The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-11-06
- TOLD YOU So"
Southern Democratic SOIidity

The ~ told you so" class of North
ern newspapers now find much com
fort in unctious comments about the
unadvisability of the "Solid South"
and few Southern opponents quite
as unctiousIy echo the sentiment We
readily admit the force of the declara-
ton that ~ solid South" as the
lamented Gov. Brown said year ago,
suggests solid North" 1t was pc
culiarly unlucky for Wade Hampton
to get up in the Cincinnati Convention
and pledge a solid South for the Demo
cratic ticket. He had a clear right to
do this, and was fully justified by the
fact of the prospective outlook. But
it concentrated the northern mind at
once upon the idea of solidifying the
North. Then in his Stanton speech,
meaning no harm in the world, he
called the attention of the whole North
to the fact that the Democratic party
was fighting for the principles that
Lee and Jackson would fight for if
they were alive. Undoubtedly the
South Carolina Senator was right
here again so far as the fact and legit
innate inference go, but what could
have been more unfortunate for the
Democrats of the North and Gen.
Hancock than the reckless use of
words calculated 50 wildly to convey
the idea to them that it was the old
contest of the South against the North
of Lee against Hancock-as things
stood fifteen years ago? We beliye
that Wade Hampton is one of the pu-
rest and most conservative Southern
men the South has, but he is a failure
as politician. His faculty for kick
ing the Democratic fat into the fire
makes it highly imprudent to set him
forward as mouth-piece.
"The solid South" has developed
another class of marplots and destruc-
tionists. AS soon as the corruption
and belttlement and prostitution CT
the Republican party began to open
the way for Democratic successes, and |
Democrats were gradually getting con-
troll of different branches of the Gov |
eminent, a few papers like the "Okolo- |.
ma States" and Meridian Mercury be-
gan to cut up such fantastic capers be- |
tore high Heaven as brought down up
on the South the eyes and condemna-
ton of thousands of just-thinking
Northern men, who had shown their .
readiness and willingness to vote for a
change if it could be done, as they
thought, safely for their section.
THANK God, we have captured the
Capitol ~ was an idle cffervescence
from a half-crazy brain, appearing in
remote paper, with perhaps, less
than five hundred circulation. But it
was caught up by the dirty bloody
shirt mOngers of the North, and
spread broadcast over the land. It
was used as a talismanic exclamation,
as betOkening the eager boastfulness
Of the South and their keenness of
appetite for turning the tables against
their enemies. 1t is strange that so
small a thing should have had so
much power for mischief! Strange
that the intellect Of the south should
be dwarfed TO so low a standard as to
cause that silly utterance to be re-
received as a criterion Of Southern
sentiment! But it was taken as a
true Outbursto of Southern animus, and
its very insignilicance seemed to give
it force to alarm aud arouse n counter
hostile sentiment.
But those organs which now affect
TO deplore the "solid SOuth,n from the
New York Herald down to the Vieks-
burg Herald, have signally failed to
point out any plan by which the South
can safely fail to be solid. They ap-
parently lose sight OF the causes which
forced the Southern States into solid
ity aud hold them there. The south
became solid under Grants admins
tration, and two-thirds Of the North
ern people endorsed the movement a.
shown by the elections Of 1874. when