National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1879-09-20

Secession" said lie, "is TO be justified
on the basis that the Sites are sovereign"
All Democratic conventions are taking
special pains to-day to declare that the
States are sovereign, thus reviving the old
basis of secession. If the Democrats can
win on this doctrine next year DAVIS can
come back and be entirely at home.
THE FUTURE OF a "sOLID SOUTH"
They cannot escape the inevitable, mas
much as they have wooed and won IT, We
refer to the people of the South who re-
belled against the Government. There was
door of escape opened for them in the
maguanimity of the Government when as
a conqueror 1t accepted the surrender of the
insurgents upon terms more generous than
were ever before known TO history. Then
was the opportunity of the Southern peo-
pie for they were trusted by the Govern
ment TO work out their own destiny and
shape their own future under the laws and
policies of reconstruction that followed in
| the path of peace. Never were people more
implicitly trusted within the limits of con-
stitutional and statutory law than were the
| people of the South after their affected sur
render TO the authority and power Of the
! Government This opportunity was de-
spised by them. Instead of studying to
put and keep themselves in line of future
peace and harmony with that Government
which had conquered their rebelious def
ance of its authority, they have devoted
themselves to the work of nursing their
preiudices hates and fancied wrongs, and
of hunting among that labyrinth of untor-
tunate, and we might say wicked, inilu-
cnccs, to find some cause or excuse for con-
| tinued alienation toward the Government
that had tacitly forgiven them the dark
and bloody crimes of treason and rebellion.
This has been the studied policy of those
| who were in rebellion, since they affected
| to surrender.
Years have gone by, and yet the Govern
ment trusted the rebels to return to their
allegiance to the laws and Government of
the United States but they would not.
| They continued to revile the Constitution
| as amended under the results and crcum-
stances of the war; They despised and
defed the laws of reconstruction. They
denied to the colored man and to portion
of the whites who differed with them in
political opinion the full and equal rights
of citizenship. They instituted a system of
partisan outlawry that made open and
bloody war upon life, liberty, equal rights,
and the peaceful pursuit of happiness.
This condition of things has been persist
entity continued until it has made firm
lodgment on the page of history, and has
convinced the loyal citizens of the United
States everywhere, North, South East and
West, that the late insurgents do not regard
the issues of the war as settled by the war
but as open questions to be met and battled
, in each succeeding political campaign.
This unmistakable aspect of our political
affairs has revived the loyal spirit of the
country that had dropped for years, ant
Y has brought it into activity. Now the line
= exist where the late insurgents have draw
/ them, and precisely where they were whcr
secession occurred and war ensued. Th
D same issues are to be fought over at TIL
, ballot box that then divided the South from
5 the North on many an ensanguined battle
V field. This fact is well understood, and ha
o nodded solid North" against "solit
g South" The South has presented this issue
= and the North has accepted it. Now til,
contest is proceeding, and the battlefield
of California and Maine have been heard
from-both declaring emphatically agains
c the attitude assumed by the solid South.
Q Ohio and Iowa will speak next, and no un
L certain sound will be heard in their verdict
# Then will follow the general battle Of al
It the Northern and Western States, AM
10 there will be no break in the linen
confusion in the echoes that will com
Il up from those battle-felds. They will
> condemn with emphatic voice the is
: sues that the South have raised an
g pressed upon our political strifes fourtee
II years after the Southern pretended surren
y der and the advent Of n peace from tn
II alarms of open war This struggle is bu
the precursor of that eminently importan
. one of next year, when the executive an
will be secured in the hands of the Consti
7 tuition and law party of the Nation. The
\ the solid South" though it may renal
- solid within ITSELF will be as powerless i
:, the Government rs it was during the wal
: The people have learned that the Soutl
70 cannot be trusted in its fealty, and the
=, will wall it about by public sentiment, S
! thick and solid that it cannot be breacheC
= and 80 high that it cannot be scaled, and thu
3 it will be held in restraint until generatio
!, shall emerge from that section more deser,
ing of public confidence and respect. Thei
o is no escape from such relation in th
Government under the circumstances, an
At unless we greatly mistake the temper
G. the loyal people, they will not during IL
is present generation relax their unity an
ty sentiment on this question. The South ca
NJ be held in conformity to the Constitute
c. and laws of the Nation in no other way, au
he it will be so held until every citizen the
ry is assured IN all his Constitutional rights
rs, he is in every State in the North and Wes
v This is the future of solid South"
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~ Tho Southern RepiUe published at po