St. Landry democrat., 1880-09-18
The Solid South.
IN. Y. SUM-

N. Y. SUM-
The rallying cry of the Republicans in
this campaign is, war to the knife on
"the solid South"
1t is the solid South, then, that must
serve as the Republican slogan in this
contest. Let US inquire. How did the
South become solid for the Democrats
For many years the reconstructed
States were solid for the Republicans.
The great body of the voters of that
party in those States were emancipated
negroes. Their leaders were the carpet
baggers from the North. With vague
ideas OF the nature of the elective fran
chlse, and destitute of all experience in
political affairs, the colored population
were but as children in the hands Of the
white adventures, who invaded the
South at the close of the war only to
rule and plumber. The ignorant relics
OF slavery were misled 10y the cOrmO-
rants who merely wanted their ballots
for the accomplishment of their own
purposes.
TO attain these ends, the carpet-bag-
gers contlived new election machinery
whereby they could stuff the ballot
boxes, and year after year secure the
Legislatures and State offices, by frauds
more sweeping and stupendous than
were ever perpetrated i'll any other por-
ton of the Union. With the power
thus acquired they piled up public
debts, and pocketed the proceeds of
their villainy, to the amount of hun
dreds of millions of dollars. From
these debts the bona .f1e citizens of the
South have derived no benefit, aud
they now hang like IL dark cloud over
the prosperity of that section of the
country.
To keep their colored dupes easy
under the yoke while they debauched
the franchise aud robbed the people.
the Republican leaders in the recon
structed States bcgui|ed the negroes
with promises of early remuneration
for their fidelity, in the form of prOduc-
tive plantati tons and droves of mules
while they dazzled the imaginations of
the more aspiring among them with
visions of the approaching greatness of
their race. But when it came to the
division of the spells, the dusky masses
who had supplied the votes found
themselves turned off with the mere
husks of broken pledges, while their
decelvers were spending part of their
booty in riotOus living in the South,
and investing the remainder at the
North.
These reiterated betrayals finally
began to work their way into the stub
born craniums of the enfranchised class
and produce impressions not easily
eradicated. In Grants second term,
many thousands of negroes abstained
from the polls, while considerable num-
bers supported Democratic candidates.
Shrewd carpet-baggers saw that their
days III the South were numbered, and
they commenced to gather up their
loose plumber and prepare for the exo-
dus. Many had left previous to the
Presidential contest of 1876, and their
loss to the Republicans was seriously
felt in that campaign. The colored
electors, deprived of the white leaders
upon whose guidance they depended
IN all the details OF party management,
went languidly to the polls or did not
go at all and in that struggle, the nat
reduction of the Republican vote in the
carpet-bag States.
But it was left for Hayes to deal the
blows that demolished the Republican
party in the reconstructed States, and
in that way make the South solid for
the Democracy. BY his inaugural adj
dress; by the selection of a rebel Brig
adler to be Postmaster General; by his
tour in the South under the auspices of
Wade Hampton by his speech at At
lanta In which he shook hands across
the bloody chasm with more fervor than
DR.. Greedy would have shown; by des-
igDation of Gordon, Confederate
NJ ajor-General, to lead the attack in the
Senate upon Collector Arthur; by pre-
ferring in several of his Southern ap-
to office those who had
fought against the Union over those
who had suffered to sustain it; and by
other acts of like nature.
the Fraudulent President shattered in
pieces the Republican organization in
all those States below the Potomac and
the Ohio where it had once borne SWAY.
The great majority of the carpet bag
gers who had remained in the South
through the contest Of 1876 began to
leave as soon as Hayes developed his
sO-called policy of Cancellation. A few
held possession of the Federal Offices,
but barely enough to preserve the shell
OF q political organization. The COL
ored voters, oft deluded and defrauded,
as they saw these white leaders laden
with sp0ils running off to their homes
in the North, were forced to the con-
ciusioi t!iat tiougil Tue party OF Lin
coin gave them freedom, the party of
Hayes was a fraud. A few thousands,
gathering mp their little substance,
sought resting places for weary feet in
States whose hospitality their betray-
ers had given such glowing accounts
but the vast majority, discouraged and
sad, stayed behind. The Republican
candidate for President has no attrac-
lions for them. They never heard of
would have revived old memories and
aroused some enthusiasm. But the
name of Garfield falls dead on the ne
gro's ear. The Republican party has
only a nominal existence in the South
ern States: Poor in purse and broken
IN spirit, the colOred voters will, to a
arge extent, turn their backs upon the
ballot boxes where in times past they
have SO frequently been cheated and
sn1d