The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1884-12-06
The Failure Of the Republican Plan
of reconstruction.
IPicayune.l

brewing at the capital of the
nation, Mr.. Parsons, q very saga
cious politician, and then Pro-
visional Governor of Alabama,
was on q visit at the North.
"Whatp said he to one in the conf
denee of the Republican leaders,
"do you really propose to confer
the right of suffrage upon the
ignorant freedmen of the South 2
"We certainly dc" was the answer.
''Then," Gov. Parsons is reported
to have replied, after moments
thought, "you will organize hell in
the South for a few years. Then
we will win over the colored vote,
and gain thirty Congressman
We will not go so far as to
affirm that the Governors pro-
phecy has been literally fulfilled /;
but, making due allowance for its
metaphorical form, there is no
denying that it has been substan-
tally verified. If the Radical plan
of reconstruction did not organize
an actual hell in the South, it re-
suited at least in something little
short of anarchy. As for the con.
gressional and electoral gain which
it afforded the Democratic party,
the Governors figures fell below
the mark.
The first victim OF that plan was
the negro race in the South; the
second was the Republican party
itself. Republicans, pluming them
selves upon their superior craft.
have long delighted to style
the Democracy "the blum
dering party;" but certainly
since the war the Democracy has
never committed so great a blund-
er as the one in question. 1t was
through that mistake that the solid
South became so formidable fac.
tor in national elections, and has
at last with the aid of four North.
ern States only elected President
Of the Union, and wrought a po.
litical revolution of incalculable
consequence. This conclusion is,
perhaps, the most conspicuous in.
stance upon record of the unwis.
dom of making haste to seize a
temporary advantage without re.
gard to the ultimate tendency Of
the forces employed. 1t ought to
have been foreseen that in the
very nature of things the
superior could not long be
held in subsection to the in.
ferior race. Or il the Radi.
cal leaders could not have been
expected to foresee the final fail.
ure of their plan by the light Of
unaided reason, their judgement
might have been better guided had
they but given heed to the lessons
of history.
This is the point upon which
Judge Tourgee most insists in that
once famous book, "Tbe Fools
Errand." He declares that it was
folly beyond all comparison to ex.
pect a recently emancipated race,
unlettered and unframed, without
political traditions, and absolutely
ignorant of the first principles of
Government, to hold their own
against their former masters, a
people with q natural genius for
political management and actuated
by the strongest motives that can
appeal to human nature. 1t was
his opinion that the Southern
States should have been held in a
territorial condition directly under
Federal supervision, until South.
ern sentiment should have under
gone q change by contact with
Northern civilization, and the
blacks qualified by education for
the duties of citizenship. His was
the view Of a thorough-going Re.
publican and a sincere friend OF
the black people. But he propos
ed to close the door of the stable
after the horse had escaped-that
is to say, if he intended his book
to have any practical effect,
When the Southern States had
once recovered their autonomy
they could never lose it again ex.
cept BY another war; and when
the Republican party had once
been beaten throughout the South,
it could not hope to recover its
lost footing by renewing the fight
upon the color line. If that party
has any hope in the South at all
to-day it hes in the erasure of the
colored line,and in the abandon
ment of all the issues which have
been hitherto distinctive of its
Southern policy.