The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-09-26

|
ern policy. That policy is not only prac-
tically successful, but it has been SO gen.
orally accepted by the people that, in the
public mind the Southern question is
dead, the settlement is final and yet
considerable number Of influential parti-
sans treat it as live question. refuse to
approve of the Southern policy. and In
some quarters even utter threats OF de-
feat to the party If any one shall insist
on it's committal to this policy They
are willing enough to fight shy Of it,
as Mr.. Blaine did in Maine; they do not
refuse even few empty and half insulting
compliments to the Presidents good inten-
tions, phrases which praise his honesty at
| the expense Of his good sense and patriot
ism. But they carefully and absolutely re-
fuse to commit themselves to the justice.
the constitutionality, the wisdom or the
good results of the policy, although by tho
great mass of the Northern people these are
unreservedly admitted.
What does all this mean? The political
leaders and managers who take this course
! are not rash, hot-headed or bigoted men,
but quite the contrary. They are men OF
| the world; they are shrewd politicians who
know very we'll that it is not usually wise
for party to quarrel with the administra-
ton which it has put in power. Nor are
they illogical or muddle-headed men. They
profess to be alarmed and outraged at what
they call the ''solid South = but they know
very well that it is their own attitude on
this Southern question, and that alone
which can keep the South solidly united in
one party. That is the plain fact. The
Southern vote will remain ''solidly" demo-
cratic only so long as it has reason to fear
that the republican party, if it should win
in 1880, would re-establish the carpet-bag
policy ofthe last eight years; and the repub-
lican leaders who reject the Presidents
Southern policy or condemn him with
faint praise do give just cause for these
fears in the South, they and they alone.
That is to say these Northern republican
opponents of the Southern policy, pretend
ing to fear "solid South" are doing pre-
ciscly that which alone can force contin-
uance Of this great evil.
Nothing is more necessary, in the political
situation, than division OF parties in the
Southern States. What is needed there, for
the good of those States and of the whole
country, is the division Of the white vote
into two parties each containing portion
of the intelligent and property owning
voters While the misrule of carpet-bag gov
ernments supported by federal troops lasted
it was impossible to bring about such
Jixu,o; fha yhn1 mi fv
perforce united in opposition to this scan
dalous maladministration. If the republic
can leaders had at once and zealously
accepted the Presidents Southern pol
icy no one who knows the South
doubts for q moment that one Of the
first and immediate results would have been
the appearance Of q respectable, honest and
influential administration party in all those
States. The temptations of federal Office
the desire to be on good terms with the adj
mnistration, the natural divisions of senti-
ment and policy in so great population
would all have concurred to bring about
this result. The assurance that the repub-
lican leaders believed in the justice and the
necessity of the new policy would have re-
lieved entirely those fears for the future
which alone can maintain "solid" politi-
cal South.
The great and serious mischief which is
done to the South and to the country by the
rejection OF the new policy by IN influential
wing of the party is that it keeps alive the
fears of the Southern people and prevents
political disintegration there. When Messrs.
Robson, Foster, Fitzpatrick and others ut
Trenton declare openly against that policy;
when ut Rochester other influential partisans
take the same ground, what do they in effect
say to the Southern people? They give plain
notice that while for the moment they can
not resist or interrupt the Presidents pol
icy it has not their confidence or approval,
but that if they can they will over
throw that policy and re-establish the
old system with all it's evils and wrongs.
They declare that they mean to keep open
this Southern question; that they do not
regard the present settlement as final, but
hold themselves at liberty to begin q new
interference whenever they may have power.
And with that threat suspended over the
heads of the South these gentlemen cry out
against 'solid South"
Giving them the credit they deserve for
common sense, it is impossible to believe
that they do not see how illogical is their
course. 1t is far easier to believe, what has
already been limited in some republican
quarters, that the real object Of this re-
/ markable political manDuvre is to keep the
! two sections in I'M attitude of suspicion
toward each other, with ii view of repeating
in 1880 the extraordinary political campaign
of last year, and once more making u cam
vass by an appeal to the fears, the preju-
dices and hatreds of the North "a solid
South means solid North" prominent
republican politician once said. Is it posi-