The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-12-03
rhe orant Boom IN the south.

4
] the South, the New York Tribune saw.
that such a movement would b
f sgrotesque It would be more thar
; ..grotesque It would be the madnes.
with which people are seized who are
! doomed to destruction. 1t would be
: the worst kind of suicidal folly. II
would be more than Jumping out Of
the frying pan into the fire The nom
ination of Gen. Grant is urged by the
Northern stalwarts because he is, as
Senator Conkling calls him, a s.strong
man." and the meaning of that is that
he believes In a centralized despotism
under which the Constitution and the
restrictions it imposes upon power,
are subordinated to the will of the
persons in authority. The significance
of the Grant boom in the North is this
and nothing else. 1t means the over
throw of the government of the Consti-
tuition, so far at least as it affords pro-
lection to the Southern States in the
enjoyment of self-government. The
Tribune says truly:
1t must be remembered that ex-President
Grant is the foremost representative of near
| Iy everything that the Democratic South
has steadily opposed. We cannot look
merely at his war record and shut our eyes
to what happened during his eight years oil
| civil rule He was more "stalwait" all
| through his two terms than almost any OF
the publicans of the present daY. He
had federation for theories of State saprem-
acy; he carried OUT the provisions of the
'bayonet law" with what many of us
thought was extreme rigor; he used troops
I without scruple to enforce the Federal au-
thority; his soldiers dispersed Legislatures
and guarded ballot-boxes. So far IS the
world knows he has not modified his poll
! tics or his opinions. Yet the South, which
has showed abuse and insult on Mr.. Hayes
! for three years. now processes a desire for
/ General Grant again, so that it may h ave
! Justice"
/ We are far from Understanding the inn
portance of this change of sentiment; but
4 the country will do well to consider what it
means. In the first place, it is demon
stration of the unrealty of all the issues
with which the Democratic leaders have
attempted to fire the popular heart. The
Solid South, without moments warning
and with no better proyocation than
series of Republican victories in the North
ern State elections, repudates its entire
political programe, declares that it does not
want what it has been fighting for. and
avows that the reasons given for the Extra
Session and the excuses alleged for the shot
gun compaigns were sheer humbug In the
next place, the Grant movement shows
that many of the Southern people are be-
ginning to comprehend the suicidal course
hitherto pursued in their States.
And this is precisely the attitude in
which the Southern people would place
themselves by joining in the Grant
movement. 1t would be kissing the
rod that smote them, and calling for a
repetition of its blows. 1t would prove
them unworthy of the selfgovernment
by which, in spite of hostile legislation
at Washington, they have thrown off the
yoke of the carpet-bag governments,
that were imposed upon them by meas
ures which Grant approved and ruth
lessly enforced.
But the Tribune might have spared
its comments. The Southern people
do not intend to commit the unreasona-
BILE act to which it refers. So far from
taking Grant in theirs, it is anybody to
beat Grant. Though political leaders
may sometimes perpetrate folly, and
some of them have unquestionably given
currency to this preposterous rumor,
they are not ready ''to believe lie that
they may be damned" They have not
unlearned the lessons of the past. They
have not forgotten that it was under the
Grant regime that the entire brood of
measures were Matched. That it
the carpet-bag governments
upon the South. That after RECONSTRUCT
ton and all the pledges of local self
government its inventors promised,
bayOnets controlled elections and dis
persed Legislatures at the behest of the
''strOng man." Nor have they forgotten
the saturnalia which the Belknaps, the
the Robesons, and corrup-
tionists of that ilk celebrated with high
hand under the Administration of Grant.
The South is not desperate yet. She
is not ready for Grant and the Empire.
But she is ready with her one hundred
and thirty-eight votes in the Electoral
College to aid in the election of Sey-
mour, or Hendricks, or Hancock, or
Bayard, or Tilden, or any other Demo
rat who will administer the government
and impartially according to
he letter and spirit of the Constitution.