Daily Kennebec journal., 1879-04-10
Daily Aennebet sournal.
Augusta, Thursday MOrng, April 10, 1879
The Western Elections.

Since 1873 the prospect in the West has
never been so promising for the republi-
cans as at present.
Itwas in the West that the hard times first
began to affect politics. In the elections of
1874 the effect was seen in large demo-
cratic gains in that section. There the
currency question and doctrines looking to
the repudiation of the financial obligations
of the government were agitated early
and vehemently. The East was not so
soon affected by the theories of unlimited
soft money advocates. The times were
felt more severely in the West than in the
East. sound money doctrines were more
generally taught in the latter section. and
therefore the soil in the East was not SO
favorable for the spread of soft money
ideas and anti-republican tendencies as
that of the West.
But as in the West the hard times were
first felt. so there came the earliest inn
provement of business, and with that came
also the frightening of republican pros
poets. The growing menace of Solid
South has aided to strengthen the repub-
lican party. The revolutionary attitude
assumed by the democratic party in Con-
gress. reviving the events and spirit of
1861, has done more than anything else to
bring back disaffected and wandering re-
publcans and to unite the party and in
spire it with motives for earnest work.
The extra session was entirely unnccessa-
ry. The appropriation bills might have
been passed at the recent session. The
business interests of the country, just be-
ginning to feel the impulse of better times,
demanded rest from the agitation of politi-
cal questions in Congress, but the democ
racy paid no attention to the wants of the
country, made an extra session imperative.
and now are threatening the President and
the people with a stoppage of the wheels
of government unless the laws made to Sc
cure fair and free elections are repealed.
Such wanton, reckless disregard of the
public veal is a most potent instrument
for the restoration of republican power,
and the late elections 60 to show it.
As in the West so in the East the for
tunes of the republican party are improv
ing. The Spring elections have given
evidence to that effect In Maine the re-
cent republican victory in the city of CAL
ais gives the republicans control of the
government of every city in the State but
one. The towns also show a similar result
The redemption of the State in September
is not only probable, but is made certain,
if the result of the Spring elections may
be depended upon as an index. If the
democrats persist in their attempt to starve
the government to death the republican
candidate for Government will have ma
jority eqlaling the republican maiorities
in the years Immediately preceding and
during the rebellion
The Black Hegira from the South.
From Correspondence of Neg York Times I
ST. Louis, April 4.
CAUSES OF THE EXODUS.
The exodus itself is terrible condemna-
tion of the bull-dozng policy now pursued by
the white people of Mississippi and Louisiana.
According TO the refugees, who have made
affidavits to the facts, they are robbed of their
political rights they are not permitted to
hold political meetings of any kind, and their
lives are in danger if they attempt to vote the
republican ticket--all this in the two bulwark
States of the democracy. A well-organized
system of terrorism prevails there. The whites
cannot and will not tolerate smart negro :
they look upon one as fire-brand, who is
constant menace to democratic supremacy
There is no doubt that the Southern whites
are bound to keep the coored people in a
condition of poverty and ignorance quite AS
degrading as slavery was. They are aware
of the fact that the crops on which the South
is dependent can be raised only by negro la
Dor, and they dread lest those colored men
whose minds are cultivated should unlink the
chains of tyranny and demand for their race
a just return for their labor. Ever since the
war closed and the agricultural interests of
the cotton States began to resume their former
Importance. the negroes have done the work.
while the whites drank whskcy. gambled and
improved their skill as marksmen by shoot
ing, of-hand, at a servant who did not please
them. The laborers have served their old
masters faithfully under this system for | 1
years, and now they find themselves no better
off than when they began, and what is worse
they see no hope, under the present mode OF
government, for the future. White men from
the North have tried to introduce improved
methods of agriculture, but they have been
invariably driven back. "Pinching poverty
is great educator" and some of its lessons
have been learned by the colored people
amid desolatiOn, scenes of sorrow. of rapine
and Of murder. They have concluded that
so long as the reign of the bull-dozers con
tinues in the South they cannot hope for any
amelioration of their condition in the future
What shall they do When man is con.
WINGED of the uselessness of attempting tt
improve his condition at home he usual,
thinks of changing his abode SO with the
negroes. In the hour of their adverstv the,
cast their eyes toward the West. and 10
among them suddenly appeared agitators, VIII,
told them fairy stories Of the wealth in Kan
sas that awaited their coming The frs
blacks to think of emigrating lived nea
Vicksburg, Miss They sent six men to Kan
sas. as did the 'Sracites to the promised land
These six M. .eturned with plethoric p0ck
cts, and an opinion of Kansas that had it
foundation on the greenbacks which had beer
kindly presented to them. Under the inspir
alton of rose-colored accounts of the bless
ings offered by Kansas the exodus began.
One familiar with the bad treatment AZ.