Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-09-24
"Thank God for Solid South. "

General Grant, some years ago, said
that the Democratic party might al
ways be depended on to do some absurd
thing, and titus destroy its chances of
carrying National election. The re-
mark is strikingly true, and the pres
ent canvass is another illustration of
the fact. Not to speak now of that par
ty's absurd and suicidal position
upon the currency question, upon
the tariff, upon the "man on horse
back" etc., etc, let us refer only
to the Solid South feature of this cam-
paign.
1t is very noticeable ut Democratic
meetings this year that when the Dem
ocratic orator says, "The South is
solid, and thank God it is solid" at
once the claquers on the platform clap
their hands, and the crowd breaks into
a roar of applause. A strange and sad
dening spectacle, truly, in land of
free schools, of churches, and of boast
ed liberty. Here are two great parties
contending for power. Neither can ex-
pect success except as its position, pur-
poses and conduct commend it to the
favor of the most discriminating and in
telligent of Nations. The one party,
that of Lincoln and Sumner, and Chase
and Grant, of the great names and
deeds of our later heroic epoch, comes
before the American people with plat
form and with purposes worthy its his
tory and its traditions. In no State and
in no section is it charged that any DEM
ocrat is denied the right to vote and
have his vote honestly and fairly
counted. How is it with the other
partyp The party of Lee and Stone
wall jackson, of Vallandigham and
Jefferson Davis, it would appear to the
meanest capacity, has little to hope
from the brave and free people of
America, except in keeping in the back
ground as much as possible the infa-
nous features of its past history and
present attitude. Does it do thisp The
late free States cast 231 Electoral votes.
The late rebel and semi-rebel States
cast 1873. Is it not the plainest dictate
of common sense that the party which
proposes to succeed by the rebel vote,
andwhich must have forty-seven North
ern votes or be beaten, has, at BEST a
difficult way before it, and needs to
walk warily and discreetly? that its
only hope lies in not outraging the
sentiments and better instincts oil that
loyal North which must be called on for
those forty-seven votes? Yet what has
this Democratic party really doneP 1t
is not denied that in five of the late
rebel States the Republicans have a
heavy majority on fair, free vote, and
that if every legal voter in the United
States could vote, and have his vote
honestly counted, Garfield would be
elected by popular and electoral vote
greater than that of Grant in 1868. How
has this great Republican vote been
suppressedP We know the sad story
but too well. By means which would
have added another and deeper shade
to the darkest story in the annals OF
human crime, by outraging the poor
and trampling upon the weak, by in
timidation and robbery and murder.
not in exceptional instances, but sys-
tematically and with studied barbar-
ity which extends over years. 1t has
become system. To this is added
fraud and " contingent" equally
systematic. Thus is the South made
''solid." 1t is made solid as Nero
made Rome solid, as Hannibal made
northern Italy solid, as Alexander mo de
Persia solid, as Alva made the Neither
lands solid. But are these the means
by which cause is commended to the
friends of the murdered and the des-
poiled? Is this a means of commend
ing cause to the friends of civiliza-
tion itself, to say nothing of manliness
or humanityP Let the now visible driit
of the campaign answer.
AS the spirit of brave, free people
always rises against outrage and op.
pression; rs the spirit of our race has
never ceased to confront tyranny with
a resistance which will not bend; as
Hampden rose against Charles, and
Washington against George Ill; as the
great, free North resented the bloody
attempt by the same men and the same
party, to trample Kansas in the mire
and shame of slavery; as all that wa:
best and noblest in our land rose
against the crowning outrage of 1861,
and held up the hands of Abraham Lin,
coin through four terrible years, So
now, the mighty North rises to defend
the "good old cause.-the cause o.
humanity.
There is that in this contest which
appeals to all that is best and most
chivalrous in every man. And, with
that fatuity which has so long marked
the Democratic party, it hastens, even
here, to espouse and identify itself with
the colossal yillainies of the South, and
to make them its own; and, in view Of
a record at which humanity sickens,
leaders thank God for Solid South
and drunken crowds yell approval. II
is not cause like this, defended By
such means, that has anything to hope
in the free North.-IadianapOli,
Journal. .......