St. Landry democrat., 1878-05-25

Southern Senator, nor is he Demo
crat. If he possessed this information
in November, 1876, and has failed eve
since to bring an open accusation
against the President and the Admins
tration on the strength of it, surely i
is against him and not against tn
Southern rebels" that the Sun shoult
direct it's wrath. What part has tn,
South really borne in the history of th'
Hayes Administration Certainly th'
South did not nominate Mr.. Hayes
Certainly the South did not elect Mr.
Hayes. Mr.. Hayes was supported il
his Presidential canvass by the Who'll,
power of the detestable Administration
of President Grant, and the South con
tended against him not simply to win {
political victory, but to secure itsel1
from political degradation and from So
cial anarchy. How solidly it supported
the candidacy of Mr.. Tilden we al
know. How wisely, no just and candid
American ever should forget. Tainted
provoked, irritated on every side by the
unscrupulous emissaries of an Admins
tration of which Senator Conkling was
a trusted counsellor, the people of the
South went through canvass which
| for them involved the issues of political
| life or political death, without uproar,
disturbance Or confusion. When the
canvass ended, it appeared that Mr..
Tilden was chosen lawful President of
the United States by 1876 electoral votes
out of 1863, being clear majority OF 90
over his Republican competitor. OF
these 1876 votes the Southern States cast
131, the Northern States only IS. In
terminous States-Connecticut, New
York and New Jersey-stood for the
Constitution and the sovereignty of the
laws with the solid South in the West,
Indiana alone. What followed? Tn
der the protection of Grants admins
tration, of which Senator Conkling was
a trusted counsellor, the people Of two
Southern States, Florida and Louisiana,
were deliberately robbed of their votes
for the Democratic electors, and the
machinery was set in motion which re-
suited in the Electoral Commission and
eventually in the Inauguration of Mr..
Hayes. The Democrats Of the South
protested against the outrage perpe-
trated upon the electoral franchise, in
all imaginable forms. They looked-as
had they not right to look ITO the
leaders Of the Northern Democracy and
to the candidate whom they, the people
of the South. had elected, to uphold
and see justice done. They looked in
vain. Were they to assume the initia-
tive of civil war for the assertion of re-
suits achieved by their peaceful ballots.
Had they desired disunion rather than
union strife rather than peace, then
was the time to have shown it. They
did not desire disunion, they desired
union. They did not desire strife, they
desired peace. When Northern Demo
Gratis accepted the decree of the Elec-
toral Commission from Senator Con k
ling and President Grant against the
earnest but solitary warnings and. pro-
tests of the World, the Democrats of
the South saw the Federal power once
more confided to Republican Admins
tration, but not by any act Of theirs
In their local governments they asser-
ted without bloodshed that sanctity of
the ballot which Northern Democrats
shrank from asserting in the Federal
Government. The people Of Florida
and of Louisiana could only help to
elect Mr.. Tilden President. They could
not make him President if he would
not accept and maintain the title which
they had given him. But the people Of
of South Carolina, without the help of
the candidate whom they had chosen
to the Presidency did maintain the
titles which they had given by their
votes at the same time to Governor
Drew and Governor Hampton and
Governor Nichols. Nay, when all had
been surrendered at Washington, the
Democrats of the South in the House,
not holding the doctrine maintained
by the Sun in November, 1876, put on
record one last expiring assertion of the
rights of the House and Of the truth of
history in their formal declaration that
Mr.. Tilden and not Mr.. Hayes had been
lawfully chosen to the Presidency in
that same month.
Once established in power against the
will of the South and by the active
efforts Of Republicans like Senator
Conkling, Mr.. Hayes disappointed the
expectation of such Republicans by re-
fusing to treat tile South as the Sun
now says the South ought to be treated,
as conspiracy of rebels bent on over
throwing the Government of the Union.
He accepted the supremacy Of the laws
and recognized the local rights of all
The States. Why should the South have
refused these blessings from his hand,
since the hand which the South had |
chosen to secure to it these blessings |
had faltered and failed in the supreme
hour? Is the South the worse to-day
FOR it's acceptance of these blessings? |
Is the country the worse?
What would Republicans like Senator
Conkling and journals like the Sun now
have of the South Senator Conkling
declares that he knows" how the South |
was defrauded Of the force OF it's true
Presidential votes in 1876. What South
9rn voice, what Democratic voice, has
been raised except to bid him speak and
ell the country what he knows? The |
World has seen with cordial satisfaction
;he step taken by Mr.. Daily in the AS
'embly at Albany to enforce this de-
nand upon Senator Conkling, a witness
1ot to be suspected, as a Democratic
witness or Southern witness might be,
IF personal interest in the demonstra-
ion of the great wrongs done in 1879 to
he South and to the Democratic party.
When New York has made this call
lpon her Republican Senator, the in
7entor of the Electoral Commission,
md her Senator has answered it and !
proofs to damn the Republican Admins
ration at Washington into "infamy"
IRE laid by him before the country, it
will be in order for the great Demo
ratio South to consider the ways and
means Of asserting the justice of the
nation,
SOUTHERN FARMING.-How to ruin a
armer and his farm-Plant the farm in