Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1879-01-23
The Next President.
wa He be TW,}cn or Grant, montgomery
Bluir's Estimate of tie Situation.

IrW He be Til1cn or Grant -Monyomcsy
Blairs Estimate Of tie Situation.
10 Samuel NJ. Shaw, Esq, Editor
F,ccmnn's Journal Coopcrstown, New
York: My Dear Sir-l have been i'll ever
since your letter of the 1lth uitino came
to hand. aud only read it day bcfo,c ycstcr--
DAY. | lam not well yet but the subject SO
presses upon me that must attcmpta brief
reply. The most obvious fact in the polit-
contests have hccn struggles for sectional
supremacy, in which the Democratic org,n
iz,ion has been regarded nDd treated by
the people of tho North as the instrument
of Southern dominion over them 1t was
jealousy Of po%cr-as natura! to commlni--
ties as to Northumberland not Sy,npnthy
Tor the slave, which soiiiiici the North to
inStalI and maintain the Republican party
in power. The Aboliionists were not
ecrporal's guard till, by the use Of the
slave question, the South had been cousol-
idatcd, and, by its conlrol Of the Democrat
ic organization, made the governing power
If ttc Union. Then it was that the
Staunchest De.nocruts IL iii" North broke
away from the national organization, aud
the strongest Democratic districts and coun
ties Of New Yurk and Pennsylvania, and
other great Northcrn Democratic Stotcs,
became the stronges. Republican districts
an'i CT uniies, and made the North soidIy
Republican,.
This was the assertion for the people Of
tho North, by the then recognized leaders
"f the Denuclalic party there, OF the great
Democratic principle Of the right Of self
government, md this it was which vitalzed
tho Republican party. BY the Wil,not
proviso they sought to prevent our accession
of territory from aggrandizing the political
power Of the South; and when tha. power
was strengthened by the addition of the
vast territory Of Texas, they were the men
who pressed on the war for the aaquson
of California and other free territory to up
hold the power of the North; and they sep
! aratcd themselves ,rom the Democratic
party in l84S, carryin. with them in New
York great majority OF it; and defeated it
| in tho election Of that year, to pre:ent the
! South from debating the settlement of the
territorial question in the interest Of its
party.
Believing that the question had been
secured by the act OF 1850, admitting Cali
oruia as free State in tho Union, the
great minority of these then returned to the
party aud restored it to power in 1852.
The renewal of the Struggle by the repeal
OF the Missouri compromise, the Dred Scott
decision, and other measures, carried the
greater p1rt of them again into opposition.
Those who rcmoined with tho party when
tho war came On were Democrats, and rem
dercd inesimable service to the Union by
preventing the alliance of the party with
tho rebellion. Of these, TildeI was the
chief, and, having stood by the North in
the war, as well as ia tho antecedcnt strug-
gle under Van Burcn and Wright and
Preston King against Southern supremacy,
his nomination in 1876 enabled us so far to
Withstand the pressure of the sectional issue
as to carry four of the Northern Stotes
The politicians of the Southern school hav
ing allowed his election to be set aside and
unkiog no sccrot since Of their preference
for Hayes, wo have lost three of thoso
States, and will lose the other in 1880 il
Southern asccndoncy (us tho abandonment
of Tlden will unmistakably indicate to be
the purposc) is again to be the watohword
OF the party.
No one, indeed, can conceal from himself
the fact that our success depends altogether
upon the question whether the politicians
who obtained position in the party whilo it
was dominated in the interest of tho South,
shall continue to control its nominations
and policy. Their persistence in attempt
ing to do so willonly show that they prefer
personal power to party success. But |
take pleasure in saying that this is not true
of this class of politicians generally They
are, for the most part, patriotic men, and it
was Governor Seymour, thoir recognized
loader, who led the way to tho nomination
of Tilden. He understood 80 we'll tho ire.
sistiblo powor of the sectional Issue against