The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-05-10
Mississippi Politics.

The independent Democratic move
ment in Mississippi is said to have sin
teresting peculiarities. :" So the gush-
ers write Of t. But little account is to
be made of the descriptions or prophe-
syings of people who imagine that ev-
cry Southern growl against Southern
Bourbonism Is sure to be the presage
of the early and final extinction of
Southern Democracy. 1t is said that
Mississippi independantisin is quiet
voting movement 1t is quiet, so quiet
that its actual existence may be doubt
ed. And it undoubtedly votes, but
when IL does it Is against the Repub-
iicans -t fi - -
1t is now said that business men in
large cities and planters have the sense
to perceive that tthe continuanee of
policy of prescription, intolerance and
violence in politics win surely check the
material development of the South.n
But this is not newly kinvented
thought. 1t has been the first bugle
Hiast Of every appeal for. the .4old nag
and andansappropriafion.' Mississippians
said the same thing in 1875, but it did
not save Chisholm. They repeated it
afterward, but it did not preserve Dix
on. In fact, instead of being novel in
Mississippi, such sentiments afe more
threadbare than the garments of its
sandhillers, and have no more meaning
than the buzz of the mosquitoes which
swarm over its overfowed bottom lands,
Whoever builds on it builds on yapor.
Aspiring politicians IN Mississippi are
dissatisfied; so much is true. But their
dissatisfaction goes against the political
rings of which they would gladly be q
part but are not, and not against Bour-
bonisn. 1t Is not the methods of
Bonrbonism they oppose, but the fact
that they are not managers of the
methods. sssi a-.
A correspondent of the New York
Tribune says they are tired of "a tur-
mol. Perhaps, as the wolf was tired
of the lambs bleating. and swallowed
it as remedy. And here it may be
said that perfect peace and obedience
to law will never come to Mississippi
from those who are tired of turmoil.
They are simply Strikers. Justice can
only triumph through those who covet
strife for the purpose of subduing tur-
mol. 1t is fighting for peace which is
wanted, and not general proclamations
that they are sick of strife. And evil
dence is wanting that there is any real
purpose to make q struggle for peace
against the machine men and their
violent emissaries throughout the State.
The New York Tribune correspond
ent insists that the vote of last year is
full of instruction and hopefulness.
| The person who can find hope of grow
ing Republicanism in it must be very
sanguine, indeed. Such person would
find hope in q cyclone The facts are,
a prominent Democrat consented to be
an independent candidate. His pro-
fessions of faith were nothing but
| glittering generalities, and his
| politics were neither more nor
| less than soreheadism. If King,
that was his name, was a Republican
so is Chalmers, and so is :" the
sage Of Gramercy Park King is a
Mississippi Kelly, without the Tammany
| He kicked mildly over the Bourbon
traces, took the usual amount of lam
pooning and stalled. That was all there
was of It As for helping the Republic
ans or being in sympathy with Repub-
hcans, that is nonsense. He did say
something about '' a fair vote and an
| honest count Minority candidates
always clamor for that. But what has
he done since? Nothingi All his words
on the subject ended when his personal
concern in the result ended. There is
no evidence that he was alive to the
| principle involved; and no evidence
| that his harangue had more effect in
Mississippi than the down borne by the
1 wind from its thistle balls.
Nor is there any irresistible evidence
that any considerable number of even dis
satisfied Bourbons voted for King, though
the New York Tribune asserts to the
contrary. Greenbackers and Republic
ans supported him, and yet he only re
ceived 81, 364 votes, that is $4,000 short
of Grants vote in 1872; 1000 short OF
Hayes vote in 1876, and 22,000 less
than the Republican vote for Ames in
1873 The regular Bourbon candidate
al the same election received nearly
1000 more votes than were cast fol
Hancock the previous year. Any per
son who can find cause for Republican
rejoicing in these figures can find JOY
in bunions. and JOY forever in lively
case of colic.
II is very nice to be happy under diff
culties, but it is not necessary to pre-.
tend to like them. Nor Is it wise &c
give ourselves over to delusions. Miss
issippi Bourbonism is thing by ITSELF
and so long as the colored people of that
State are its majority of voters its spirit
! will remain unchanged. Its disintegra-
ton will be predicted, but its counting
out will continue and its Republicanisn
will not materia1ize. As well hope fol
the naturalization of shadows as to
hope otherwise. On a fair vote it il
now a Republican State by an over
whelming majority. Nevertheless
Bourbon force and fraud control 1t and
will confront for some time to cor,e.
In counting up for the future the Re
publican party may as well accept this
disagreeable and disgraceful truth
The true field for Republican mission
ary work in the South lies elsewhere
One half the work devoted to carrying
Indiana and Ohio will carry Virginia an6
North Carolina and not impossibly
Tennessee and West Virginia These
are the States which the party must La
Dor for As for Mississippi, it has al
idol, but that idol is not the Republican
party or Republican creed-and it may
as well be left to its idols and the gushers
about the non-existant-Detrot Post