Daily Kennebec journal., 1879-04-16
1ailp Aennsbst sournal.
Augusta, Wednesday Morn'g, April l6, 1879
Confederate Success and Republic
can Mistakes.

An article in the New York Times OF a
recent date gives the Southern view of the
situation, as stated by a prominent
and candid individual of that section. This
person says the South has returned to the
Capitol to stay. They will not repeat the
blunder of 1861. They will cling to their
seats this time and fight it out with the
North with political weapons. The South
has made some blunders since the war,
but nothing he thinks compared with those
that the republican party has committed.
This man speaking for the South has
the boldness to say many things that re-
publicans will not be pleased to hear. lie
SAYS we began to surrender to the South as
soon as the rebels were whipped. We
took their battered muskets and left be-
hind unconquercd men. They captured
President johnson. We disfranchised all
the negroes, thus increasing the political
power of the South by increasing its rep
resentation in Congress. For time, this
person admits, they took wrong course
with the negroes, by not endeavoring to
control or divide their vote. but at last
they changed their policy and tried vio-
lence and intimidation, believing they were
as much justified in using the pistol to
control the black vote in Louisiana as EN-
ploying the rifle to fight white Unionists
in Virginia. When Grant was President
they flanked his old soldiers, sent among
them, with a sentiment" They harped
upon military interference" They re-
garded the Liberal Party with great deal
of favor. 1t became their brass band at
Cincinnati for the cherished dogma of
State Rights" "We found that our 'sen-
timent,' says he, ''was maturing to a
strength which would soon arrest Federal
interference by arms, and we would not
have exchanged our victory for that gained
by Grant at AppomattoX, when, just be-
fore leaving the White House, he tele-
graphed Gen. Augur, at New Orleans, that
the public sentiment will no longer war
rant the maintenance Of State Govern
ments by means of Federal troops"
1--WE have now says this Southerner,
'.only to abolish the law authorizing the
appointment of Federal Supervisors of
Elections and disarm the Deputy United
States Marshals to secure all that is deslr-
able. You have, no doubt, recently seen
in the trial of the Natchitoches prisoners
at New Orleans, that twelve men in q
United States Circuit Court jury-box are
stronger than the government. We, at
the South, having been seasoned by our
experience of the last eighteen years,
are more powerful and better disciplined
people to-day than ever before
There are many republicans who have
been in favor of the largest liberalty to
the South that are now coming to see their
mistake. They cannot help but see it
when they are told of it by the most intel
ligent Southerners, and witness what is
taking place in Congress, where an ex-
Confederate majority rules and is making
CNCly Cholt poosibit W Ntlilplttt It's VIZ
tory by the election of democratic Pres
ident in 1880. Facts are stubborn things
The Confederates have taken the Capitol
They are now marching straight upon the
White House. What we should have done
after having subdued the rebellion, accord
ing to the judgment of the Southerner
whom we have quoted above, is stated as
follows in the Times article:
"The republican party at that time" said
he, "should have declared a total absence of
State lines in the entire Southern territory
Then there would have been. no States, and
consequently no representation in Congress
and no room for partisan rivalries The
whites and blacks, no longer masters and
slaves, would have had nothing in antagon-
ism, while their industrial interests would
have been common. In decade, laws could
have been enacted subdividing the Southern
territory on the West Virginia plan, but blot
ting out forever the old State frontiers and
State names. Meanwhile the whole
territory should have consisted of military
districts, with convenient centres for relief
from assault upon the blacks by that violent
class which is often found at the South and
which is the debris of the war. With us. this
class have miles which they can traverse on
horseback. In your section, cities, towns.
villages, and strict laws would soon crowd
out or tame down such a class. But said he.
81 am not solicitous for your side of the qucs-
ton. We certainly have been able despite
our blunders since the close of the war t.
retrieve ourselves through your blunders
You have given us increased representation
and have been worsted by it. Increased rep.
resentation is, in fact, the means by which
we have surprised the North and captured
Congress. You have no right to complain
Your party has not been honest. You made
the blacks citizens. and failed to stand by
them. You gave them statutory guarantees
and then forbade the army to assist in main
tanning those guarantees. Your President
claims to draw vitality for his title from the
republicans of Louisiana and South Carolina,
whom he refused 10 support in a claim which
strictly measures his own claim to the Office
he holds. When a republican President de.
ferred-not willingly. of course--to our
White League, in April, 1871 and practically
admitted, by Withdrawing the Fedeeal troops
that even domestic violence i State con
cern with which he cannot interfere, do no
see that your party has anything left to sur
render. We can be frank now, and intend tt