Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1877-06-07
POLITICAL.
Senator MOrtOn's Letter.

line following Is the concluding portion OF
situation of the country.
All talk about laying down the re-
publican organization to take up a
new one. with a new title, into which
the old Confedrates may enter without
wounding their susceptlbilities, would
be criminal if it were not suprenely
silly. The proposition that the party
which saved the nation, and which
embodies IN its creed the immortal
principles upon which it must live, if
live it does, and which has a record
the most glorious in the annals of
human organizations, shall commit
suicide as an act of Cancellation to the
late enemies of the Republic, silences
comment by It's audacity.
We are but realizing what has been
visibly coming for several years.
From 1868 it has been apparent that
the republican party of of the South
would be overthrow by force if it
could not be done otherwise The
opening scene of carnage in that year,
in which 1000 republicans we're killed
and wounded in Louisiana alone, were
but the prelude to the campaign of
violence which eliminated in the
bloody field of last year.
The destruction of the republican
party would make the democratic
party supreme, and fas6en upon the
country its odious policy and princi-
pies The men who directed the
bloody crusades in the South for the
last ten years, that have now culmi-
mated in final victory in South Caro-
lima and Louisiana, are still living.
and have lost none of their power.
The men who within seven years have
welded the democratic party in solid
column, North and South, against the
fifteenth amendment, are still In the
ascendant. Is any man weak enough
to believe that they, or majority of
them, have been soundly converted
and are honest advocates of the equal
rights of men? 1t is my opinion that
the body of the Southern democracy
have not changed in regard to the civil
ana political rights Of the negro, and
that, if Tilden had been elected presi-
dent, within his term of four years
the fourteenth and fifteenth amend
ments would have been substantially
overthrow IL most Of the southern
states. This would have been accom-
plished by methods recently illustrated
in Mississippi and other states, and
is altogether possible to that exquisite
political genius which can extract a
democratic majority of 10000 from
republican majority of 10000.
No one prays for Cancellation and
fraternity between the North and
South more earnestly than myself !;
but Cancellation and fraternity, to be
honorable and durable, must be based
upon the concession Of equal civil and
political rights, peace and prot ection
to men of all races and creeds. If
the men who held the colored people
ia bondage, and who at every step
fought against equal rights and the
constitutional amendments, are to-day
regenerated, and will now administer
the great principles asserted by the
republican party and placed by it in
the constitution and laws, it is a con-
summation devoutly to be wished.
Such frame of mind on the part Of
the southern people | should regard
as the most important and desirable
of all political conditions, the grand
result which every patriot has at heart.
But, if [ do not believe in this sud
den conversion, ought not to be con-
sidered incredulous and prejudiced.
And if [ about this 1 am
wrong, and if the republican party
have by their efforts and discipline
subdued the very hearts of the democ-
racy of the South, how can we suffici-
emily comprehend and magnify the
achievement?
| In Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, Ala
bama, Arkansas, part of Missouri,
and Middle and Western Tennessee,
free suffrage exists chiefly in name.
Georgia, in which there is not a diff
erence of 5000 votes between the two
parties, give Tilden a majority of ST.
600. In six counties not republican
vote was polled. Mississippi, with a
republican majority Of 10000, was
made to return democratic majority
of 10000. In four counties, contain
ing 5000 republican votes, 7 republi.
can votes were polled, which were ad-
mitted just to show that republicans
could vote. Alabama, with a clear
republican majority of 10000. was
made to return democratic majority
of $4,000. In Tennessee, Arkansas
and Texas, approximate results were
produced by like processes. 1t Is
folly to allege that in those states
there were liberty, protection, and
equal rights. The voluminous testi-
mony taken by the senate committees
establishes the fact that the liberty
enjoyed By repu bheans (both white
and black) was but nominal They
were outcasts from society, oppressed
IN business, hunted like criminals,
and denied the protection of the laws.
Peace and commercial prosperity bas-
ed upon such conditions are hollow
and worthless, and are but another
form OF the barter of rights for gold.
The quiet was that of strangulatien
and paralysis. and auda eious falsshood
at last grows weary in asserting that
such results were anything but crimes
If South Carolina, with republi