrain under Democratic banners nor
give aid to the dishonest Republicans VINO mad con-
troll of their State Government In Texas the Demo
cratic party is so unweldy that it is already show
ING signs of division, and iii other States there are
thousands of white men who follow Democratic
leaders only under protest.
Here them believe, is the material from when
nav marty NAV be formed which would aiilate win
liberal party in the North, either the hepuDiicah
Ouided by new and wiser administration OF an
other drawing its membership from the best eie-
ments in both existing parties AS there are NO" 10
iqns of the breaking up of either OF the old political
afin nf a