Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-03-06
southern PolItlcal Methods.

Whatever light the evidence before the
Potter Committee may throw upon the
| outrages and frauds praeticed in several
of the Southern States during the cam
paign and at the election last fall, the tes-
timony taken thus far makes it certain
that the irreconciliable sectionalism of
the native Southern whites will be
brought out with startling distinctness.
Two Of the witnesses examined on
Wednesday were native Southerners and
residents of Mississippi. One, Gen. Reu-
ben E. Davis, was Greenback candidate
for Congress last fall against Col. Null
drow, in the First district. Gen. Davis
had been lifelong Democrat, fought in
the Confederate army, and had evinced
all the attributes of FiEe-Eater as early |
as 1859, when, as a member of Congress, |
he had publicly warned such. Republi-
cans as William H. Seward that they |
: would be hanged if they dared show |
themselves in the South. Yet the very |
fact that he ran against the regular DEM |
ocratic nominee at the last election, and
as Greenbaek candidate secured such
: negro votes as were not intimidated or
prevented by fraud or violence, was
enough to bring oblOquy upon him. He
was suspected of organizing the blacks in
opposition to the Democrats, and that
suspicion alone secured his being hanged
in efigy, burned in efiigy, and threatened
with assassination. He swore that no
c white man in the South could vote against
the Democracy without being Ostracised,
and that he himself dreaded the assassin's
; knife more than ostracism. His life had
! been threatened if he dared to testify be-
e fore the Teller Committee, and it is not
y much wonder that he taunted the Govern
q ment with imbecility while it was in
position to compel him to testify, but
. could not protect him in telling the truth.
4 The testimony of William Vassar, a ma
81 tive of Virginia, but now residing in
4 Mississippi, was of much the same pur-
port. He had been suspected of making
u ssRadical'' speech, and that subjected
&c him to bull-dozing. Everything, he said !,
is called stRadical'' in Mississippi that is
not Democratic, and every man who gives
utterance to "Radicalism'' is regarded as
a pest, and every such person is visited
with business and social punishment. He
testified that the politics of Mississippi
ed were controlled largely by boisterous and
IS. reckless young men, that immigration Of
er Northern people is looked upon as an in
u trusion, and that there are no convictions
as for political murders and outrages. Wha
as was said about Mississippi politics by ma
al tive Southerners might be said with equa
re truth of the Democratic methods in near
ar " every Southern State.
si- Such testimony as this can scarcely fai
er. to place in strong contrast the prevailing
IN freedom of personal opinion and action il
in the North and the sectional intoleranc
of the Southern whites. A Southern maj
Tat may come to Chicago to enter business o
ng practice his profession, or settle down Ol
farm in Illinois he may have been al
no. original Secessionist and active in tn
per war of the Rebellion; he may still be
at fierce Democrat and vote and act wit
that party. With all this he will be abl
my to express his opinions freelyi he ma
rem make political speeches and vote an
Tou ticket he likes without suspicion of in
to reference; he may run for office as
no Democrat, be elected, and enjoy the pos
ing session thereof in peace; he will alway
ind have equal social, business, or profes
sionaI chances according to his profeS
0n- sional ability and conduct. In the Sout
gh- it is the very reverse. Northern birth G
err Republican anteoedents subject man
social ostracism, business discrimination
re- political bulldozing, and even persona
he violence. This is the universal rule.
'm- has become so notorious that Northern
i'm ers who went into Southern States to liv,
the taking their capital and energy with thel
law are emigrating from there as fast as the
can, even at great personal sacrific
re- Northern men no longer contemplate en-
nat igrating to the bulldozing Souther
slar States, no matter how much the attra
attic tions of climate or investment might otl
erwise influence them. A recent artic
in the st. Louis Globe Democrat demOl
ink strated that even the border State of Mi
souri,, which ought to belong to the We
rather than the South in character al
h as sentiment as it does in geographical loc
cas- ton, is repelling immigration from Il
Eastern and Middle States by its utt
liar, Bourbonism, including an opposition
his common schools, a preponderanee of Co
art. federate element, and disposition to 7
n-ty pudiate honest debts. If this is true
cas- Missouri, it is ten-fold more palpable
r de the Cotton States.
ting It's this intense spirit of sectionalisI
'ked dominating the Southern people, hand
n at down from one generation to anotht
and kept alive by hatred of the blac
ith and prejudice against all that is Mort
mon ern, which is the chief hindrance to t
and, restoration of the political peace and N
leet- terial prosperity of the South. Time alo
ain can unfold the remedy, so long as
Southern people refuse to apply it. Mea
while the constant and turbulent MAJ
- festation of this vicious sectionalism i
bar to perfect commercial and polite
ist harmony between the two sections.-O
edgo Tribune.
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