New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-12-13
THt SOrTHiRN DEBATE.

| There are two possible replies TO the power
| full speech of Mr.. Blaine, out neither will
/ prove effective. Mr.. Thurman made one, and
| found it turned against him with terrific eff
| feet by Mr. Blaine. The other would have
! been made, no doubt, by Mr.. Lamar, If he
! bad been free to take time for careful prep
aIatiOn, and VIII be made by those journals
and persons whose distinction it is that they
clUthe the meaueSt aud most INSCRIPTIONS
partiSanship under professions OF Judicial fair
ness.
"The bloody shirt again. some will say.
But there was nothing sensational III the
speech OF Mr.. Blaine; no appeal to the feel
lngs, no resort TO invectIye, no effort to
awaken sympathy for the cOlOred people
or the white Republicans of the South.
The question, as stated by him, Is simply
this: whether 10000 men who fought against
the Union ought to have, in defiance of its
Constitution, as much power in It's Govern
mcnt as 1872, 900 men who fought to mann
tain that Government The people of the
North do not see that such an inequality Is
justified IN any case, but t.cy feel the 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 Democrats who
represent any part of the conservatism or the
| intelligence 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 improve
| ment of rivers and haTbOTs, or the building of
! railroads, the NOrtherlhote, whether Republican
/ or Democratic counts only half as much as the
! Southern vote. Partisanshp need not enter
! into the discussion, nor color, nor race. IL Is
enough to say that 10000 votes at the South
| ought not to outweigh 10000 votes at the
| North, when the public credit or prosperity is
at stake when taxes are laid upon property,
or when appropriations from the common
| Treasury are made for internal improvements.
| Behind every question of National honor or
I finance lies the question whether those who
! tried to destroy the Nation have the night
to twice as much power, man for man, as
those who tried to save it.
But the eminently judicial" person will
cloak his defence of infamous crimes under
the plea that "no sectional issue ought to be
raised" Very true and who raises sec
tionai Issue, If not those who openly avOw
! that the South must be made solid for sec
! tional ends, and by unlawful means9 The
most despicable sneak in Christendom, in
| 1860, was the creature who could see no harm
in the solid and aggressive seCtOnalisn OF the
| South, and wanted the North to lie down and
1 he kicked to all time for the sake of peace.
| Not bad limitations OF that spirit may be found
! to-day, particularly among those VINO think
il perfectly right and natural for the South to
! be "sOlid" in attacking the public debt,
" solid " in breaking into the public Treasury,
and solid i'll deiying the Constitution and
! the laws of the United States, but utterly
unpatriOtic and shockingly sectional for the
| North to resist. 1t cannot be said that the
new manifestation Of Southern aggressveness
| was prompted by carpet baggers for they
are dead or powerless-nOT 10y resistance 10
| oppressive rule. The South is under no re-
straint its Republicans know that they have
no voice in public affairs, and no hope; and
its Democrats did not need to seize a single
State or district by force OF fraud. But the
aggressive law-defying temper was there, and
! would show itself, even in wantOn acts of SUI
perfuous crime. The insult was deliberate
and gratuitous. The people of the Northern
States would sink to the level Of their Z" jul
" dicial critics if they should quietly suffer
each Southern vote to become more potent
| than two Northern votes.
Mr.. Thurman told the trUth-and then tried
| to take 1t back. The Democratic party holds
that 1.-THE intelligence, property and courage y
! of the South ought to have the mastery, just
as it did before tho war, when "the
Northern mudsil" voted for himself,
while "the Southern gentleman voted
for himself and three-ffths of his chattels
| Mr.. Thurman thinks it serves the Republican
party right if it gets beaten, because it in
trusted suffrage to "barbarism," and gave
freedom TO "chattels." What Northern De-
mocraey admires and defends is the good old
oligarchical system, under which the Southern