National Republican., 1880-07-08


NORTHERN ORATORS IN THE SOUTH.
The suggestion that distinguished north
ern republicans should be sent south to can
vass for GARFIELD and ARTHUR is n good
one, but it has not tho merit of newness.
The republicans OF that section have urged
it upon the attention of national and con-
Grossional committees in every canvass since
1865, but with very little effect We hope
II may be more successful now, for it is GER
tain that there is party need iorsuch action,
and besides that it would result in educat-
ing the distinguished northern statesmen
themselves. We should consider the latter
effect worth all the trouble aud expense of
the experiment, provided the proper persons
were sent.
Had the urgent entreaties OF southern re-
publicans been listened to in 1876 there
need not have been any disputed states in
the south, and in addition to those finally
counted for Mr.. HAYES there could have
been added the electoral vote of North
Carolina Half dozen members of con-
gress to speak and few thousands of dol
lars to pay their expenses in each of the
states Of North Carolina, South Carolina,
Louisiana and Florida would have made
the canvass in them both safe and certain
The work of sustaining the republican
cause in the south is not a pleasant one
The contest there in 1876 was, in fact, q
battle; the speakers and candidates were
really standard-bearers, and that in sense
utterly unknown TO the plumed and cara
colng knights who figure so handsomely in
the luxurious precincts of the capitol. The
distinguished orator would have found nc
smiling antagonist Of the moment before
come to congratulate him upon his oratory;
40 beauties would have sent him nosegays
from brilliant galleries, nor would he have
adjourned from the meeting to the mansion
of some wealthy resident to hold recep-
tion. All these agreeable accessories would
have been replaced by such scenes and Incl.
dents as would have hardened his moral
and physical fibre like march with an
army If he had been detailed to Soutl,
with GARY at Edgeleld, with TILMAN nj
Midway, with NOISE at Sumter, he would
have had some new experiences in political
warfare which would have remained for al
time upon the tablets of his memory. He
would have learned what canvass meant
TO southern republicans. Could GEORGE
WILLIAM CURTIS have been induced Ia
take such trip he would have thought the
Philadelphia roughs who broke up his meet
ing in National hall in 1859 were mild. gen.
tlemanly creatures beside those who would
have greeted his advocacy of HAYES in
South Carolina in 1876. And such an ex-
pericnce would have given a tone to his
moral fibre which would have prevented
him from asserting that the old issues o.
the republican party are dead and that
civil-service reform should now cover uT
out of sight the disagreeable and irritating
bloody shirt.
If any orators are sent south this yeal
we hope that those will be selected who
need toning up in their republcanism, and
that their duties will not be confined tr
making speech in front OF the Charleston
hotel or in the state,hOuse in New Orleans
but that they will be directed to Edgetield
courthouse, TO NewbeTy, Spartauburg
Anderson Sumter aud Winnsboro in Soutl,
Carolina; to the Red river parishes, Shreye.
port, Caddo, etc, in Louisiana to Yazoo in
Mississippi. For, rs we have before said We
should value the educational work upon the
orators themselves quite as highly as the
effect they would produce upon the pros.
poets Of GARFIELD and ARTHUR in the
south.