Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1878-07-30
DespOtisD.

Senator Butler, OF South Carolina, has
been making speech to his constituents
at Edgefeld Court House. MIR. Butler is
n great man, and it was great speech.
When we have explained that the princi-
pal object of his remarks seemed to DO to
"assert his manhood" and that the advice
which he gave to his admiring auditors
was that they should assert their man.
hood" too, everybody will understand
what sort Of an address it must have been.
1t belonged to familiar kind Of South
Carolina eloquence, as hot and stirring as
the Pogram Defiance. There used 10 be
a great deal of it in Congress before the
war, but it went out Of fashion about the
month of April, 1861, and the rising
generation has found little of it except in
the back numbers of Tue CONGRESSIONAL
GLoBE Of anybody reads back numbers Of
that lively periodically, or in the more en-
pertaining albeit irreyerent pages of
Martin Chuzzlewit." When the hero Of
Mr.. Dickens novel found fault with the
free use of pistols, bowie knives and
sword-sticks, the frequency of bloody
ddels, brutal combats, savage assaults,
shooting and stabbing, which he had re-
marked in his American tour, the Hon.
Elijah Pogram denounced "this hatred
of our country and her institutions as
an illustration Of British despotism. In
very similar language Mr.. Butler looks
around upon his audience, aud, being re-
buked for slaughtering negroes, begs his
fellow-citiEens to remark the degrading
prejudices Of Radicalism When the
strong arm of the Federal Government is
stretched out to prevent wholesale mas
saere, he bowls aloud and dares the be
sotted minions of tyranny to come on
When Republican Administration I'M
dertakes to protect all citizens equally in
The right to vote. he raves at the blight
ing exhibition of Radical despotism. And
then his constituents perhaps get right up
and assert their manhood" by shOotinga
niger.
The Pogram style of eloquence seems
to have come back, along with the old
school Of pro-slavery craftsmanship, the
plantation manners, the duel, the lash, the
loaded bludgeon, and the doctrines Of
notification and State Rights The
great issue" Mr.. Butler declares, Aboye
that of honesty or that of race, is the
contest for State Rights, To that contest
the South dedicates herself. The au-
thority Of the Federal Government is "a
colossal monster" and there is no safety
or peace for the Southern white man un-
I'll it has been destroyed. We have &C
cused the Southern Democrats Of a delib-
crate purpose to disArm the Federal Gov
ernment by disbanding or gripping the
faithful little military force which fought
them when they were in open revolt, and
kept guard among them when they tried
to rob the freedmen Of the suffrage. The
action of the party in Congress proved
the accusation; the speech of Mr.. Butler
confirms it he makes common cause
with the riotOus tramps and strikers aud
incendiaries whom the Federal soldiers
prevented from sacking and destroying
cities last summer; aud in the same
breath he upbraids the central radical
despotismn for holding the South by the
throat, and for shooting down the railway
wreckers and communists because they
were simply asserting their manhood and
their rights as American citizens
But now, exclaims the Hero Of Ham
burg, 1.-The deadly grasp is torn loose from
our throat" AT the North 1.-THE COM
mon people, have risen to enforce their
rights, at the South We shall stand for
ours. First Of all, Mr.. Butler wishes it
10 be we'll understood that South Carolina
is white mans government and means
TO remain 50. lie is disguised with the
cowSrdice and the sentimental twaddle Of
those who pretend that the races must
have equal rights Theoretically" to
be sure, this Is not white mans Gov
ernment;" but practically it Is, and 1t
shall be. The black people may come
and live in the State, but whatever their
majority they shall not rule it. And Mr.
Butler, who 1T any rate is frank sort Of
q blusterer has left US in no doubt as to his
methods Of keeping power, now that, BY
means to which we need not particu-
lArly PETER, he has unfortunately got it,
n. Y. Tribune