Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1880-11-26

FRIDAY MORNING. NOV. 2e. 1880.
THE SOLID SOUTH.
When at recent national convention |
! member arose with fatal alacrity and |
promised the support of the Solid South to |
he nominee, those Of us who stopped to |
hink at all received disagreeable i'm
preston, and in the hurly- burly Of the |
that impression was not allowed |
20 die by a willy antagonist who made full |
and false use Of it. 1t is but the state |
nent Of fact to- say that while at the |
south that promise was regarded as a
mere specimen of campaign oratory. and
was not given much weight BY the people,
vet at the North it was given the gravest
Much Of the early portion
of the Republican campaign was run upon
that view until their orators got the public
mind set as far as possible upon the issue
of section. Later on, finding it was not
received with the enthusiasm expected. it
was abandoned, and the field was changed
from sectional issues to the tariff.
It is difficult to treat phantom as flesh
and blood, but that form Of argument is
forced on those who live in this section.
We, who live in the South, know far less
Of the s'Solid South: than those who have
never seen this part Of our country. Here,
in Virginia, we rejoice when we hear that
one Of the States whose population is COM
posed largely Of lately enfranchised ne
groes has gone Democratic, because that
means that the most intelligent portion Of
its population is supreme. and that it's
legislation has not fallen into the blind
hands of a constituency too lately slaves
to und erstand government or to appreciate
the grave responsibility Of administering
it. We should feel as much pleased to
hear this sort of news from Michigan as
from Louisiana. Locality is Of no Impor-
lance to us where ignorance threatens to
override intelligence with all the fearful
consequences to State likely to follow
such supremacy. The ''Solid South y may
be sectional from geographical causes, but
it's idea is national-aye, world wide. 1t
would be as repugnant to us in Virginia to
hear that Kearneyism had overrun the
State of California, as that ignorance.
which is the soil in which Kearneyism
flourishes, had overrun' Mississippi.
The error of the North is in the fact
that it thinks this solidity exists in the form
Of combination, because of locality.
Nothing could be farther from the fact;
it exists simply because each Of the South
ern tier of States have the same internal
reasons for alliance with the National De
moeracy. Naturally. the thinking citizens
of State are repealed by political party
which arms the enfrauchised but uneduca-
ted slave with the ballot and essays to place
him in power. The true cause Of a solid
South is the too hasty and i'll advised eff
forts of the Republican party to make in
teliigent voters out of men without intel
ligence. The four or five years career of
enforced success of that experiment in the
South, so alarmed the conservative
thought Of the people that it will require
many years to calm, perhaps not until the
new voter is fully qualified by education
to enjoy his privilege. When that time
comes the solidarity as Kossuth would
say will disappear. The rapid advance of
the colored man in enlightenment. in more
clearly viewing his duties as a citizen, in
his desire by the acquisition of property
to become permanent part Of the State
and in his discarding the ignorant fear of
remission to slavery give hops that it will
disappear in this generation. But should
it disappear without these causes, should
the colored man break up the solidity sud
denly by coalition with wings and leaders
Of wings the value of the break up will be
sadly deprecated. His aid through lack
of wisdom will be be turned to the, worst
uses as has been lately shown in Virginia
and the business portion of the United
States, which is understood j. to be. the
North, will find that out to its cost. Tn g
South is known to-day to be in favor of
paying the national debt and of hard mon
ey, but we do not exaggerate the danger
when we say that the field here is inviting
to artful politicians who may SECURE the
aid of the mass of the colored Republicans
by promises of additional privileges, in a
scheme to cast both Of these vital princ-
pies to the winds and with the aid of Wes-
tern and Northern greenbackers to present
to the astonished people of the North the
spectacle of q congress ready to repudiate
the financial faith of the Nation. We in
Virginia have too lately seen to what uses
this ignorant element may be put not to
know its great danger to both State and
Nation. We want no solid South but We
also want no solid ignorance. o g. 81
But there is ''solid South - that above
all things we of the South desire and it
will be seen by some of those now living
It will be South intent more on its inn
proyement than on politics; South in
which the cotton of the country will be
manufactured in Georgia instead of Mas
sachusetts; South in which the iron will
be made in Virginia rather than Pennsyl-
vania. These are things that will surely
come to pass and that have already begun
and then we will have a South in which
the North will find an equal worthy of its
recognition and undeserving of its appre-
tensions. "1H e..
Judging from the vote for Democratic
electors in Virginia the clamoF directed
against Gen. Echols, of Augusta, during
the campaign made very little impression.
Leigh r. Watts and J. S. Redd, who led