Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1878-12-13
THE "PARAMOUNT QUESTIONS. %

REPRESENTATIVE Ellis OIL LOUISIANA, mas
the credit of having announced that in his
opinion the time has arrived for the South
to assume the fullest responsibility in the
of national affairs, and so |
strongly impressed is he with this view
that though once in favor of d Northern
man for Speaker of the new congress, heis
now persuaded that he should be from the
South. If Mr.. Ellis thinks these things
there is nothing that we know Of to pre-
vent his saying SO, nor is there anything
that we can think of except, perhaps. COM
mon sense to estop any one OF the remain
ing one hundred and tbirty-seven South
ern members who may agree with MT.
Ellis, from endorsing his views. But
we must decidedly wish there was some
constitutional mode by which the better
class Of Republican journals could be pre-
vented from giving such utterances
weight to which they have not a shadow
of title, that is to say the weight OF being
an authoritative exposition of the senti-
ments of the people of this end of our
country. The New York 'Post" has done
Mr.. Ellis the compliment and the South
the injustice Of treating his utterances as
the programme of representative man
programme which is to make para
mount, questions supposed to be settled y
and yet he is very far wide of it. There
is no desire IN the South for Southern
man for President or for Speaker; there's
no anxiety for the putting in force Of
programme Of principles to be enuncia-
ted by a solid South-the South has been
nationalized in the last thirteen years to
the extent that a Northern Democrat is to
it as acceptable as a Southern Democrat.
Only he must be Democrat, and even
this feel ing of the South is greatly
misunderstood elsewhere. The POST"
would have to have been planted here and
grown up with the reconstruction OF the
states to understand how anxiously their
inhabitants anticipate the elevation OF
democrat to the Presidential chair. 1t is
not so much from the loathing with
which they regard the Republican party
and for which that party has given them
such tremendous cause; it is not an itch
ing to encompass the Federal offices-we
speak of the people now, not the politicians;
it is not that they fear that the Repubii-
can party can ever again iniict the same
humiliation on them that it has in the
past; but it is because they want genuine
peace, order and prosperity among them
selves, within their ewn borders. With a
Democratic administration in power even
for one year, that is to say just long enough
to let the negroes in our midst know that
the government is in what their political
leaders have told them are unfriendly
hands, and then to know that this sun
friendly government neither touches nor
attempts to touch their citizenship, nor in
anyway. to curtail their privileges. the
prosperity of this section would be put
forward half century. The sullen dis
trust and Interchangeable suspicion with
which these people regard the whites.
which is partly natural and partly taught
them by their leaders since emancipation.
would be swept away in one Democratic
administration, while as long as the Re
publican party rules its disappearance
must of necessity be slow seeing that this
ignorant peasantry continue to ascribe
their enjoyment of certain rights solely to
the supremacy of that party. Four mil
lions of people located almost solidly in
one section of country, and whose eight
millions of hands constitute large factor
in the labor of that section, have their
working power greatly reduced if ever
kept in doubt as to their status. These
people need another emancipation, they
need to be set free from their decisions.
The experience of Democratic admins
tration without their being restricted in
their lights, OIL RENTED to slavery as the
more ignorant, and that is the majority
of them think, and they would at last BIZ
free. The solid ebony phaianx would
break. then the solid white host would
break. and then the solid South would
crumble. With this view the Post" can
appreciate how ardently we of the South
desire the end Of Republican supremacy
and how much every patriot ought to de-
sire it. Is the North tired of ''solid
South 20 Then we more so. But how
can we OF the South help it. The "Post'
would be the last paper to recommend SET
ting up the ignorance in a community to
govern, or to elect its rulers. And we may
say here that 1t is simply an impussibillty
Intelligence cannot be ruled by ignorance.
Here in Virginia where we believe BULLDOG
ing is rarely if ever heard Of, three eighths Of
the voters are blacks and yet there are not
handful of Republicans in the State leg
is,ature whereas ten years ago that part,
was in a large majority in the Constitu
tionai Convention Of the State. 1t doei
not require shooting Or whipping to man
age and control ignorance, and we hav'
never credited 1.-THE OF the stories toll
about the States further South.
But what We started out to say, ant
have wandered far away from, is that we
trust such journals as the "Post,' when
they see any one or any dozen OF the one
hundred and thirty representatives of th.
South Calking about programme for ths
.-.Solid South,'' they will take it as the in
.liyidnal views of the speaker, as we down
here often do with some of the run-mad
Republicans of the divided North, and moi
hold whole people responsible for him. l
is to the material interest of thepeople of tn
North to aid the South in solving the prob
lem with which events have saddled it. l
lis an old and hard question to solye-thi
thing of how to maintain the national law
intact and yet preserve the very life OF gu
States and communities from the su
premacy of densely ignorant and easll
corrupted constituency, who have had til
ballot put into their hands with no othe
preparation for it than STRIKING tne'
xhackles off-and We greatly doubt, II tn