American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1880-10-09
THE SOLID SOUTH BUGABOO.
senator Bayard Efectually DemOIishes n
Pet Hobby of Radical Observation-Disclosures
Misrepre sentatiOn of Southern Men and
Me


Pet Hobby of Radical characterization
Misrepresentation of Southern Men ant
Me assures.
Senator Bayard began his speech by calling
| attention to the fact that II new generation
North and south. now exercises the franchis,
since the close of the war, fifteen years ago
The boy of fifteen then Is now n mature mar
of thirty. The constitutional amendment,
adopted in the interval have been declared
by the Democratic candidate as "inviolable,'
and if called to the Presidency he should
deem it his duty to resist with all his power
any attempt to impair or evade them.
The Thirteenth Amendment, said the
speaker, forever abolished slavery and invol
untary servitude, except as a punishment fol
crime. The Fourteenth Amendment created
equality of citizenship before the law ;provid
ed for representation in Congress; excluded
persons from holding office. either state Oh
Federal, who had engaged in the rebellion
unless relieved by two-thirds vote of both
branches of Congress; secured the validity Of
the public debt of the United States, includ
ing pensions and bounties, from ever being
questioned, and expressly prohibited the
United states or any state from assuming OF
paying any debt or obligation incurred in aid
of instruction or rebellion against the United
States, or any claim for the loss or cmancipa,
ton, and all such debts, obligations, and
claims should be held illegal and void. The
Fifteenth prevented the denial or abrldg-
ment by the United States or any State of the
right to vote.
Let me pause here for one moment to com
ment upon a charge fluently made and daily
repeated by the Republican press and their
orators-that in the event of Democratic sue.
cess the war debts of the South, the loss of
ing out of the war, pensions for their wound
ed, etc, would be paid out of the United
votes of Democratic majority in both
Houses, and the approval OF Democratic
President.
There is a proyerbial difficulty about prov
ing negatives, and to attempt to meet by
proof every apparition and chimera that par
tisan ingenuity can create and partisan NAL
ice and falsehood can suggest, would be idle
and useless, especially before sensible audi
ences. The best reply to all these wild, ma,
payments would be impossible.
The good sense or the honesty of that man
in the plain mandate of the Fourteenth
Amendment the absolute seal of llegality
until the Constitution is amended by the con-
current vote of two-thirds of all the States,
such claims as those styled southern Claims
are mere ghosts to alarm the silly and un
thinking, or to furnish the INSCRIPTIONS with
dishonest arguments.
And here let me say that, having been for a
number of years in Washington, L have
learned, incidentally, who were the real bene-
ficiaries of the claims paid by Congress in the
claims and in almost every instance the
pn,th tue nnG loyai sSpneas
who had bought up these claims for a song
from their impecunious southern owners, and
then, employing distinguished counsel at the
North, the whole claim became suddenly
clothed in the uniform of loyalty and patriotic
Gus origin could be perceived. At the great
gathering of Republican ladies and gentle
men Mt the Academy last week, there were
lawyers, bankers and statesmen who had
more money in their pockets from Southern
claims " allowed by Republican commissioners
and Republican courts, than the poor south
ever received since the war. or ever will re-
ceivc from now until the day of Judgment.
The cheeks of many OF those wealthy and
distinguished citizens must have tingled with
shame when they heard the Democratic
party assailed for paying southern claims"
and they knew how large a portion had gone
into their own pockets.
No, gentlemen; it is trifiing with your in
telligence in the face of the history of the
times and the plain prohibitions of the Con-
stitution to tell you the Treasury is in danger
from southern claims, growing out of the
orators to seek to fix the stigma of repudia-
ton on the southern states and people, and
in the same bre tn they would have you be
ieye that they propose to pay every claim,
private and public, in full
WHAT THE SOLID SOUTH MEANS.
The speaker referred at length to the recent
speech of senator ConkIing. Believing that
it is always easier to be violent than lust. he
said, and that if the flames of passion can
only be kindled, argument and reason are
quickly consumed, it seems to have been de-
liberately decided by the Republican mana
gers that n revival of the passions of the war
form to day their best chance for inducing
the American people to continue public power
in their hands,
They raise the cry of the solid South, and
declare it must be antagonized by a solid
North. But If the South be solid for those
things the North needs and DESIRES then all
reason for antagonism is gone, and the solidity
of both sections for the same end and pur-
pose is demanded. What does the SOUTH as
a section, seek to do which the North should
fear? Does the execution of any scheme of
government or policy now proposed by the
southern people, or the political party which
controls them, forbode disaster to the citi-
zens of the North. or to the Government of
the United States? If 1t does, then am OPP
posed to 1t and them, and will vote and act in
opposition. If l believed the success of the
or OF party to
Der of the Union. then L should cease to be n
Democrat. But convinced as 1 am that the
and safety, and that Justice and good will
among our people are the true corner stones
the foundations broad and wide and deep in
the hearts of our countrymen, and to assist
no party organization which is tainted with
sectionalsm.
Our system of Government is based on vol
untary support by the citizen. From within
affection which fiows down to join the mighty
river of popular sentiment and patriotic de-
ty and build up it's true strength. The inex-
tinguishable hatred of a sectional party makes
all this impossible.
The Southern States are solid for local self
government in each State, uninterfered with
by extraneous power. This is what each
tuition, and actually enjoys.
They are solid in asking that the tasks of
Government in all its higher positions shall
not be committed to the hands of ignorance
and weakness, but to individuals rendered
competent by education, and fitted by natural
seeks to do this, and votes down incompetence
and ignorance whenever it can.
The South is solid in seeking advancement
in all that tends to its material prosperity
and through its representatives in Congress
strives to obtain adequate appropriations for
light houses its coasts. Post offices and
Custom and Court houses for the transaction
of its commerce and business All these APP
preparations are under Federal control and
for Federal purposes. And Northern repre-
sentatives are just as active and eager for
similar appropriations for their localities
rpSnOndinR
treatment and kindly sympathy with mutual
ont'i nnu s;,iRpott, anu , fespoing TO
Indignation and resentment.
The South is solid for retrenchment, reform,
economy, and good Government, State and
Federal. and should not the North be also solid
in these things?
ton to the Presidency of one of the most dis
tinguished captains in command of the armed
and independent government of the Southern
States: Is this cause of apprehension to the
North?
But the South is also solid against n politi.
cal party that has never ceased to hold it's
people up as rufiians and murderers and re-
pudiatOrS, that has sympathiZed only with
those who misruled and beggared it, and re-
fused to tolerate that manly independence
which is the birthright of American freemen,
and without which they would be unworthy
of respect. The cry of n solid South is but an
attempt to renew unpatriotic animosities
and an unworthy resort OF desperate party
The South is not solid for any thing the
ENoIln Httu appTcueHu, anu IT'S SOllttlty has no
feature and no result unfriendly to the pros
perity OF the entire Union.
1t is amazing that in n community so wide
awake and intelligent as this, whose citizens
speed on business and pleasure all over the
land, whose correspondence and business
transactions are cOeNtensive with every cor
ner of the Union, it amazes me, 1 say to see
men and parties venture to play upon popu-
lar credulity and supposed ignorance in rcla-
ton to the condition of business and society
in the Southern States.
When read the lurid pictures drawn by
occasional correspondents of the Republican