Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-10-04
TIE DOMINANCE OF SOUTHERN DE-
EaCRACY.

Those who affect to make light of the
danger to be apprehended from Demo
cratic success in the Presidential election,
fail to realize the extent of Southern do
minion over the Democratic party. The
South has always governed the Democracy,
the Northern wing of the party having
been overruled at all critical junctures by
its more determined and radical colleagues.
The latest illustration of this was afforded
in the extra session, when the conservative
Northern Democrats were thrust to the
rear, and the Confederate Brigadiers in
sisted on making the main issue of the
| session the attempt to remove all barriers
to bulldczing and fraud at the South, by
repeating the federal election laws. The
Northern Democratic leaders had sagacity
enough to perceive that this was bad pol
| icy, but the Southern Congressman refused
to see anything more than that they had
power. and could use it. 1t will be re.
membered that Southern statesmen before
the war had more than little reason for
believing that persistence and audacity
were sufficient to conquer the North. Up
to that time the relations between the two
sections had been history of compromises,
everyone of which tended to strengthen the
Southern conviction that the North would
never fight The war dispelled that illu-
sion, but the events which succeeded it
did much to revive Southern confidence.
The credulity with which the North &C.
copied Southern accounts of the wrongs
done during the Reconstruction period
naturally tended to produce a new belief
in the wisdom of the old policy of au.
dacity. The manner in which the North
abandoned the enfranchised negroes to
their bitterest enemies, and withdrew its
Endorsement and confidence from its own
accredited agents on the strength of rabid
Southern representations, confirmed this
impression. And since then the Southern
leaders have been more and more disposed
to resort to their old lines of action, and
to reject the more moderate and. cautious
recommendations of their Northern allies.
The idea that there is no cause for fear
| from Southern claims is based on the state
ments of Northern Democratic authorities
1t may readily be granted that if these
had their way the question of Southern
claims would possess little Importance, for
they realize the madness of the proposition.
But Northern Republicans cannot too dis
tinctly recognize the fact that the South
ern people do not think or feel as they do,
that they possess entirely different govern
mental theories, and that to all practical
intents they are a separate people. Slavery
and the difference of local institutions have
produced much if not all of this dis
tinction, but the main fact is that it ex-
lists, and that it influences the Southern
politics at every turn. The South is full
generation behind the North in progress
and civilization, and this means a great
deal. To Northern men the idea of raid
on the Treasury for the payment of
Southern claims appears irrational prin-
cipally because the Northerner perceives
that if an increase of national taxation was
caused in any such way, the South would
have to share the burden. But it is not
sufficiently realized that the Southern
mind is crude in matters of national
finance. The fat money idea has found
great favor in the South, and it has an in
innate connection with the question of
| Southern claims