Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1885-01-01
THE NEW sovrHERN CRUSADE.

The Conquest which Has Become Iui@
perative, . Conquest not OF Bayoncts
bat Of Ideas.
The South was once conquered by
Northern arms. The immediate pur-
pose of keeping the South in the Union
was accomplished by that conquest, but
the larger purpose of abolishing SEQ
tional lines and making the Union one
and indivisiblc in spirit as well as in
law was not effected. Politically the
South still arrayed itself against the
North, and by methods more eSin to
those of slavery rule than to those Of an
era of freedom it has regained its oolit-
ical supremacy. A new conquest of
the South is necessary, not this time by
Northern bayonets, but by Northern
ideas. When this conquest has been
effected there will no longer be section
al lines dividing the former Slave from
the former Free States, and the results
of National electionsswill no longer be
indicated by line drawn from East to
West across the middle of the country.
An examination of the November
election returns for the past eight years
shows that this conquest is going on,
and with greater rapidity than is likely
to be perceived by those who look only
to the fact that in the last election a
Democratic victory was won by the vote
of a Solid South, supplemented by a
narrow majority in few Northern
States. Whilst from one point of view
it would seem that the Solid South has
become more solid than ever, ii careful
scrutiny of the returns will demonstrate
that the solidity of the South has been
greatly weakened at the most import
ant, because the most exposed points,
and that Northern ideas, followed by
Republican votes, have been making
steady and resiStless progress into the
South, along the same routes by which
more than twenty years ago Northern
men with arms in their hands pressed
their way to victory.
Republican attention has been mainly
directed to those States of the South in
which the negro element is numerically
strongest. 1t has been assumed that
the whole of this element being under
obligations TO the Republican party OF
the North for freedom and civil and
political rights, would vote with that
party. That assumption was correct
as far as the negroes were permitted to
vote. But by ways unnecessary to re-
call, the negro Republican vote was
suppressed, or otherwise made inef-
fective, and the States which should
RAXam Pf n tbs tbs s5aG nave 6eeR sH fadis
Democratic Businesses. In 1876 the five
States of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi and South Carolina cast an
aggregate Republican vote of 3S8. 286.
In 1880 the same States gave Repub-
lican vote of PAL 1863. Last month the
Republican vote of those States had
SHRINK to 217,901. Here was falling
off in eight years of over 10000, or
more than one-third This was due
not to conversion, but to suppression.
All endeavors to secure freedom of aC.
ton in those States and increase the
. Republican vote have proved ineffect-
i've. Clearly the way to pierce the
Solid South is not through the Gull
States, or by placing sole dependence
on the votes of the colored people Of
those States.
Turning to the border States a very
different condition presents itself.
Whilst Republicanism has been contin-
ually and rapidly losing ground in the
five "Black States of tho Gnlf and At
Iantic coast, it has been making steady
progress in the three border States OF
Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia. In
1876 these States gave an aggregate
Republican vote of $50, 1873, or about
5000 less than the five BLACK States. -
In 1880 the Republican vote had in
creased to 345,264, or more than 103,-
coo in excess of the Republican vote OF
the five States in the same year. In
November this year the three border
States cast a Republican vote of 1885,
463. which was considerably more than
double the Republican vote cast in the
same month by the five more Southern
States named. 1t is true that the total
vote had largely increased owing to the
growth of population, but the Demo-
cratic increase failed to keep pace with
the Republican. In 1876 the aggregate
Democratic majority was 1890. In
1880 it was reduced to 100, l22. Last
month il shrank to 49,. $50.
Where this Republican growth has
been most marked can be seen by the
in the three States a. the thfeo Presi-
Dental elections: