The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1883-02-08
Republicans and the South.


In Yesterdays issue we commented
upon that sectional unfriendlineSs
which manifests itself in preiudicing
the southern states in the eyes OF the
world to an extent which seri-
ously interfereS with the i'm
migration for many reaonS
so desirable. This unfriendliness
which it is hardly necessary to say
is almost exclusively confined to the
Republican party-shOws itself inIOth-
er ways quite rs ineXcusable.s if not
equally injurious. 1t is especially no.
ticeable i'll congress and III the most
pronounced journalistic representa-
tives of the party. If asouthern Dem
Ocrat asks an approximation for any
public work in his section, however
necessary, it is, in nine cases out of
ten, opposed by his Republican col
leagues, ostensibly because it is not Of
national Importance, but really be-
cause it will benefit the south more
than the north. The improvement of
the Mississippi is a notable instance.
Most, if not all, of the opposition
it has received has been due to- this
cause and no other. If the MISSISSIPPI
pi ran from Maine through New
England, New York, Ohio, Indiana,
illinois, and emptied i'll the gulf
somewhere in Iowa or still further
west, it would have been improved to
the utmost of human ability long ago.
As many millions would have been
voted as the work required. and every
Republican paper in the land would
have encouraged and endorsed con-
gresSional action. But as the great
river happens to run from north to
south, and as the south is perhaps
more directly interested in its good
navigable condition than the north,
whatever Republicans in congress do
for it is done grudgingly, and in the
face of sharp criticism from the ma
jority of their party organs. What is
true of the Mississippi is true of all
enterprises in the south for which
government aid is asked. Republi-
can opposition in and out of congress
could scarcely be stronger or
more persistent if the south were a
foreign country separated from the
north by impossible mountains or an
unknown ocean.
Now this apparently firmly estab-
lished feature of Republican policy is
not merely ungenerous, but ridicu-
lous and suicidal. 1t is an illustration
of "biting your nose off ito spite your
face" Northern Republicans lose
sight altogether of what ought to be
and is sufficiently self-evident fact
that any and all assistance rendered
the south in developing its matchleSs
natural resources and advantages
must and will be returned to the
north hundred fold in the shape of
increased trade. taxable property, etc.
1t is really only taking it out of one
pocket and putting it into the other
| North and south belong to the same
country; they are one and indiYisi-
| bic, and must so remain. Whatever
advances the growth and prosperity OF
the southern section must of necessity
| benefit the northern. There is no help
! for or escape from that, even if If
were desirable there should be; and
on the other hand, whatever retardS
southern growths and prosperity in
! fiictS more or less injury upon the
north. When the south was under
the heel of the carpet-baggers. its en-
ergies crippled and its credit well
nigh destroyed, every business com.
munity in the north was more or less
affected; and when the south was re-
leased from carpet-bag rule and began
the task of financial and commercial
reconstruction, what business com.
munity in the north did not have
reason to rejoice? 1t is certainly
time this latest and meanest form Of
sectionalism were booted down anC
out. If the blood and gold of foul
years war did not, after all, restore
the Union, let proclamation be made
to that effect, and the people govern
themselves accordingly. If the Unior
is restored, if the south and north are
one country and not two, let the Re
publicans treat the south accordingly