Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-07-19
LETTER FROM A SOUTHERN RE.
PUBLICAN.
To the Editor Of tha Ladrer.

In your criticism of Saturday
upon the political course of Mr..
Frank t. Reid You allude to the
fact that he "has already received
his promotion" by being placed at
the head of a Republican paper as
its editor, and then say:
"The reasons why or how u
Southern man, unless influenced bv
selfish motives, should or could join.
the Republicans have yet to be pre-.
sented in a convincing form. We
have suffered too much at the hands
of that party to forget the days Of
Acknowledgement. We have seen
too much Of their rascality to ever
affiliate with them. 1t. has been q
party of oppression, fraud, hypoc-
risy, Spoliation and plumber from
first to last, and can no more reform
within itself than an aged drunk
ard can learn to forget his cups"
Is this not an unjust imputation.
and an unintentional display Of
that proscriptive intolerance which.
always appeals to the narrow
gagged and infammable preiu-
dices of sectionalism, and which is
not in accord with the usually fair
and liberal course of the LEDGER
and its editor? What you say Of
selfish motives does yourself iniuc-
tice. If Mr.. Reid allows the lucra-
tive calling Of a Republican editor
to influence his choice of parties, or
if the prospect of obtaining Office
influences him, what may not be
said of the motives of the editor Of
the LEDGER, who, besides receiving
what is hoped to be a handsome
weekly stipend for editing that able
journal, has already received from
the State $370,24 compensation for
discharging the duties Of the Office
he now holds, and was whilom Tax
Collector of Privileges in the richest
county in the State? We all know
that if you believed in the princi-
pies Of the Republican party you.
would advocate them if the LEDGER
should lose every subscriber and
every advertisement, and it is just
possible that Mr.. Reid is quite as
unselfsh while receiving his reward
as you are while receiving You're.
If such selfshness is to govern q
man in politics, he should be in.
" this neck Of the woods" a Dem
ocrat and float comfortably in a
nice office along the angry current
of sectional hate.
This is not written in any spirit
Of censure, by one who has always
voted for you when he had a chance,
but only to suggest that one editor
may be as unselfsh as another. If
" the dead past" has buried it's
dead; if the bloody chasm has been
/, closed; if the decoration of soldiers
l graves by their foes has any signf-
canoe other than that of a pious
fraud; if the constitutional amend
ments are accepted in good faith; if
the war and all its attendant ills of
disfranchisement, reconstruction
: and distrust are ever to cease; if the
, bloody shirt Of the South, as well
D as the bloody shirt of the North,
are to be washed out in floods Of
E centennial tears Of happiness at our
reconciliation and laid away for
Exhibition in the museum of curl
osities for 1876; in a word,
: If men are ever to govern
their political action by considera-
tons not suggested by sectional
: lines, and may even forget their To-
: cal pride and self-conceit when they
come to vote, now is the time to do
it. And when he comes to vote
there is no reason apparent why an
intelligent American citizen who
lives in Tennessee may not vote. for
< Hayes along with such men as Carl
Schurz and w. M. Eyarts and their
like, as we'll as for TIlden along
with John Morrissey and Boss Kel-
ley and their kind.
Nor is there any reason why con-
siderations moving men like Schurz
to seek reform through the agency
l. of the Republican party should
lose their potency to influence the
mind when they have crossed the
@ conventional line which separates a
e Southern man" from a "Yankee.'
e To a Bourbon Democrat these con-
siderations, doubtless, have no
a weight. With him reform means
d turning out a hateful Radical and
putting in a Democrat. On him
argument is thrown away, and
nothing can convince him that a
Southern man can arise above a
quarter Of a century Of sectional
warfare and fling aside its bitter
ness for the sweets of a restored
e national patriotism. He cannot
a trust the honest promise of Gov
is ernor Hayes that he will wipe out all
IS distinctions between the North and
" the South in his administration,
which means that he, himself, will
not agree to blot out these two in
q fernal words from the vocabulary
v of American politics. Nobody viii
+ complain of him if he thinks Til
r den promises better for the country
e than the other, but he should offer
1-AA1. IL