Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-11-10
The Southern Question.

Inc attitude Wnlcn Genefal GarneluS au
ministration will assume toward the south is
naturally the first object of interested conjec-
ture in the north and south alike since the re-
suit Of Tuesdays election. The question is
not Of difficult solution. There is but one
course to pursue, and that is the course die.
tated by the requirements OF even and exact
justice towards every section of the Union
and every citizen in every section. The south
has no claims to special privileges and i'm
munities. What the east and the west enjoy
under this government are hers to enjoy.
The east and the west have no quarrels
there is no call for concilatory policy to-
wards the east on the part of western presi-
dents. Whyp Because individual rights
and privileges are freely and interchange
ably enjoyed and protected all over these
sections. No man can tell, so far as human
rights are affected, where the east ends
and the west begins. General Garfield,
it is reasonable to assume, will ask nothing
of the south which the constitution and
the laws do not exact from Ohio aud 10
which every citizen Of that state yields a
cheerful and almost an unconscious obedi-
ence. 1t is equally reasonable to assume
that General Garfield will exact nothing
more and certainly will be content with moth
ing less from every one of the southern states
No time will be wasted on sentimental rec
onciliation. The north feels no luminosity
toward the south. That feeling has existed
only in the heated Imagination of Demo
cratic campaign speakers and editors. So
far as the northern people are concerned
there is no occasion for Cancellation. They
demand equal rights for all, and this de-
mand will be enforced, not with imperious
harshness, but with that firm purpose and
patient determination that animates Just,
an impartial and humane government.
Any reconciliation or pacifcation that does
not proceed on this broad and constitutional
foundation will not endure, and is not
worth the time spent in patching itup. The
north is anxious aud in earnest in its desire
that every southern state should enter into
the full enjoyment of every blessing this
Union can bestow; but the freezing out pol
icy pursued toward northern people who go
south for perfectly legitimate purposes, the
abridgment of the right of free speech, the
suppression of the right of suffrage, the per-
version by fraud and violence of the will Of
the majority, must cease. On this basis and
this only the north will " reconcile" Not in
spirit of sectionalism, not in a spirit of
malignant hatred, but on the great general
principles which we love and which we prac-
tice at home, the administration will mould
its policy toward the south. In the future
the executive will have the support of con-
gress in his efforts to rescue from the mortu-
AIRY list the constitutional and congressional
enactments designed to extend equal rights as
enjoyed in Ohio to every citizen in the south.
These dead letter laws will be revivified and
their provisions practically applied and en-
forced by all the powers of the general gov
eminent. If the south is wise, has learned
anything in that dear school, experience, she
will in the future cease to divide politically
on latitudinal lines. Let her try for a
Change longitudinal and diagonal lines
of political division and alliance, running
these lines northward till they intercept our
northern boundary A fair trial of this pol
icy will wean the south forever from her old
and fatal delusion-solidity for the Democ-
racy. On this southern question the recent
utterances of the southern press are inter
esting and significant. The Augusta (Ga.)
Chronicle and Consiitutionaiia says
The south at least has the satisfaction OF know
ing that she kept her part Of the bargain, and II
the hero of Gettysburg is not president it is
not her fault. We think. too, that she has for
the last time been led lamb-like to the slaughter
Her experiments with loyal civilians and military
heroes have not been propitious in the past and
the future holds out no hopes in that direction
What she will do in the future time must disclose
The Charleston Ne,cs and Courier closes
long article on the election with the follow
ing significant paragraph:
When this specter of southern supremacy Is laid
the northern people will be freer to exhibit kindly
and interested feelings and one Of the first ques-
tions the southern whites will have to ask them
selves is whether the welfare Of the south has
been and Is likely to be hindered or advanced by
the alliance with the Democrats of the north It
does not hurt those gentry to he beaten; they are
states in any event. Not so with the south. In
losing politically the south loses in pocket and in
peace of mind. Will the south remain on the
losing side, and II SO, ON what terms and for
what purpose? The southern people, we fancy,
will make themselves heard on this subject be-
fore the winter Is past
When the southern people speak on this
subject it will not be surprising if the bur-
then of their discourse will be an honest al
lance, without any mental or specified res
ervations, with the Republican party Of the
north. They have served long years as the
hewers of wood and drawers of water " for
the Bourbon Democracy. They should now
shake off their letters and ally themselves
with the great progressive party that will
henceforth control this government, enjoy
with them its benefits instead of fighting it,
and move along with it in the bright career
now before our common country. The high
land clansmau or the North American In
dian might at time like this sit suking in
his hut nursing the feuds of a by-gone pc
Rod; but intelligent Americans, in the clos
| ing years of this nineteenth century, will
not be guilty of such folly. So we believe
that causes as silent and as potent as the
sunlight of spring on our frozen streams,
in the sunny days that will dawn under
President Garfield, will break up the solid
south, and that the line of battle will be
formed from north to south instead of from
east to west in the presidential contest of
1884, if indeed there shall be opposition
enough at that time to make contest.
Secretary Schurz.
The officers and employees of the Interior
department assembled in the model hall of