Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-08-31
TAME YoUR CHOICE. GENTLEMEN

Wade Hampton has sought to throw dis
credit upon the report of his Stauntor
speech published in the Valley Trginian.
Here is what he said according to the local
Democratic organ, the indicator I" Pause
" before you cast your vote. Think how
90 Lee would have voted. Think what
Z" Jackson would have done before he
a. would have cast vote calculated to
divide his beloved Virginia. ask you
" to remember those who have died on
your soil, and 10 remember that tie lrinci.
spies they died for are again on trial TO-
" day" That is the Democratic version
Of his utterances. Is it any more satisfactory
than that which he denounced as the
-" forgery of an obscure newspaper writer p
Nothing can be palmer, from these two
hostile reports, than that he must have
said in substance what has been attributed
to him. The Democrats can take their
choice Of the two speeches, but we do not
think they will find one easier to explain
than the other. Wade Hampton told his
audience that the principles for which Lee
and Jackson died are again on trial to-day.
What did he mean by this? What did his
audience understand him to mean? They
did not see anything startling in
what he said. 1t was merely plain state
ment Of what they knew to be the fact so
far thny caprarnal Tka
question to be considered is not the phra-
seology in which Wade Hampton clothed
his ideas on this occasion, but it is the
character OF Southern sentiment on the
subject. 1t is of course the present object
OF the Northern Democracy to deny the
existence OF any sectional feeling at the
South, but the evidences OF the survival
of that sentiment are far too abundant fer
this pretense to be accepted. The fact is
that the most sedulous efforts are made to
keep alive the fires of sectionalism through.
out the South. To that end the public
school system has been prostituted. To
that end textbooks are employed which
incuicate the most extrayagant misrepre-
sensations concerning the war of the REBEL.
ion. A steady purpose is shown to edu.
cate the rising Southern generation to the
belief that their section is the Ireland of the
Union; that the North is a tyrannical,
overoearlng oppressor that the Northern
part in the war was unjust and outra-
geous; that the South is patriotic, but
prosecuted; and that every South.
ern man and woman owes hatred and
loathing to every Northern man and
woman. Oh course such teachings are
not invariably successful, but they have
thor effect, and they tend to make all
efforts on the part of the North to restore
good feeling, hopeless. The general bent
and aim of the Southern training is to pro-
duce an impression that the people of that
region owe it to themselves to unite against
the North. The present solidity of the
South is no doubt largely attributable to
the careful training of thu young men who
have come into active life since the close of
the rebellion. Wade Hampton, in his
Staunton speech, appealed to this sectional
feeling because he knew that it was always
sale to do so, and there lies the true sig
nincance OF his language. Ii he had only
represented himself, if he had said some
thing which elected no response, if he had
merely committed personal imprudence,
1t would pave mattered nothing. But he
touched the keynote of Southern senti.
ment, and it is because he did So and be.
cause the fact cannot be concealed, that
his Northern allies are making such des
perase efforts to cover up the damaging
revelation, and TO mislead the Northern
public as to its meaning.