The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-11-22
A STARTLING ISSUE.
NEW SECTIONAL LINEs-THE EAST
AND THE WEST.
silver and Gold.
IN. Y. Herald.1

of the constitution we have never been
quite exempt from sectional differences In
our politics. This tendency did not start
with the formation Of the government. 1t
antedates the constitution and was active
during the war of the revolution. It was
then O divergency of views between New
England and the Middle States or between
New England and the Southern States
took the form of jealousy between the North
and the South, although at q very early
period there were developed symptoms OF an
tagonism between the East and the West.
Washington in his farewell address thought
it his duty to warn his countrymen against
the danger OF geographical parties. In con-
templating the causes which may disturb our
Union" said he, sit occurs as a matter of
serious concern that any ground should
have been furnished If for cha, ,eharacteriiz7ing
Northern and Southern Atlantic and
Western He said of such sectional
distinctions: ''They tend to render alien
to each other those who ought to
During the greater part of the present CEN
tury there have been no active jeaIousies be-
tween the East and the West. The over
shadowing question of slavery drew the line
between the North and the South, and the
ever increasing acrimony between these great
sections at last reached such pitch that
there was no solution of the controversy ex-
cept by a resort to arms. But since the civil
war there has been q strong tendency to es-
tablsh a new sectiona! line in our politics
The Alleghanies are taking the place of the
old Mason and Dixon's line, and the
new irrepressible conflict is between
the States of the Atlantic seaboard
and those in the Mississippi Valley. The
and fanatical as the South was during the
twenty years which preceded the civil war.
We are again being drawn into a vortex of
geographical politics. The recent proceed
ings in Congress show that the old sectional
division between the North and the South has
been superseded by q new sectional division
between the East and the West, and the con-
fiict is hardly less bitter and irrecOncilabe
than were the old spent controversies between
the North and the South. The unreasonable
mitted to than was the unreasonable domina-
ton Of the South
The West has been prolific hotbed of rank
heresies ever since the close Of the war The
time. It's influence in practical politics was
similar to that of slavery at an earlier period.
During the slavery controversy the Demo-
cratic party attempted to trade on that agita-
ton, and it paid the heavy penalty always
incurred by a party which takes the wrong
side. In the progress of the controversy not
only the Democratic party of the South, but
the whole South, arrayed itself on the side of
injustice, just as the West is becoming
although in the beginning the Democratic
party pioneered and championed that bad
cause. There is a close parallel between the
two agitations. The Northern Democrats
were always as much opposed to slavery at
heart as the Eastern Democrats are at heart
opposed to the financial heresieS of the West.
But demagOgues and party leaders are al
ways too willing to cater to wrong headed
fanatics, and some Eastern Democrats have
Western repudiationists with the same indu-
gence which was practised by their pro-
slavery predecessors toward the South. Such
tampering with justice and right is always
an egregious blunder Its inevitable conse-
quence, If persisted in, will be ruin to the
Democratic party in the East as it was
ruined in the North by it's pro-slavery atti-
tude. The West is already nearly as unani-
nous for repudiation as the South ever was for
slavery, and the Eastern Democrats will COM
NIT another astounding mistake il they try
to keep up the same relation with the repu-
dationists which they continued to maintain
with the pro-savery fanatics after it had be-
come evident that the whole South was 50
position. The Eastern Democrats are in
capable OF profiting by experience If they
give any such encouragement to the West as
they formerly gaveto the South.
The West has long. shown itself destitute
Of honor or gratitude, and almost of con-
science or common sense. The war for the
Union was more for the interest of the West
than OF any other section. The West is an
inland community, raising vast surplus of
products which are Of no value without a
foreign market The success of the rebel
lion would have shut them off from any
Southern outlet except through for
eign territory, and Southern independence
once achieved there would have been danger
East, which would have hemmed in the West
ern States and have hedged up all their
routes to foreign markets. Had the Union
been broken up the South and the East
would still have had free access to
West would have been isolated. 1t
could not have sent bushel Of wheat to any
foreign market without the permission Of
governments over which 1t had no control
and which could have destroyed its prosper
the Union preserved for the West it's free ac-
cess to all foreign markets, which is the vital
interest Of that section of the interior portion
Of the country. The war was carried on by
the advances Of Eastern capitalists, but no
sooner was it over than the West, which had
the largest stake in its success, turned
against it's benefactOrs and insisted on pay
ing their bonds in deprecated greenbacks'
The same reckless disregard of moral and
pecunlary obligations has marked the whole
course of Western politics since the war. The
sO-called granger movement is a conspicuous
illustration. Twenty Or thirty years ago the
grand necessity OF the West was the construc-
ton of railroads. It's farmers were trans
wagons from distances of fifty, hundred and
a hundred and fifty miles, and the develop
ment and prosperity of the country depended
on cheaper carriage. Eastern capitalists were
besieged and implored to furnish the money
for building Western railroads, and then,
when the people of the West had got the rail-
roads, which quadrupled the value of their
farms, they started movement for destroy
ing the value OF all railroad property. This
was of a piece with their efforts to cheat the
bondholders who had furnished the means of
carrying ON war whose success was more
important to the West than any other section.
The greenback repudiation project and the
granger project having come to naught, and
being utterly dead, the same irrepressble
dishonesty comes up in another form. 1t is
now proposed to swindle private creditors
and cheat the national bOndholders by coin
ing ninety-two dollars worth of silver bull
lion into a hundred silver dollars, and making
such debased money a tender for the dis
charge of all obligations. Some readers
rhop 11nfa 70