American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1879-11-01

| one even though it resulted eventually,
| through Iilden's agency, in the ruin Of
the Democratic party as such. The pol
/ icy of the present Administration, if it
/ should be dignified by stich q term as
policy. has really estranged the South,
and nothing could more effectually have
revived the old issues and hatreds than
it has done. No one knows where it
/ will end. | dread to think of it, but l
can see 10 solution except with fire and
iron. 1t may not come in my day, but
1t is inevitable if matters go on as they
have begun. The purpose of the war
was to settle d grave question. Now
that slavery no longer exists, the negro
is of more public concern than he
ever was, and is likely to make
more trouble than was ever made over
him in servitude. The race is Won
derful one for learning a little and
then stopping. The men in Louisiana
viii work all day in the field, and study
their primers good part of the night.
This little learning that they are getting
is II terrible and dangerous thing.
Somehow they manage to spread news
/ on matters of interest to themselves
with incomprehensible rapidity. You
may start from place at which a piece
of news originates in the morning and
travel all day as fast as you can. BY
night you will find the negroes at your
stopping-place discussing the same
piece of news. The exodus fever spread
in that way. What stampede it
caused! 1t is an awful thing. A gen.
.eral exodus means virtually a depopula-
ton of the South White men can
never work the cotton fields. 1t is a
physical impossibility for them to stand
It. Without that staple, where would
the South beP 1 doubt if Southern
lands could ever be worked probably
for any other product, and even if they
could, the whites would be slow to work
them. Any distress that may follow
the exodus will be due Immediately to
the negroes, although the white people
of the North will really be at fault for
1T. L believed at the time and still be-
lieve that when the North conquered in
the war it should have asserted its
rights wisely and not as it is doing now.
In fact, the present policy is too weak
to command any sort of respect. The
negroes should not have been given
suffrage at once. They should have
been educated to it, even at the cost-of
governing the entire South by terrific
rial legislation. l believed then that
should have been done for that reason.
Rcinvesting the South with State rights
Immediately had the simple effect of
giving to the negro dangerous power,
which he seems likely to turn to his own
advantage, even though the South be |
sacrificed by it."
''What do you Think 1 asked, "of
the attempt of some of the Treasury
officials here to form Southern Repub- |
ican Executive Committee with a view
of making solid Republican South at /
the National ConventionP'' f
- Pshawi it's absurd,'' Mr.. Beckwith |
replied contemptuously. ..The Repub-
licans IN the South are Republicans, as
l said before, merely to the extent that
it suits their individual purposes to be
SO. They wont submit to dictation from
Il parcel of men here. There has been
a time since the war when there were
men of nerve and ability upholding Re-
publicanism in the South. The efforts
of these men gave the Republicans the
majority in two Congresses. They were
jealous and sincere, and worked solely
in the interests of the party, expecting
no reward. But they were rewarded
with abuse and villifcatioh by the or
gans in the North representing the very
persons and party they had helped.
Such men now are out of politics.
Nothing could ever induce them to re-
turn to the Republican party or to do
anything for it. Those upon whom the
think they can rely may be
relied upon to do that which viii pay
them best aud nothing else. The pow
err of this Executive Committee here, l
imagine, may be measured by their
ability to buy constituents in sharp
Washington Cor. N. Y.
World.