Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-04-25
Ron Rutler on the Snnfh.

Ben. Butler on the South.
Ben. Butler has been spending some
time in Florida this winter, and has but
recently left that State for the North.
On his return to that section he was In
terviewed as to the political status Of
the South, and he made public some
very interesting statements.
In the first place, the ex-Congressman
from Massachusetts, has come to the
conclusion, after careful obse. walton
and much study, that the South will
never vote for the Republican party, nor
for anything which is intimately asso-
ciated with the name Republican"
He has arrived at this opinion because
he is convinced, from what he has seen.
that the young men of the South "have
had instilled into them from the time
they were old enough to know anything,
and which is as much a part of their ex-
istence as anything can be, that the Re-
publican party and everything attached to
it is the destroyer of their patrimony,
the slayer of their parents, and the enemy
of their country. Believing these things
as strongly as they do" he asks, "is it
to be wondered at that they have
voted for the Republican party, and is
it unreasonable to argue that they never
wil?"
Mr.. Butler, however, admits that a
similar feeling prevails in the North
among by far the larger class of people
towards the Democratic party, which the
Northern Republican has been taught to
regard as the enemy of the country and
the sy~mpathizer with rebellion" Hence,
as these varying ideas are ineradicably
rooted in the minds of the large ma
jority of the voters of the two sections,
Mr.. Butler holds that nothing but a
breakup of the stalwartism in both
parties and a reorganization on new
issues can destroy the sectional feeling
that continues to be manifested both at
the North and at the South"
The views of this prominent citizen of
Massachusetts on intimidation are
likewise strongly expressed, and are by
no means unworthy of consideration.
He was candid enough to confess that
the much-talked-of intimidation" in the
South was getting to be a thing of the
past" even If, he might well have added,
it had ever existed except in the imagi-
nation of Radical politicians and speak
ers for the purpose of stirring up section
al prejudice and making political capital.
Such is not the case in the North, how
ever, or, rather, such is not the case in
Massachusetts,, Buffers W State.
There, he says, intimidation of voters
exists, and is on the increase. Not intimi-
dation by the shotgun, says he, but ''by
something more disastrous to a free vote
than a thousand shot guns" He x
plains what he means by this assertion
in the following terse language: ga
man" he said, "who firmly believes in
his principles and as firmly advocates
them is not afraid of a shotgun. but he
is afraid of his wife and family starving.
With a shotgun you influence but one
vote. The manufacturers of the North
influence thousands of votes by the
meanest kind of intimidation. With
their thousands of workmen they do not
say to a man that if he votes for the
Democratic party he will lose his place,
but the facts show that when he has so
voted he has been discharged. The
workmen know this, and they do not
vote"
These admissions from a man occupy
ing the position before the country held
by Ben Butler are very significant. Viii
LITIGATION and SANDER of the South
has long been the favorite political
weapon of the Northern stalwart, and
the late efforts of Dawes, Frye, and
others in the Senate, show how ready
they are to use that weapon even in this
day and generation, despite the fact that
their misrepresentation have so fire.
quently and thoroughly been exposed.
We commend to all such earnest and
Jealous patriots o. the admissions of Mr..
Butler regarding the existence in their
own section of the very evils they are
always so prompt to charge upon the
South. 1t is not to be expected that
they will cease their ISLANDERS, but Mr..
Buffers charges against the Republicans
of his own State and section might af-
ford the opportunity to the friends Of
the South to effectively admonish the
slanderers that it is not becoming for
those who reside it brittle residences to
hurl dangerous missiles. They might
prove to be boomerangs.