The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16
THE SOLID SOUTH.
Letter from William Lioyd GarrIso


[From the New York Tribune.1
The Tribune is permitted to publish
the following letter, recently written by
William Lloyd Garrison upon the Presi-
dents Southern policy, and the stand
which, in the writer's opinion, the Re-
publican party should take in order to
succeed in 1880. The letter is as
follows:
BOSTON, Dec ~, 1878
DEAR SIR {: y agree with you that
a marked change for the better is taking place
in public sentiment at the North in relation to
the intellectually disastrous policy of President
Hayes, and the practical Acknowledgement of
the entire colored population at the South, by
shameless fraud, brutal intimidation and re-
morseless slaughter. Still, / am not sangune
as to Republican triumph at the next Presi-
dental struggle, seeing that, with well-assured
Solid South" for the Democratic nominee,
less than fifty votes will be needed from all the
North to carry him into the White House.
The only feasible way to prevent such
catastrophe-and this is demanded by every
consideration OF truth, justice, and rights
I ror the Republican party, its organs and lead
ers, to meet this issue in an uncompromising
| and infeSible spirit There is nothing which
strlkes such terror or causes such foaning at
the mouth In the ranks of the armed conspira-
tors at the South, or ELECTS such responsive
howlings from the servile minions at the North.
as waving the bloody shirt "a term of their
own devising in order to make jest of the most
sangulnary outrages, but which comprehen-
s1vely symbollzes a long extended reign of
| terror" during which thousands of innocent
victims have been murdered with impunity for
daring to assert their political rights as free
American citizens. Yes, let the bloody shirt
continue to be waved until an end be put to the
shedding of blood by the organized assassins
who are boldly and successfully setting the
Federal Government at defiance, and trampling
the constitution and laws of their country I'M
der their feet. Let it be shown by "confrma-
ton strong as proofs from Holy Writ" that the
South (using that designation as of old) is still
full of the habitations of cruelty; that her
hands are stained and hcr garments sat
urated with blood; that her feet run to
evil, and there is no judgment in her goings;
that she is as disloyal in spirit as she was when
she fired her first shot at Fort Sumter; that she
only lacks the power to re- enslave the millions
who have been emancipated on her SOIL in or
der to save the Union and battle her reasonable
designs; that in nothing does she so much
glory as in her attempt to destroy the republic
and in the successes of her Confederate leaders
on the battlefield; that she has repented of
nothing, and is ashamed of nothing that she has
done but exactly the reverse: that she despises
the North (barbarism sneering at civilization) as
she always has done, and counts as mudsills"
the Northern working classes, while endeavor-
ing to use them for her own evil ends; that she
is gloating over the prospect of soon having the
reins of Government over the whole country in
her own hands; that as for her leading men in
church and state, in Congress and out of it,
the best of them are sharper than thorn
hedge" and the most deeply responsible for the
numberless atrocities that have been perpetrated
upon the Southern loyal population, white and
black, and that nothing but perfect unity of
spirit and action at the North, to the extent, at
least of outvoting the solid South" at the ap-
preaching Presidential election, can avert the
most disastrous consequences to the country.
"The bloody shirt" In hoe signo pinceS! Yours
very truly, WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.