The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-12-11
1T IS ALL GuSH.
A Concise Analysis of the Southern Political
Situation.

"Ss1nSGVA correspondent
and Mr.. William Rule, of East Tennes-
see, a native Southern Republican,
and editor and proprietor of the only
daily Republican paper in the late Con.
federate States" on the subject of "the
disintegration of the solid South" Mr..
Rule has last word for Northern Re-
publicans, and it is this: "If I had the
ear of the Northern Republicans, I
would warn them, by all means. to
avoid the mistake of relying in any
sense upon the so.called Independent
movement in the South. There is inst
as much necessity, in my opinion, of a
solid North in 1880 as there was in
1851" Mr.. Rule disposes of the Eel.
ton letter, which constituted the van
guard of the movement, in short order
by reference to the fact that FELTON, was
elected to Congress as an Independent,
but that, instead of maintaining an in
dependent attitude, he went into the
Democratic caucus and did everything
that the worst Bourbon Democrat could
demand or desire. Felton," says Mr..
Rule, is a political weathercock, who
veers to the first faint breeze, only to be
turned back by the next" He tells a
curiousstory of Judge Lochrane, another
of the new-fedged Independents. He
is, it seems, an eccentric fellow" who
thirsts for notoriety." Being in New
York once upon time, he gave a Her.
aid reporter SO to publish his name.
Looking in vain for it next morning, he
was very indignant. But a friend
pointed it out among the advertise
ments, under the head of Personal"
Mr.. Rule is very confident that the
Feltons and the lochranes neither
mold nor reflect public sentiment in
the South. He admits that there is a
conservative element in the South.
consisting of business men who realize
that Bourbon " cussedness" is working
incalculable injury to that section of
the country; but they are not in the
councils of the Democratic party, and
are as powerless to stem the tide of
radicalism as the Southern Unionists
were in 1861 to resist secession and re-
belion. Mr.. Rules remedy for the ills
of the South, intensified by the recall
citrant attitude of it's people, is the
next census and the reapportionment
of 1881. While the South INDUCES the
hope of controlling the Government
through the aid of two or three North
ern States, it will seek to repudiate the
war and legislative settlements. That
hope once dissipated, Mr.. Rule thinks
that the Southern people will abandon
their sectional strife and go about their
business.
This is very sensible view of the
Southern political situation. It tears
the veil from great mass of sentiment
tai gush, and exposes to view the skele-
ton IN the national closet namely: the
d1sagreeable fact that the Democratic
party South is an organized menace to
the perpetuity of the Union. The
average Southern Democratic politician
breakfasts, dimes, and sups off section
alism. Nothing shows this better than
the unanimity with which the Southern
Democratic leaders come to the support
of Bayard for the Presidency. They
do this because, as Senator Hampton
said, He has always, during and since
the war, sympathized with the South"
Lamar is for Bayard. Butler is for
Bayard. The Nashville american is
for Bayard. Why? Because he is
Southern Northernized doughface. He
talks like Conservative, but votes for
all the radical measures proposed by
the Southern wing of his party. He
sympathized with the South in it's act
of rebellion, and still sympathizes with
it in it's hostility to the nation. He
could be relied upon as tool for the
execution of every Southern decree, as
the doughface Pierce and the old Pub
lie Functionary Buchanan became ser
vile tools in the hands of the slavery
propagandists. "But would the South
vote for Tilden?" queries the CORE
spondent. ooh, yes" responds Mr..
Rule, eff 5hey thought he could carry
New York. They care nothing about
the candidate, so he can win" In a
word, they prefer Bayard, but they
would vote for the devil provided he
SCnACA GS0oNA1O O41OIn VI U1lO wv
eminent which, in their heart of hearts,
they hate.
MIR. Rule has performed real service
to the country in his exhaustive analy-
sis of the Southern political situation.
It tends to postpone the prospect of
millennium, but it arrests the demoral-
izing tendencies of an absurd optimism.
The Republican party is solid, and It's
chief duty now is to maintain an IN
broken front In the face of the enemy.
Victory in 1880 is within it's grasp. Over
confidence would weaken its grip, and
surrender of any of its cardinal doc
trines might, almost inevitably would,
drive it from it's high vantage ground.
It's mission now is to eliminate the shot
gun from American politics-to enforce
the right of absolute freedom of speech
and political action on every square
foot of the territory of the United
States. There must be peace at the
polls in Mississippi as well as in Hi
nois. This is the issue of 1880.
Great Democratic Victory.
Thara has heen q glorious Democrats