Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-12-12
THE SOUTH CAN'T JOIN THE RE.
PERLIEAN PARTY.

THE SOUTH CANT JOIN THE RE.
PUBLICAN PARTY.
The stalwart Republicans propose to con-
soidate the north because the Democrats
wont abandon their organization and merge
into the Republican party. This is requiring
too much Before the southern people aban
don their frien1ts and embrace their enemies
they should ask what has the Republican
party done for the south since the war that
should entitle it to respect? What single
measure has it devised or put into execution
that, IN a single respect, was conceived with
reference to the pacifcation of the south, or
that was not intended totally to advance
some mean, selfish interest of the party in
power2 Physically, the south is subdued.
The spirit of secession has been wholly elimi-
mated. All the southern States are poor
For years the broad heel of the plantation
negro was upon the necks of the whites. The
carpetbaggers stole the natives poor and
themselves rich. The people endured
all these things with forSitude; but all this
does not seem to be enough. We are re-
quired to desert our friends and take our en-
emes, prosecutors, and plunderers to our
hearts. and repudate the party that hber-
ated US. The people OF tue south would
make most any sacrifice to secure the bless
ings of peace, but they cannot join the Re-
publican party for that purpose. They re-
member, with vivid distinctness, when the
white people of the south were disfranchised
and its intelligence and virtue placed under
the dominion of strangers, its Ignorance and
its vice; when they were stigmatzed as
traitors, their brilliant and heroic struggle for
Independence was branded as the sum of all
crimes, to be repented OF before forgiveness
could be granted, and on the avowal that
their paroles and their new oaths of allegi-
ance were not to be trusted, their States
were made military districts and placed
as conquered provinces under armed rule.
Can the southern people join party
that thus DETAINED them? They were
not only shut out from all participation in
their local government, but pinned down by
bayonets and held in enforced inaction and
silence Voluntary reconstruction was re-
pressed and rendered impossible by the re-
construction laws. Disorder then became an
element of political party success elsewhere.
Such disturbances as occurred arose necessa-
rlly under a bitter and proscriptive rule
which made the meat it fed on. Under the
operation of these causes, the southern peo-
pie have endured untold miseries. While IN
some States labor and production were
parayzed, new and enormous public debts
reckless!y created, and the substance of the
people devoured by adventures, these were
not the worst ills of reconstruction. The
prolonged mental suffering, the cruel
humiliation, the torturing processes
of degradation, to which it has
subjected a brave, proud and honorable peo-
pie, born and bred to be free, are without
parallel within the limits of christian civiliza-
ton. Its evils have not been confined to the
south. Injuries have resulted to general
finance, commerce, manufacturing and other
industries, which at this time are tearing the
bowels of the common country. II when the
war ended reconstruction had been satisfied
with the death of thousand leading Con-
federates on the scafold, it would have done
mercy as compared with the severity of the
past. And now the party that is guilty of
these outrages upon the southern people, and
which inflicted so much injury upon the
whole country, complain that ''solid south"
is arrayed against the Republicans, and insist
that we ought to abandon the Democracy
and take to our embrace our enc
mics! This is cool. History tells
of the old despot who, after Staying a rival
for the throne, used his hide for drum
head-and now, after prosecuting the south
ern people, the Republicans propose that
they give their hides on which to
beat the triumphal march of Radicalism to
power The southern people will be guilty
of no such degradation. Governor Gilbert
Walker, of Virginia, who served four years
in the Federal army, says: The cry of
'sohd south will not hurt the Democratic
party. Is it anything to be ashamed of? In
fact it is, in my judgment, something to boast
of rather than to be ashamed of; and think
it is mistake either to try to conceal the fact,
(which is impossible, or to be frightened at
n hu laba!oo which Republican organs
raise about it. Of course, they don't like it,
because there stands the one hundred and
thirty-eight electoral votes which they can
not get round, or under, or over. But the
people Of this country are not fools, and 1t
does not hurt our party for the people to know
that We are within forty-seven votes of
victory at the start The south can
not be frightened from her allegiance to her
friends, and into the support of her enemies.
Southern disintegration means perpetuity
of Radical rule, and as this party has done
It's worst the threat of solid north strikes
no terror TO the hearts of the southern peo-
pie. While Radicalism lifts its hideous
front the south will remain solid. If the
south goes into campaign as a solid section
it Is because it has been the policy of the Re-
publican party to sectional1ze it, because il
fears that it will be oppressed and plundered
unless it consents to serve the purposes of the
Republican party. It can be nationalized
only by the election of a Democratic Presi-
dent. Let it be assured that the cord will
not again be put around its neck, or the
shackles upon its limbs, and we shall hear
no more of ''the solid south" When
1t shall be no longer compelled to
combine for self-preservatien, for actual life
and liberty, the south will divide as the north
does. Parties will be reorganized upon
questions that have no relation to the civil
war. and the colored vote will divide with