Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-01-24
Giving Them Trouble.

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Giving Them Trouble.
The solid South, that is, that part Of
it which is coming to the Republican
National Convention to assist in its de-
alterations, and, if possible, to choose q
candidate for them, seems to be giving
the Republican managers some trouble.
They don't like the idea of having so
many delegates from that section help
ing them to select man as candidate
when such delegates will be utterly
powerless to give them single electoral
vote in return. They want Repub-
lican party.i the South, but they want
it to represent something besides office
holders, political adventures and ne
groes. But theireforts to secure such
a party in the South have been signal
failure, because their past conduct,
when they had an opportunity. was SO
bad that the class of people whom they
would like to have won over to them
would have nothing to do with them,
and so the party there has remained
pretty much as it was during the hal
cyon days of the reconstruction period.
The Republican party of the South is
maintained simply for the purpose of
holding the Federal offices there, and
aside from this it has no where hab-
itation or name. That is all there is
of it, and all there will ever be of it,
unless the party takes new departure,
which from present appearances is most
unlikely. The Republican managers
are, therefore. reduced to the necessity
of either recognizing this batch of of
fice-holders and negroes as q party or OF
throwing them overheard, which latter
plan they would not care to adopt.
Senator Frye is not exactly certain
that such a party, representing nothing
but the Federal offices, and not able to
give tie Republican candidate single
Electoral Vote. should come into the.
Convention and cast three hundred and
six votes, nearly half the entire strength
of the Convention. He has, therefore,
proposed to curtail this useless strength
to considerable degree, but is met
with much opposition IN the carrying
out of his project. The more wise and
sensible of the leaders would be glad to
throw out the most of this vote, or at
least to greatly reduce it, and give the
States, which must be looked to for
Republican salvation, the right to name
the man they can help to elect, but un-
happily for the we'll being of these wiser
managers, there are certain other ann
bilious leaders who do not see the wis.,
dom of such method, and are deter
mined that no such reduction OF
Southern delegates shall be made.
There are men in the Republican
ranks who are friendly to General Ar
thur, and these men are not willing to see
sudden and radical reforms introduced
now upon the eve of a National Con-
vention. They understand that any
attempt to curtail the Southern repre-
sentation in the National Convention at
this time has direct meaning and
certain significance, and that it means
blow at the Administration. For
reasons which are well understood, the
South would naturally follow the lead
of the Administration, not from any
particular reason, but because, having no
party strength at home and being mostly
officeholders, they would ally them
selves to the representatives of party
strength, and as this is the Administra-
ton, their party attachments would
naturally go there. And it is this
fact, we'll understood by the leaders not
friendly to General Arthur, which
accounts for the sudden desire to
change thi3 voting power. It Is
now becoming pretty generally accept
ed that General Arthur will be q candi-
date, and if this vote was thought all
right when it was cast for General
Grant in 1880, it can not be any less so
now when it may be cast for some one
else. The South contains the men OF
WON the Republican party processes
to be especially fond, and to whose in
terests they are always alive, and it can
not with any show of consistency pun
ish them because their votes will not
avail in the great struggle for party
honors.
Our Republican friends love to talk
of the solid South. Let them accept its
solid voting power in their National
Convention as an earnest of the good
aud patriotic purposes of the delegates,
and pardon their inability to render
much of an equivalent at the polls for
the privileges accorded them. Let the
zeal of such delegates in the choice OF
a candidate atone for their shortcom-
ings as party, and let the party man
ayers evidence their regard for the
struggles these delegates must make to
keep even semblance of party alive
when the whole force of public senti-
ment there Is aga INST them, by cordially
admitting them TO their councils. Tho
motive of the Observation-Disclosures man
ayers is plain and the party can not af-
ford to K ok its helpless dependents in
the South be ause they are not backed
with a party majority. = american Reg
lister.