Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-04-18
TIE SOUTHERN REPUBLICANS AND TEE
PARTY.

dent not to put Southern man IN ONCE
there, for the reason that he wished to con-
troll the Southern appointments himself.
Before we undertake to sympathize with
the dissatisfied Southern Republicans we
should like to know precisely who they are.
It is the more necessary to use caution in
this connection because hitherto the South
ern Republicans who have come most
prominently to the front have belonged to
class of political adventures of kind
calculated to bring no credit to any party.
1t may be thought that if the men now ex.
pressing their discontentment are not in
alliance with Malone, the presumption in
their favor ought to be tolerably strong,
but unfortunately the South has not yet
produced line of Republican politicians
any of whom could be accepted in the alb.
sence of credentials without mourning a
considerable risk. Indeed the Republican
policy at the South has always been the
worst part of the partY's record, and even
when all the embarrassment of the situa.
ton have been duly recognized it remains
true that the plan adopted most recently
for securing the Southern States cannot be
defended. When the Northern Republican
managers took up Malone and Endorsed
his shameless demagogism and dishonesty,
they inflicted grave injury upon the
credit of the party. Nor is it possible to
believe that the Malone methods can ever
produce salutary results. Of the new
Southern policy we must say, with Ham,
let, cit is not, and it cannot come to,
good"
That plan appears to consist in securing
majorities in Southern States by putting
up Reputation programmes, and deluding
the ignorant negroes into following them.
This is the method by which Virginia was
captured, and it is most disreputable
method. The Endorsement of open dis
hon esty and swindling by the Republican
party was nothing less than crime
against the organization, and it was, more
over, one of those crimes which are Ger.
tain to entail their own penalties. The
real policy of the party should have been
to elevate instead of debasing the negro
voter, and to discourage instead of fostering
the demagogism- which has run rampant
at the South ever since the close of the
war. The plan actually adopted is pain
full and revolving reminder of the old
et.bag' methods, and it is calculated
to have the worge effect because it tends to
produce theimpression that the managers
of that evil period have once more been
permitted to control the conduct of the
organization. And if up to the present
time the legitimate consequences of this
immoral programme have not appeared,
it is only because the Democrats have
shown themselves unable to take advantage
of even the worst blunders of their oppo-
nents.
! They have adhered with characteristic
tenacity to their old foi5les and vices, and
whenever it seemed unavoidable that the
voters who held the balance of power
must abandon the Republicans, the Demo.
Gratis have made haste to commit some folly
which has shown the impossibility of put
ting any confidence in them. But it must
be realized that when the dominance OF a
party has come to depend more upon the
follies OF its opponents than upon it's own
merits, it is in a bad way, and it is quite
certain that it must at no distant date
meet with reverse unless it can reform
itself. Because the Democrats have here
tofore saved their antagonists by demon.
strating their own unftness at the critical
junctures, it does not follow that they will
continue to do this. Nor does it follow
that the voters who are more and more
dissatisfied with the Republican policy at
the South will continue to prefer their rule
to that of the Democrats, even though the
latter may be Enthusiastically. The most dis.
couraging feature of the Republican South
ern policy consists in the shameless cynic-
ism which it exhibits. 1t cannot be
doubted that when political leaders are
willing to sanction reputation for the sake
of votes, they must have ceased to be
guided by principles. The Democracy
never did anything much worse than this
Malone business, in fact, and this is what
many of the stanchest Northern Repub.
licans think and believe.
Now when the self respecting voters of
party once feel that its honor has been
smirched by its leaders when they see
that man like Malone is allowed virtu.
ally to dictate the Southern policy of the
Republican party; when they perceive
that in order to capture the Southern
States Congressman and Senators who af-
feet to be honest and upright are ready
to pander to the lowest and meanest dem.
agogues in the country it is always posi-.
bic that they may refuse to submit to these
indignities, and that the "bogy" of a Demo
cratic Administration may cease to possess
any terrors for them. And this is pre-
cisely the danger to which the new South
ern policy is exposing the Republican party
to-day. There are tens of thousands of
clear.sighted and honorable men who have
from the first denounced and reprobated
the Infamous Malone bargain. and who
have felt more and more doubtful whether
they could afford longer to affiliate with
party whose leaders were capable of such
a shameful thing. We are convinced that
nothing but the fear Of worse evil has
thus far prevented these voters from bolt
ting the party, but, as we have before OBJ
served, that fear may not prove sufficient
to hold them much longer. The truth is
that the machine 3" management of the
South has been vile and ignoble from be-
ginning to end, and that unless it is rad
ically amended before long it will lead to
an explosion which may astonish the venal
and greedy politicians who now think they
have the game altogether in their own