The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1885-04-23
From the Century Magazine fer April
THE "NOLHD SOUTH ~

THE "sOLID sOUTH!''
Its Causes and Probable Disap.
pearance.
What is the " Solid Southy How came the
South to be solid In what way Can its solidty
be brokeus
The " Solid South" as a current political ex-
preston, came into vogue during the Hayes Til
den canvass OF 1875. The Demucraeic " tidal
wave in the elections of 1874 had shown
powerful, if not irresistible driff toward De-
mocracy in all the then lately Reconstructed
States, as well as in their sisters sn the odd
borderine which had also maintained slavery,
but which had not gone into the rebellion. The
alliterative term commended itself 10 the Re
publican stumpSpeaKers and newspaper organs as
happy catch-wOrd and the idea which underay
1t was impressive enough 10 arrest the attention
of the whole country. That sixteen common
wealhs, stretching frem Cape May down to
the Atlantic and around the Gulf TO the Rio
Grande, and thence back up the Mississippi to
its junction with the Ohio and the Missouri,
should all be controlled by the same political
party, as has now happened in three successive
PRESIDENTIAL elections (nOt counting the disputes
over the electoral votes of S,uth Carona,
Florida and Louisiana IN 1816) is truly fact of
the first magnitude.
Dividing the male population Of the voting
age according to the census of 1880 in this
section between the two races, it will be found
that in two States the possible black voters
exceed the white, in South Carolina as to
and in Mississippi as to 5; in Louisiana the
two races are almost exactly equal 10 numbers;
IN Georgia, Florida and Alabama the blacks
stand to the whites as TO 6, in Virginia as 9 10
3, and in North Carolina as to g. The pre-
portion then drops rapidly, being to 8 iu Ar
Kansas and Tennessee, to in Maryland and
Texas, to ) in Delaware and Kentucky, 1 to
10 In Missouri, and only tc 81 in West Virgin
ia. The " black belt" thus takes in all the
coast States from the Potomac to the Mississippi,
and Louisiana beyond while outside those
eight States the percentage Of negroes sinks till
1t reaches point scarcely higher than is found
in some parts Of the north
This is the Solid South" How came il tn
be solid? One element, which should be The
most obvious, is 50 often overlooked that its
very statement will surprise most people. This
Is the operation of what may be called the law
political heredity-the influence OF tradition
and Inheritance. No fact is more clearly de-
monstrated by our political history than the
tendency toward transmission OF party fealty
IN community of pronounced conviction from
one generation to another. The more hOmOge-
neOus the community, the more binding is this
law of political heredity. Vermont has received
but small Infusion OF outside blood during the
last thirty years, and the population Of the
State to-day approaches more nearly to being
the offspring Of the inhabitants of a generation
ago, unaffected by external influences, than that
ot any other commonwealth of in the Union.
The student Of political statistics will End that
the vote for Fremont in the Green Mountain State
IN 1906 (39, 56D was almost exactly Identical with
that for Blaine in 1884 (39,514); and the relative
division of parties has remained practically un-
changed during the whole intervening period
The slave States were all strongly Democratic
before the war. 1t was therefore not only nat
ural, but almost inevitable, that by the law of
political heredity they should have continued
strongly Democratic after the war, provi-
ded there had been no change in the char
acter OF the voting class other than that
produced by the tritlng immigration into the
section. That Mississippi, for example, should
so Overwhelmingly Democratic 10 1884 would be
"a thing to be as much expected as that Vermont
should go overwhelmingly Republican, prov-
ded that the suffrage in the Southern State, as
in the Northern, were now confined to the
same class of voters as welded it thirty years
ago.
1t was expected by the Republican leaders
who carried through the reconstruction meas
that the eniranchisement Of the negro
would change all this. They took it for granted
that the blacks would become always and every
where the firm supporters OF the party under
whose administration they had received both
freedom and suffrage. They supposed that the
white men would divide, as white men had
always divided, even in the most strongly Dem
ocratic States of the South, before the war
They expected that 9 large percentage of the
surviving "Old Line Whigs," and Of the de.
scendants of those who had carried half the
Southern States for Harrison 10 1840 would
embrace a party which found so many of its
Northern supporters among men of similar
political descent The census showed that in
twn of the States the black males Outnumbered
the white, and in third equaled them, while in
several of the others they were numerous
that their vote, combined with that of vigor-
Gus white Republican element, would constitute
majority. 1t seemed an easy matter. seventeen
or eighteen years ago, with pencil and piece
of paper to figure out sure Republican victories
in nearly every Southern State. Indeed, o cen
sus computation and firm belief in the power
of Federal patronage" We're almost sufficient
| TO make the South-n Republican imagination
=" solid for that party.
| But stupendous bunder had crept into all
these little sums in addition. Looking back
| camly upon il now, 1t seems almost incOmpre-
hensible that men familiar with the history of
| the world could have entertained such delusons
| Just think of it, Here was 4 race of men who,
through no fault of their own, had been sunk by
| slavery and Ignorance TO condition but little
above that of the brutes, like which they had
| been bought aud sold at auction. They, and
their ancestors before them for generations, had
| been mere chatles, whom II was grave crime
| to teach even 10 read. They were absolutely
devoid of the first qualification for participation
id the government of country which had
always denied them he right to govern even their
own persons They were viewed, not merely
with dstrust but even with violent hostility, by
| their late masters, who still felt wrOnged at
| being dispossessed by the Federal power OF
what they had been educated to consider as
| really property stocks and bonds. They
were scarcely better fitted to WELD the suffrage
than the beasts of the field. And yet they were
| intrusted with the power. under the law OF ma
iorilies, to absolutely rule more than one Amer
| ican commonwealth.
| The results which followed, at the hands first
| of the blacks and later OF the whites, were
horrible; horrible, aud yet the historian will
| say. in both cases inevitable. The ignorant
| negroes became, of course, the easy prey of the
worst white leaders. The sentiment OF the
white race being so hostile to The very idea oi
negro suffrage but few respectable natives of
that race, comparatively speaking attached
themselves to the Republican party The car
pet-baggers, who 80 largely assumed Its CON-
| mand despite some honorable exceptions, were
for the most part unprncipled men. with little
! honest regard for the interests OF either race
hut with strong desire to line their own pOck-
eta The saturnala OF corruption, the carnival
of misrule which followed. constitute the most
fri9htful satire upon popular government ever
known. The climax was reached in the black
legislature and "the rObbeF Governor" In
South Carolina. 1t became evident that there
must be either a revolution BY the white minor
itv. or ruin for whites and blacks alike. A rev
olu,ion was resolved upon by the whites, and II
vas carried through. The negroes were intimi
daied from going to the polls, 90 far ~ possible
and when violence did not sufice to keep them
awav. their ballots were tampered with and
neutralized after they had been cast. by iorcs
/ tAA onA Ira p<NR<