Morning journal and courier., 1880-08-02

At the great Democratic ratification meet ing in New York city last week Congressman J. Randolph Tucker of Virginia gave pleas ing account of the present state of public opinion in the South, and nobody would dis cover in reading the reports of his remarks that right in his own State, the party of which he is shining light is hostile to that right preservative of all rights, the right to free ballot. Yet such it appears, is the case, whether Mir. Tucker knows it or not.
 A letter has been published in the New York Times, which throws strong light upon the politics of Mr. Fuckers State The writer of the letter Confederate soldier and, like MT. Tucker, is Virginian, but the two men have seen the same things very differently, or else Mir. Tucker has not had his eyes open. The letter-writer is not so happy over the state of affairs which ex- ists in Virginia and other Southern States as MT. Tucker appears to be. He shows that natives of the South, men who served in the rebel army, whose sympathies are wholly with their own people, and whose interests are identical with theirs are restive under the tyranny of the Democratic leaders, whose aim it is to suppress through the agen- cy of misguided public opinion all indepen- dence of thought, speech and action in polit- ical matters. He recently attended Demo- cratic ratification meeting, where one of the speakers called upon those who wore the black plume, and rode with "Jeb Stuart" and those who walked the valley'' with 'sStonewal Jackson" and the men who served with ''Mars Robert Lee," to come out, hurrah for Hancock, make the welkin ring, and with the old 'rebel yell," the speaker continued ''Iet us make it SO hot along the whole line that it will be heinous crime, an outrage, for a white man in this county to own allegiance to Garfield and Arthur" And he is convinced from what he has seen and heard in other cam paigns and from the manner in which this campaign has been opened by the Democrats, that it will be "a mall-sized Sodom and Gomorrah" for white man in Virginia who boldly and manfully stands up for Garfield and Arthur.
 There are, says the ter-writer white men in Virginia by the score, who, though ex-con- federates, ex-slave owners and lifelong Dem- ocrats, are desirous and willing to unite them selves with the Republican party Doubtless MT. Tucker, in Democratic meeting North, would, if asked why these men do not unite with the Republican party if they want to, reply that he knew of nothing to prevent such action But the ex-Confederate letter. writer does. Says he: sIt is more tolerable for man to come out unharmed from under a fire of shot and shell, such as we got around Petersburg during the last days of the war, than 1t is for him to survive the 'afiictions' that beset him in certain portions of this State when he allies himself with the 'nigger radical party (caustic southern title fer the Republican party.) Ostracism, islander, abuse, loss of business, degradation in socie ty, scorn n the church, back-biting at the banks, schemes to injure and destroy, not only his name and property, but that of his wife and children. None are spared The under standing seems to be that the house of God, the court house, the school-room, the jury box, the parlor and the press must all unite and join hands to crush out any white man of character and influence that unites himself with the Republican party. This state of things exists here to-day, and 1t will continue till the solid South backbone is broken; and broken, the Republican principles would pre- vail, because the votes are here, and the Dem- ocratic party is aware of this; hence their fight for supremacy, through stuffed ballot boxes, the 'tissue-issue,' ostracism, murder, or what not''
 MT. Tucker will doubtless keep on assert ing that the South has learned many valuable lessons from the war, and that there must be
 
 delude the people into believing that all is right in the South as long as he shows such disregard of what Is going on in his own State and is not known as an upholder of free speech and free political action there.