The New Orleans bulletin., 1876-02-17
WHY THE SOUTH IS DEMOCRATIC.

WHY THE SOUTH Is DEMOCRATIC
From an able editorial in tho New Yorl
Herald, Of the 18th, we make the following
extracts
It is fact that the Southern States are nov
solidly Democratic. Does this make then
sectional? We think not; for they have NJ
sectional or selfish aim; they do not seek t.
advance any selfish policy; they have no OBJ
jects in view, in their political agitation, inim
ical to the whole Union. II is an error, there
fore, to speak Of the present political condi
ton Of the South as "sectional in the proper
and usual sense of that word; and one proof
of this is seen in the fact that during and
shortly after reconstruction II the Republican
leaders themselves planned and hoped to
make the South solidly Republican by the
overwhelming numbers OF its colOred voters,
and believed they we're in this following q
quite legitimate political aim.
If we examine the story of Southern poll
tics during Gen. Grants Presidency We shall
discover reasons quite sufficient to account
for this remarkable coalition, without having
to suppose spirit inimical to the Union
in every Southern State where Republicans
have ruled they have been incredibly cor
rupt and waste5ul of the peoples money;
they have robbed the taxpayers until in
many places their levies amounted to confs-
cation; they have created vast State, county,
city and even township debts, over and above
the heavy taxation; have destroyed the credit
of the States they misruled; have brought
financial disgrace and ruin upon many COM
munities, and while thus shamelessly plum
dering they have neglected all the M ost i'm
F,~<~ r. hau tad kho
courts of justice, encouraged or tolerated law
lessness andb crime, and refused all remedies
for the peoples wrongs The people Of the
Southern States would not be Americans.
theyowould hardly be human beings, if they
rested content under such monstrOuS mis-
government as that OF their Republican rulers
has been.
The result has been that gradually, in most
of these States, the decent and intelligent
part of the whites has been driven into the
Democratic party. Louisiana, for instance,
is Wing State, and the Wings would have
carried it over to the Republican party but
strongly that in the election of 1874 less than
five thousand whites voted with the Repub- |
iicans, and these were almost entirely the Of |
fce-ho'ders and their personal following |
The same is true of Alabama, Arkansas, Mis- |
sissippi and other Southern SSates 1t was
mot merely disgust at Republican plundering |
which drove the white voters away from the |
Republican party, it was because they could |
not stand the too long-continued robbery, |
the exhausting taxes, the heavy debts.
Another cause justly confirmed their de-
testation Of the Republican rule; In their
extremity they turned for help and justice to |
the Federal Government at Washington, and /
there both help and justice were contemptu-
ously denied. They found the robbers
favorites at the White House and inf uential
in Congress, and their own complaints and
were rejected as those of |
:" rebels" The President gave the Federal
patronage in the South to men like Spencer,
Dorsey, Packard, Casey and Ames, ana
these men were allowed to. appoint to i'm
portant Federal Offices in their States per-
sons many dozens Of whom. have since been
of public plundering. Many others
have run away to avoid just punishments,
while most OF them were mere adventurers
and political bummers. Nor was this all.
The President has seemed to take especial
pleasure in making appointments which were
simply insults to these Southern communi-
lies.
Again, when two Congressional committees
lad declared she Louisiana Returning Board
II 1874 fraud and had overturned its verdict,
he President at once appointed Wells, the
'hairman Of that board the chief perpetrstor of
his revolutionary fraud, to one Of the most
Important federal offices in the South, and the .
senate has lately confirmed him.
The President has deliberately and con.
family taken the side of the plunderers in
he South. To them, and to them only, he
las shown boundless favor and given unfalter-
Dg support; when the people Of their States |
epudiated them he has given them federal ,
slaces; when they appealed for help they got
t; when they misrepresented the South he r
relieved them and refused to hear oother evi-
ence than theirs. And now the Republican !
'ariy is alarmed at the result.