Daily Kennebec journal., 1878-12-16
From The New York Tribune
The Southern Debate.


There are two possible replies to the pow
erful speech Of Mr.. Blaine, but neither will
prove effective. Mr. Thurman made one,
and found 1t turned against him with terrific
effect by Mr.. Blaine. The other would have
been made, no doubt, by Mr.. Lamar. if he
had been free TO take time for careful prepa
ration, and will be made by those journals
and persons whose distinction il is that they
clothe tho meane.t and most unscrupulous
partisanship under professions of judicial
fairness.
"The bloody shirt again." some will say.
But there was nothing sensational IN the
speech of MIR Blaine; no appeal to the feel
ings, no resort to invectve, no effort to
awaken sympathy for the colored people or
the white republicans Of the South. The
question, as is stated by him, is simply this:
whether GO 900 men who fought against the
Union ought to have, in defiance of its Con.
stitution, as much power in its Government
as 10000 men who fought to maintain
that Government. The people of the North
do not see that such an inequali y is justified
in any case, but they feel tho more strongly
about it because the excessive power Of
Southern democrats has been gained by frauds
and violations of law. There are many
questions upon which democ as who repre-
sent any part of the conservatism or the in
telligence of the country ought to agree with
true republicans; but on questions of the
public faith, the currency, the banks, the
tariff, the internal revenue, or the impror e.
ment ofrivers and harf ors. or the building Of
railroads. the Northern vote. whether re-
pnbllcan or democratic, counts only half as
much as the Sruthern vote. Partisanshp
need not enter into the discussion. nor color,
nor race. 1t is enough to say that GO 900
votes at the South ought not TO outweigh
l30 600 votes at the North when the public
credit or prosperity is at stake, when taxes
are laid upon property or when appropria-
tons from the common Treasury are made
for internal Improvements. Behind
every question Of national honor or finance
lies the question whether those who tried to
destroy the nation have the right to twice as
much pow r, man for man, a. those who tried
to save it,
But the eminently "judcal" person will
cloak his defence of infamous crimes under
the plea that "no sectional Issne ought to be
raised Very true and who raises sec
tional issue, if not those who OPENLY avow
that the South must be made solid for sec
tional ends, and by unlawful means The
most despicable sneak in Christendom, in
1860. was the creature who could see no
harm in the solid and aggressive sectlonalism
Of the South and wanted the North to lie
down and be kicked to all time for the sake
of peace. Not bad limitations of that spirit
may be found to-day, particularly among
those who think it perfectly right and natural
for the South to be "solid' in attacking the
public debt solid in breaking into the pub
lie treasury, and solid in dcfyrg the Con-
stitution and the laws the United States.
but utterly unpatrIotic and shockinglv sec
tional for the North to resist. 1t cannot
be said that the new manifestation of South.
ern aggressveness was prompted by scar.
pet-baggers" for they are dead or
powerlesss-nor by resistance to oppressive
rule. The South is under no re.
straint it's republicans know that they have
no voice in pu5lir affairs and no hone and
it's democrats did not need to seize a single
State or district by force or fraud. But the
aggressive law-defying temper was there. and
would show itself even in wanton acts of s,,.
perfluous crime. The insult wae deliberat.
and grstuitous. The people OF the Northerr
States would sink to the level of their ''iudi
cial'' critics if they should quietly suffer eael
Southern vote TO become more potent tha,
two Northern votes
Mr.. Thurman told the truth-and ther
tried to ia e 1t back The democratic part,
holds that 'the intelligence, property anc
courage Of the South ought to have the
mastery just az it did before the war, when
1.-THE Northern mudsill'' voted for himself
while tie Southern gentIes am voted for
himself and three-flths Of hi. chattels. Mr.