Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-11-26
zee posIEon OF TEE soUrH.

most hopeless utterances are those OF the
Southern journals which adopt a depressed
and regretful tone, intimating that their
legitimate aspirations have been cruelty
crushed, but showing no symptoms of ap-
prehension that their own conduct has
had anything to do with their defeat.
Some Southern papers say that the solid
South will dissolve if the new administra-
ton holds out any encouragement. This
view also demonstrates an entire failure or
refusal to see what the late election really
signifed, and it is perfectly clear that SO
long as this obtuseness remains it will be
idle to expect any political regeneration at
the South. While the Southern people
look to the North for the action which is
to Justify change on their part, they will
be disappointed. While they continue to
talk as though they had themselves
been employing none but legitimate
methods, they will not abandon
their solidity. 1t is necessary that
there should be general realization
on the part of the South of the sacredness
of the Constitution and the laws before
they can take more hopeful position.
At present the indications are not favora-
BILE. Here, for instance, is the Charleston
Ne,cs and Courier observing that The
South has been kept solid by the con.
eviction that in nc other way could the
g inalienable rights guaranteed by the
CONSTITUTION be effectively maintained. ;"
Now, this seems to us as extravagant and
therefore as hopeless an utterance as if a
high yayna4 were to declare that he robbed
because he could maintain the laws in no
other way..ssiWhat are the inalienable
/. fights guaranteed by the Constitution .
which justify recourse to bulldozing and
ballot.bex stufing? These are the peculiar
Southern political methods. They were
freely and generally employed at the late
election. In South Carolina ballot boxes
were stuffed with Democratic votes, Repub-
lican ballots were taken out of the boxes
and destroyed, Red Shirt Leagues in
some cases took possession of the polling
places and refused to allow Republicans to
vote, and all through the South the DOM
inant spirit was one of defiance to the
Constitution and the laws. These are
notorious facts, yet we have yet
to see the Southern journal which
disapproves or rebukes. them, or which
does not indorse and justify the
crimes and outrages by which the South
was made and kept sold. 1t is time the
Southern press began to realize that it can
not deceive the country by talking non
sense about &c the inalienable rights guar
''anteed by the Constitution" Such
fustian as that will not serve any purpose.
The country has gagged Southern senti-
ment accurately enough, and what it thinks
of it the late elections proved. That judg
ment ought to have shaken some of the
folly out of Southern editors, but if it does
not do SO they may as well understand
that solid North will be maintained just
as long as they persist in their resistance
to the laws. Whether the lesson is IN
pleasant or not they will have to learn that
it is precisely the systematic overthrow
of constitutional rights by them which has
made the North solid, and that this
solidity will continue until the Constitu-
ton has been indicated.
The South has HAD four years of abso.
lutte freedom from all outside interference.
The &c inalienable rights guaranteed by the
Z" Constitution were never more sedu-
lousy guarded, SO far as the Southern
whites were concerned, than during the
administration of President Hayes. They
had no pretense of oppression TO advance.
They have done as they pleased. . And
they have pleased to deny to their colored
fellow-citizens ''the inalienable rights
guaranteed by the Constitution" and
have banded together to elect President
by force and fraud. 1t is absolutely neces-
sary that the truth of the situation should
be plainly presented. 1t is not from the
North that any concessions must come.
The North has nothing to concede. It in
sists that the South shall obey the laws,
and that it shall cease to tamper with the
franchise. That it has a perfect right
to demand, and until this demand is com.
piled with the Southern talk about concilia-
ton and dissolution of solidity, and all the
rest of it, will be wasted. The North does
not want sentimental fummery from the
South. All it wants is simple justice.
There remain no grounds for Southern dis
satisfaction, save those which the Southern
They are in the wrong. Their solidi6-
cation was a bold act of lawless.
ness. They have broken down the
fence of the Constitution, and have tried
to Mexicanize the country. Happily the
plot has failed, but before there can be any
return of confidence in the conspirators
they must renounce their treason, and
avow their determination to come back to
constitutional methods, In no other way
can tnere De an emu OF tne SOllu SOugn, DC.
cause in no other way will there be an end
to the solid North. The South may as
well realize that its past course is fatal
one, and that it can never govern the
country by trampling upon the franchise.
If it cannot bring itself to admit this it
must cling to the solid business, but with
out the faintest hope of ever gaining any
thing but defeat through it. The country
can neither be cajoled nor bullied. It
stands out for equal rights to all men, and
that equality of rights will have to be con-
ceded by the South if it takes hundred
years to enforce it. If the Southern press
could perceive this it would be in a fair
way to better things, but thus far it has
been blind to its own interests, and to the
most obvious facts of the situation.
SHERMAN AND POSTER.
II appears to be settled that Secretary
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