New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-09
THE COMPLAINT or SEC77oNALISM.

There are no doubt great many lnJelliRenJ
citizens of the South like our correspondent, Mr.
| S. c. Redd, of Hanover County, Virginia, whose
letter we published yesterday, who think the
true condition of the South and the character of
the people are entirely inexperienced by
Northern Republicans, and honestly believe
| they have Just grounds of complaint Of our lack
of sympathy for their peculiar condition when
we criticise their election methods or antago-
nize the Solid South. Our correspondent
writes: If you were to put yourself in our
"pIace You would not wonder that the educated
@peope of the South are solid in their antago-
Z nism to the Republican party as it exists here.
@The Republican party in Virginia is composed
"almost entirely OF supersttiods, unedncated
anegroes and white people who use them as their
Htools to satisfy personal ambition and lust OF
u gain OF oficcn Now, to begin with, we do
not wonder that the educated people OF the
South are opposed to the Republican party. 1t
| is not to be wondered Mt, since that is, and has
been ever since the Republican party was or
ganzed, the principal part of their political
education. Nor do we wonder very much at
what we must consider their blind obstinacy in
refusing to sou that their true policy is to dl-
vide the negro vote instead OF soidifying it by
! Ia
Young vet for the habits and traditions of the
slave period TO be forgotten or laid aside.
| That is one of the changes we must wait Tor
time to work; we can do little to hasten it.
We do wonder, though, that the educated
| ppople of the South shOud make the fatal
mistake OF justifying the resort to violence and
| fraud to defeat tue legally expressed will of the
majority. For it certainly needs no argument
70 provo that such courses are destructive to
| free government and subversye OF the fOun-
dation principle of a republic. Our correspond
| ent, after giving what he doubtless believes TO
| be n true description of the Republican party at
the South, asks: aHow would you like TO see
such men the arbters bS virtue of official
"position or your fortune, your life and your
| liberty ~ Granting his description to be nc
eurntc, wo should not like it ut all. But
whether We liked il or not, we and hundreds of
thousands of Republicans in Northern cities,
men of education and property, to whom mis-
rulcIs az odions and burdensOme as it is to the
educated people of the South, have seen just such
men, "supcrstitous and uneducated." with
| those who used them as their tools, made tho
arbitcrs by virtue of official position OF our for
| tunes lives and liberties. 1t is hard case, to
! he sme, bat no one has ever dreamed OF NO.
| lcnce or frand as solution OF the difficulty.
We arc trying to bo patient with our linlta-
| tions and work our way out. The trouble with
fine educated people Of the South is that they
restrict their view to their own little local COM
munitcs To remedy the ills to which their
vision is confined, they adopt the questionable
devices which are nearest at hand and seem
eosicst. without considering their effect upon the
country at large or their pernicious influence
| IN the future. They have before them, as we
| all baye. not GOrdian knot to be severed at
| bloW. but n grave and serious problem 20 he
loboriously, thoughtfully and often painfully
| worked out.
Our correspondent expressed his belief that
thc great majority of the Southern people
meaning thereby the class who constitute the
| e,lid South-are, {" in all matters of National
motley and in devotion to the Union, IN sym
nathy with the Republican party" Unfortu-
notely, the facts do not justify such a belief.
However devoted they may be to the Union
of which we are not 30 churlsh as to raise any
| question at this time-and however they may
ocree with Republicans upon the subject OF the
| toriIi and internal Improvements, the one thing
absolutely certain is that they are not III SYM
nathy with the Republican but with the Demo-
cratic marty. Let our friend, and the educated
| neople of the South who agree with him In Gep-
recating the attitude of Northern Republicans
toward the Solid South, consider for moment
the politcal situation as it actually is; not as
sentimental dreamers who project Their own
e,notions as the motives of the party imagine
- m be. There ia the record of the Southern
wing of the Democratic party in the canvass, on
fine stump in the press at elections, IN Con-
gross. Il is too familiar to need recital. ID
there anything in il all to invite the confidence
ar attract tho sympathy of men who fought
through four years of war to preserve the life
NJ the Union, and have struggled through six
teen wears of peace TO maintain its credit,
AGAINST the constant and unceasing opposition
of the Democratic party7 WHAT was there left
for Republicans to do when the educated people
of the South, after making the Southern States,
Inv omen violence and obvious fraud, as solid rs
they were before the war, Joined hands with
their old allies in the effort to restore to power
marty that had shown 81 great capacity for mis-
chief and 30 little for anything elseR
There was nothing to be done except discuss
with plain bluntness the perils such COM
biuation pOItended, to arouse the people OF
the North to q comprehension of the situation,
and leave no honest means unLried to defeat 1t.
Whatever blame attaches to the promoters OF
sectional controversy belongs to the leaders
who made the South solid and united 1t with its
old ally, and fairly drove the Republicans of
the North into the attitude they occupied.
Sectonalism will continue while these condi-
tions last. It is possible-@e wish we could