Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1878-08-21

ers that arteried every state, and mines
of more than imperial wealth. What is
the old south to-day as compared with
| the old north? A bowling wilderness,
with people ignorant, indolent, and
poor. rf.
If, it is answered that the present pov-
erty' of the south is the result of the war,
southern craftsmanship is not thereby
acquitted of incapacity, for her g states
| men " created the war, ahd they are re-
sponsible for it's results. War, too, is q
physical science. 1t is true that the
south was overpowered y by the north,
but it was the duty of southern Estates
| manship' TO estimate the forces they pro-
voked. They showed their incapacily
to rule by seeking their ends through
war, with calculable superiority of
| physical power against them The
southern struggle was magnificent, but it
was not war The southern soldiers
| fought with superb courage; but Ajax
defying the lightning was not war, nor
was their defiance of the nation.
| If it is still argued that the war was the
chief cause Of the present condition of
the south, and that the north was equally
responsible for it, the answer is, that The
south lost far less by the war than is
claimed or generally supposed. Individ-
uals in the south lost their property in
slaves, but the south itself did not lose
their labor. Emancipation did not take
one dollar from the capital Of the south.
AS much as the ambitious labor of a
| freeman is more valuable than the reluc-
tant toll of slave, just so much is the
south richer to-day because of emancipa-
ton. The real property destroyed by war
was not greater IN the south than Gy the
north-in material of war, in loss OF ser
vice, and by taxation. The state and
municipal war debts Of the south were
expunged; the state and municipal war
debts of the north were preserved. Be
sides, Chicago and Boston lost far more
the houses actually destroyed in the
great conflict.
But the incapacitv of the south to rule
arepublic is demonstrated by the hasti-
est glance at her condition before the
war began; at a time when two centuries
of unbroken rule had brought forth the
perfect fruits of southern statesman
Ship AT the birth of the nation Vir-
ginia held the first place in the relative
rank of the states in population. She
maintained this position until 1910. In
1860 she held only the fifth ranl--New
| York (Which held the fifth place in 1900
now leading the roll, followed by Penn
sylvania, Ohio, and Illinois, Virginia
held the tenth place in 1870. North Car
Dina held the third place in 1190-only
the twelfth in 1860. She held the four
teenth in 1870. South Carolina held the
seventh place in 179O-the eighteenth in
1860. She held the twenty-tirst place in
1870. New York had increased her pop
ulation in seventy years from $40, 100 to
3,S90,735; Virginia from 74S 30S to l,596,-
31S only. North Carolina,in 1890, had 1913,
751 souls; in 1860, she had only 962, 622
/ South Carolina had 249 ,073s inhabitants
in 1870, and at the opening of the war
only 7O3,7 OS Thus, slowly, in spite of
every natural advantage, had the three
| leading slave states, under southern
craftsmanship" advanced; thus rapidly
were they left behind under the states
manship of the north, in the grand march
of the states to prosperity.
\ They who are faithful and skillful in
4 small things-and they only-can be
safely trusted by the nation with greater
| political duties and responsibilities. Are
these southern bunglers, who could not
keep time with statesmen whom they af
seventy years, who have been left SO far
behind that they seem now to be strag-
| glers resting by the wayside-are these
| hungry braggarts, clad with poverty in
a desolation they have made, worthy to
/ be chosen stewards of the nations wealth
! And yet, this is the "practical - remedy
proposed for existing evils by men who
argue that the republican party should
now abandon its organization.
+ Tried by Henry Clay's evidence, the
south should keep or be kept in a back
seat until the work of national recuper.
alton shall be completed. In one OF his
! popular sophomore discourses-then, in
the boyhood of the nation, esteemed elo-
quent orations-the famous Kentucky
politician (for he was in no high sense a
statesman declared that the only light
by which his feet could be guided was
the light thrown by the lamp Of expert.
ence. Does that light lead the feet Of the
republic to the plantations Of Virginia
and the Carolinas for men competent to
govern it? Does it guide US to the wrin-
killed. smother of states and statesmen y
for successors to the power Of Abraham
Lincoln, when history tells Us that the
statesmen" Of whom she so loudly
Wanted brought their own state from af
huence to ,beggary Under the evil eye
of southern g craftsmanship" prosperity
shriveled up and fed from the south; and
Virginia, no longer seeking to win back
from New York the proud title Of En-
pire State, settled down into the ignomi
ny of breeding slaves for the Gulf states
and the deeper ignominy Of defending
the ignominy.i l. /-.sl 2 s'e> 4.
"cAN THE LEOPARD CHANGE ITS SPOTS ~
" % RI
seem to be supported by the greater
weight of human testimony But, in the
7 world Of politics, a class of empires has
arisen, whose motto is the declaration OF
Moliere's doctor, Nous GD0aas change tom
ce1a' In their creed the hope Of the
country lies in the rescue Of the national
government from the hands of the patri
OTIS who saved it, and in placing it in the
keeping of the traitors who tried to, de,
stroy it. They, praise men like the gulf
state orator who denied that the south
81 of hut he