Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-08-20
PRESIDENT HAYES ON THE SOUTHERN
SITUATION


President Hayes recently made speech
at the Soldiers Reunion at Columbus,
Ohio, which contains some suggestive
points He spoke of the causes Of national
growth and prosperity, and referred to the
exhibits of the new census in regard to the
tendency of immigration. "That census,
he observed, "shows us parts of our coun-
"try, where land is cheap, and where capt.
tai and labor are needed, that are not
rapidly increasing in population. In
q these States it win be found that two
things are want ng-the means for pop
'' ular education are not sufficiently pro-
"yided, and the good order of society is
disturbed by practical popular refusal
20 to accept the results of the war for the
Union. These two defects, wherever
8" they prevail in our American society, are
hostile to the increase of population and
prosperity. They are found generally
:" to exist together" It is well that Presi-
dent Hayes has at last come to the
conclusions here given, and it is
fact of no small significance that states
man who entered office under the belief
that the era of Cancellation had dawned.
and that nothing was needed but to put
aside all sectional feelings in dealing with
the South, has discovered that the main
cause OF the stagnation of that region is "a
"practical popular refusal to accept the
''results of the war for the Union" That
this practical popular refusal to accept the
results of the war does prevail at the
South, is unfortunately but too evident.
When Wade Hampton tells the people Of
Virginia that the principles at issue to-day
are those for which Lee and johnson
fought four years, it would be mere
faulty to close our eyes to the re-
atty of the survival of the old dis
affection in the South. The President
we think lays far too much stress upon the
efficiency of education in changing the
Southern situation, however, and especially
he appears to fail to see that the remedy he
proposes must be inapplicable so long as
the present disloyalty prevails. To say
that disloyalty is the result Of want of ed
ucation is, in fact, to argue in circle.
Want of education by no means necessarily
prevents men from being loyal, nor does
education, at the South, produce loyalty,
since many of the most obstinate rebels
have been educated men. But the popular
refusal to accept the results of the war for
the Union must be reckoned with by itself
No matter how it originated, the feeling is
there and it is one of the factors of
present politics. Those Southern men
who refuse to accept the results of the
war are voters; they are not only
voters, but they control, by force and
fraud, a very much larger political area
than they have any right to dominate.
They supply the. motive and the energy to
the national Democracy. Whatever
definite legislation that party contemplates
is Southern legislation. Its support at the
North is mainly held together by the hope
of plumber, and has no principles or con-
victions which it is not perfectly willing
to change at moments notice. The
South furnishes the brains of the party,
and the policy of it is Southern policy
That is the most significant fact in the
situation, for it forces the question, What
is likely to happen if the Government falls
into the hands of those who refuse to &C.
eept the results of the war for the Union =?