The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1880-12-03
WILL THE SOUTH REMAIN soL!Dg

In spite Of numerous predictions,
Democratic as well as Republican, that
the result of the late election would |
dissolve the political solidity of the |
South, there are as yet no reliable in
dications in that direction. Every
Southern State came squarely up to the
support of the national Democratic
ticket; every Southern State has ac-
cepted defeat without any manifesto
tion of ill-temper; and no Southern
State, SO tar as heard from, either re-
grets it's action or threatens to do diff
ferently next time. Republicans may
call this obstinacy, but it is simply
as we have repeatedly declarcd-the
natural and iuo yi;;.,ble result Of The
law of self-preservation. The South is
not Democratic because it is bIindly
in love with the Democratic party, but
because through the policy of that par
| ty-adopted by Mr.. Hayes-it has been
able to do something toward the res
| toration of its broken fortunes. 1fa
similar policy had prevailed from 1865
to 1877, the probabilities are that at
least majority of the Southern States
would be Republican to-day-at any
rate to the extent of voting with that
party in national elections. For it
| must be borne in mind that politics,
in the partisan sense of the word, We're
pretty we'll knocked out of the South
ern people by the war. Party lines
were obliterated during that disastrous
struggle, and peace found the defeated
section completely Indifferent to party
affiliations-anXious only to be let
alone in the work of commercial and
Industrial reconstruction. IF Lincoln
had lived, and had been allowed to
carry out his plans, we believe the
South would have been practically
Republicanized. But negro carpet-bag
rule and Federal interference produced
their legitimate fruit, and when oppor-
tunity offered the South became soiidly
Democratic for the same reason that a
man prefers his friends to his enemies
Let us suppose the South were tired
of the Democratic party, to what Other
can it go? The Republican party-i
! the South could forget the humiliation
oppression, aud robbery of twelve
miserable years-holds out no induce
) ments. During the campaign JUS
closed every Republican organ anC
I. orator has indorsed, directly or indi
rectly, the Southern policy which pre-
vailed from 1865 to 1877, repudiatec
that of 1867 so, and insisted that th'
i present condition of the South, pros
3 porous and peaceful though it be, is
! "National Peril'' and must be treatet
accordingly. Stalwartism is dominan
: in the Republican organization, an
everybody knows that its main fea
= lures are hostility to the policy {
o Hayes, approval of Grant, and hatre'
e of the solid South on general priuci
: pies. For the South, then, TO tur
d from Democracy to Republicanisn
would simply be suicidal idiocy.
has tried both, and found the one
blessing and the other curse; for
was Republicanism that tramped it i
.. the mire, Democracy that placed il
Y. feet upon firm ground.
Y. What the political future MAJ IN
forth none can guess; but we
= entirely cafe to say that the Sou wi
remain solidly Democratic just g. lor
e. as the Southern policy of Republican
s Te is what it is. The Democratic fryini
I'll pan is better than the Republican fir
and to step out of the one into I'll
other is something the South is e
Lly tremely unlikely 10 do. La
he Republican.
n