New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-11-27

anxious Because they are patriotic, anu
long for the day when genuine loyalty Oh
feeling and action may be as freely manlfested
al the South as at the North. What is gen
uine Loyalty 7 Hearty, thorough and faithful
obedience and enforcement of the Constitu-
ton.
A great, silent revolution in opinion mas
been going on Mt the North in respect to the
Southern question. A few years ago there
was a very large body of Northern Republl-
cans who sincerely believed that policy Oh
reconciliation Oh the part of the Government
was proper and necessary. Many held that
measures of force, which had been employed
to secure freedom of elections and obedience
to the Constitution in the Southern States,
were entirely unnecessary, and grossly abused
They had full confidence IN the assurances or
Southern Democrats that absolute freedom
and protection for all citizens In the exer-
else of all rights should be maintained
through local governments, If troops were
withdrawn. Other Northern Republicans
believed that military forces could not
be used safely or constitutiOnaly to uphold
Southern governments. Another great body
of Republicans had become exceedingly
the constitutionality of the use of mill
tary forces, or as to the reality OF the
wrongs reported as reason tor ina.
use. The Republicans lost many Senators
and Representatives their majOrities melted
away in many States. President Grant him
self declared that public opinion would no
longer sustain him IN using troops to uphold
Southern Republicans in their claims, and that
feeling was shown in the nomination and
election of President Hayes, who openly IA
yored removal of all military restraint. The
Southern Democrats were put upon their honor.
Impediments and irritatiOns were removed;
upon them was thrown the entire response
bility of enforcing the Constitution and pro-
tecting all citizens in their rights.
The conduct of the Southern Democrats
themselves is the sole cause OF the change
which has followed. Men who were most anx-
ious for peace and reconciliation are now the
most earnest and resOute for stern enforce
ment of the law They feel that they have
been cheated. BY their votes, at their
advice, full trust was given to the
promises of Southern Democrats II
they doubted years ago, now they are
forced to believe that Southern Democracy
resorts to almost incredible crimes and frauds
in it's defiance of the Constitution. 1t can no
longer be said that armed interference is an
excuse. No longer can corrupt and oppressive
mIsI1lle by Republicans in the Southern States
he named as an excuse. The Democrats did
not need a single additional vote in
any Southern Legislature, or from any
Southern State in either branch OF
Congress. Yet they trampled the Consti-
tuition into the mire ont of mere needless,
wantOn and uncomfortable spitetulness. The
negro had been made q voter; therefore he
should be taught to "know his place." and to
vote the Democratic ticket or not at all.
There were white men who had sympathized
with the Union therefore they should be
taught that they could not be elected TO any
Office in any county, not even when the Re-
pubhcan vote had been to the Democratic us
ten to one.
That is what the Solid South means to peO
ple who still have regard for free institutions.
1t is not a complaint that all the Southern
States give Democratic maiorities; that was
expected. Ii is not that the Southern Demo-
Gratis "refusp to divide; there is a great deal
more division among them than there was rea-
son to expect. But they have defied ana tram
pied upon the Constitution of the United
States. They have done this with such brutal
and cruel crimes, and with such mOnStrOus and
systematic frauds, that no citizen who cares for
the maintenance of self-goyernment has any
business to condone or keep SILENT and yet
the entire Democratic party either excuses
these deeds or tries to hide them with lies.
All this has been done, too, when the Demo-
cratic party had nineteen majority in the pres
ent House and expected more in the next,
and when it had control of every Southern
State Government and Legislature. Even
then the cOlOred people have not been
suffered to vote freely, as the Constitution pro-
yldes Even then, and even where their ma
iorities were largest, they have been robbed
bv stuffed balot-bOxes of their right to send
one Union man as their representative to
LEGISLATURE or to Congress. To make the
South solid, every crime that can be commit
ted against free government has been perpe-
trated. although Il South less solid would have
helped the Democratic party and every legiti-
mate object of that party UNNECESSARILY more.
These things show spirit which the peO-
pie of the North do not overlook. They paid
dearly in treasure aud in blood for the estab-
lshment of the Constitution as the supreme
law of the land; for the overthrow of an
oiigarchy or mobOcracy in certain States;
for the equality of all citizens, and the protec-
ton of all in equal rights. The South may rest
assured that these objects of the war have
not been and will not be abandoned. As long
as the South is solid. by disloyal and dishon-
est methods, in behalf of a dishonest and DIS
loyal party, the North will be found solid also.
But it may as well be added that the defiance
of the Constitution, and the disregard of its
guarantees, will surely be stopped, and that
at no distant day.