Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1880-08-19
ELEcToRAI VOTE OF SLAVE STATES



New England loses three votes in the EIec-
toral College, and it is reasonably certain
that another would be lost In Rhode Island
if the amendment to the Constitution, for
bidding the Acknowledgement of citizens
on account of race or color, was enforced
as it is interpreted and would be enforced
in the South. The great Central States
lose five electoral votes; the Western states
gain eight; the Pacific states gain one, and
the old slave states gain six This esti-
mate is predicsted on the assumption that
the number of Congressman will be in-
creased to 300; but the result would be
substantially the same, no matter how
large or how small the House may be
made, as population would govern in any
case.
The march of empire in our country is
most interesting and instructive study,
and its lessons are indisputable. However
statesmen may theorize, the tide of popu-
lation, the growth of thrift and the pre-
ponderence of political power, will
gravitate as productive soil, inviting
climate and natural centres of trade direct
them. Texas, within the memory of
many readers of the present time as the
Botany Bay of the continent, now equals
Virginia and Michigan, and is closely
abreast with Massachusetts, Kentucky and
Indiana as mighty commonwealth, and
certain to surpass all of them long before
the close of another decade. The Pacific
States have made no little progress,
and give no promise of rapid growth
in the future. They now have
power in the Electoral College that is
greatly il excess of their population, when
compared with the older states. The
West and the Southwest exhibit the
highest degree of advancement Kansas,
Minnesota Nebraska and Texas give the
belt of our territory where agricultural
emigration looks with the greatest favor
and as that class is the great producer of
wealth and the most stable in its settle
ments it is not difficult to forecast the
overwhelming power Western and South
western States must soon exercise in the
control of the policy of our Government
This marvellous growth is in the very heart
of the Republic, and its benetioent
influence must rsdiate in every direction
and give healthful prosperity to all it
reaches.
The most startling and impressive
lessons of the census is given in the mar
velous growth of the South, and it will do
more to paciicate the sectional strife of
the country than all the eloquence OF
patriotism of statesmanship. 1t will open
the eyes of the North to the fact that,
while demagogues and partisan organs have
been persistently misrepresentipg the
South as utterly idle and lawless, the
people of the South have been quietly
attending TO their own affairs, strug-
Cling against the terrible desolation of war,
fostering capital and emigration as best
they could, regardless of disturbers at
home and abroad. 1t awakens Pennsyl-
vania and New York and Massachusetts
and Maryland to the fact that
Southern industry, commerce and
political power are not the
myths that partisan disclaimers have
studiously represented them to be; and
the commercial. industrial and financial
interests of Philadelphia, New York. Bal
timore and Boston will discard the sense
less falslfiers who make politics trade
and view sectional issues from the proper
standpoint of general tranquility and
prosperity. 1t is true that the apparent
growth of the South presented by the
present census is not correct exhibit of
its progress during the last decade; but it
does present the South as il is to-day.
The census of 1870 was taken in the South
oy lillterate, lulei corrupt partisan depen-
dents, who had no interest in or sympathy
with the legitimate progress of these
States, but it is admitted that Secretary
Schurz and Superintendent Walker have
had the present, census taken with the
most scrupulous care, aud that the most
competent and faithful officers have been
charged with ii in all sections. Its picture
of the South, presented by indisputsble
figures telling of advancement in populs-
ton, wealth and power, will plead more
eloquently for peace and for the harmony
of material interests North and South,
than could all the orators of the land. 1t
will make the business man of the North,
the merchant, the manufacturer, the
banker and all who profit by successful
industry, look to the South as fountain
of wealth rather than as political psnde-
monium and when business commands,
the mousing partisan must obey. Politi-
cal prejudices may leave men in doubt
when political necessity eompels orators
and organs to misrepresent the truth but
when the cold figures of trusted census
report enter the arena with the perversions
of demagogues, the contest is an unequal
one, and interest and patriotism make
| common cause to harmonize common
country.