The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-09-25
The south After Four Years of Demo-
L. ~

In an article cOngratulatIng the New York
merchants upon business prospects in the
South the UcyUH Qnd) says:
1T would not be eXtravagant to say that
their people are ON the whole more prosper
Gus than those of most parts of the North
Undoubtedly the conditions of living are
easier in the South than in the North But
the change for the better in the last four years
is very remarkable Everywhere We read OF
new industries starting into life; manufactures
Of various kinds arc rapidly increasing and
give employment to increasing numbers OF
the poor whites, to whom factory life is a dis
tnct advance in the scale of prosperity. The
business of market gardening for Northern
consumption has been found so profitable that
vegetable and smalltruit gardens and orchards
are found in all the states from Virginia to
Louisiana. 1t is absurd to charge that Il re-
gion thus BEAUTIFULLY prosperous is lawless or
idle The South produced last year the great
est cotton crop in its history, and this years
crop will be even greater. But, over and above
the cotton, it is producing multitude of 9th
er things which were totally unknown in the
Southern states before the war"
Yet this Is the solid South" the Demo
cratic South, which Republicans represent as
going to the dogs and the devil generally
as the sum of all inlquilles, political, social
and commercial; and as requiring complete
breaking up of the existing order of things.
The UerdId, looking at the Southern situation
from strictly nOn-partisan stand point, sees
nothing but prosperity already surprising
that of most parts of the North" and rapidly
increasing. 1t says that "the change tor the
better in the last four years is very remarka-
BILE" What caused that change? The sub
sttuton of Democratic for Republican rule :;
pu1, this and nothIpr ~ A litt1p loss
than tour years ago Rcpubicanism in the
South became so Incidentally and outrageous
ly rotten that a Republican president who
owed his successful nsurpation to that rotten
ness was compelled by irresistible popular
pressure to break the yoke which the Southern
neck had worn for twelve years The moment
that yoke fell off the South stood up and be
gan the march of improvement. She had
something to live for, something to work for
and from that moment may be dated the be
ginning Of real recOnstructlOn-thc real rcsto-
ration OF the Union,
The Republican party if successful proposes
to put things back in the South rs nearly as
possible where they were before the real recon
struction and restoration began. 1t proposes
to revive and Tc-cstablIsh the machinery which
ran there from 1865 to 1877; to saddle Missls-
sIppl with an Ames, Louisiana with n kellogg,
Alabama with Spencer, South Carolina with
a ChambcrlaIn--an to keep these riders IN
their saddles by the aid Of federal bayOnets
whenever necessary. ltproposcS to have such
legislatures as sat at Jackson, New Orleans,
Montgomery and Columbia; legislatures whose
members thanked God they had votes to sell
and constituents to roland who sold and
robbed Systematically and pcrsistcntly to the
last hour Of their Official life. Such is the Re
publican programme for the South. Such is
the policy to which Garfield is pledged by the
ulcranccs Of every Republican speaker and
every Republican Journal. And the AmerI-
can people are asked to indorsc this pro-
grammc and policy by ecctng Garfield.
They are asked to tear up Southern peace and
by the roots in order to plant in
their stead the poisonous tree of Republican
supremacy. They are asked to restore and
il can be Gcepened-thc foul stain
which for twelve years rested upon the nation.
nj fame, and to secure "thc results Of the war;
by a renewal Of something infinitely worse
han the worst war. we do not believe the
American people will pay such q price for
such president as Garfield; and we do be
ieve they will strengthen and increase South
I'm peace and prosperity by placing Gariield's
opponent and opposite in the presidential
,hair.-S Lonis RcpUblicaa