Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1877-11-26
THE COLLAPSE OF SOUTHERN
REPUBLICANISM.

When the so called new Southern pol
icy was first adopted there was a num-
Der of those rather troublesome persons
men with political convictions-who
wanted to know how it would affect the
Republican party in the cotton States.
They were not satisfied with the assur-
ances so oft repeated that it would bring
about new era of peace, prosperity and
universal good feeling. The promises
of revival of trade did not console
them; they had been Republicans from
boyhood they had fought, suffered, and
risked their lives for human liberty, for
the rreservatinn. nf the TTrios. end tho
perpetuation of republican principles,
and they desired to be assured that all
their efforts had not been in vain. Mr.
Stanley Matthews and other new disci-
Piles of the same class were shrewd
enough to appreciate the situation, and
at once set to work to pacify and soothe
tie feelings of the old line Republicans
The Repu blican straight-outs were moi
altogether satisfied with the glowing
promises Of their new associates they
doubted still. yet tried to be patient and
to wait.
What has been the result? Weeks
months have gone by. and still there i
no sign of the breaking up of the South
ern Democracy. The leaders of the dom
inant party in the cotton States hav
simply accepted as right every conces
sion made by the Republican President
They haveIven nothing in return. Til
old Wings have not made their appear
ance, the Democrats are more unite
than ever before, "the solid South"
no longer what Mr.. Matthews was pleas
ed to call political bugbear, it is
stern political reality. In Georgia an
Mississippi the Republican party ha
been officially buried in South Carolin
it exists no longer. even in name F;
Louisiana its disorganization is complet,
1t withstood all the terrors of the Whit
League, the bullets of the Rife Club
and the whip of the bull-dozer /; in spit
of Hamburg, Coushatta, Vicksburg, FL
faula and New-Gascony, its membc
, went to the polls and voted for the pri
ciples they loved so we'll; but at la
they were obliged to yield to pow
q greater than any they had faced befor
They succumbed to "the reconciliatiC
b policy" and they are heard of no mo
|, in American politics.
In the face of this years elections
r would be useless to attempt to conce
. the fact that the Republican party
. the South has been aunihilated. AS
political force it ceased to exist sol
= months since. At the last election
ceased to be even political factor. 0
- year ago the Republican sentiment
the Southern States-and we do not
clude Maryland, Kentucky, or Misso,
v, was represented by upward of nj
IN hundred thousand votes cast for Ruth
w ford B. Hayes. At the recent electiC
n the party placed no candidates in
i'd field, and as an organization deposi
or no votes in the ballot boxes. At the
as ALBANIA county and legislative electi
IN. held In August. there was no opposit
,or to the candidates of ''the native /;
of best" The much-abused "carpet-b
nd ger was not heard of, and 1.-THE pol
"A. cal Niger" wisely declined to go to
nd polls. On the 9th of this month. in
re, Mississippi and Virginia State electi'
,us the Republican party did not appear.
in the former State there are at least
600 men who profess Republican p
ciples, but in the election referred
nd, they did not. as an organization.
one vote for State officers. The re