The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-04-15
The Solid South.

The Solid South.
The April number of The Century
contains an open letter upon the above
subject by Edward P. Clark, editor of
the Brooklyn Union. What is the body
designated by this familiar ALTERATION,
how it was created and how it may be
broken, are the things of which Mr..
Clark writes. The Solid South" as
current political expression, came
into vogue during the national canvass
of 1876. The fifteen states in which
slavery existed, which by the partition
of Virginia are now sixteen, and which
have been controlled during decade
by the democracy, constitute the Solid
South.n The census of 1880 shows that
in South Carolina and Mississippi the
colored voters largely exceed the
white; in Louisiana the two races are
nearly equal in numbers; in Georgia,
Florida and Alabama there are one
fifth more whites than blacks; in Vir-
SlHlt anu INOl I'LL Val lllC WIltCo dlC
nearly twice as numerous, and in the.
more northerly and the old "border
states " of this region the sable shading
grows lighter, till it becomes hardly
more perceptible than in some of the
northern states. The "black belt !"
comprises the Coast States south of the
Potomac, and the Gulf States. This is
the " Solid South" How came it solid?
The law of political heredity-the influ-
ence of tradition and INTERCHANGEABLE
writer considers as one of the elements
which must not be overlooked in answer
ing this query. In Vermont the vote
for Fremont in 1856 was almost iden-
teal with the vote for Blaine in 1884.
The slave states were all strongly demo-
cratic before the war. The law of po-
litical heredity would naturally keep
them democratic after the war; Missis-
sippi, for example, if there were no
change in the class of voters in thirty
years, it might be anticipated, would
go democratic, just as Vermont would
90 republican. The calculations of the
trainers of the reconstruction measures,
based upon the relative number of
white and colored voters in the "black
belt" that negro suffrage would change
all this, have not been realized The
elements of failure were in the mental
and moral condition of the enfran-
chised race. Mr.. Clark says:
"Just think of it, Here was a race of
men who, through no fault of their own,
had been sunk by slavery and ignorance to
a condition but little above that of the
brutes, like which they had been bought
and sold at auction. They, and their an
been mere chattels, whom it was grave
crime to teach even to read. They were
absolutely devoid of the first qualification
for participation in the government of a
country which had always denied them the
right to govern even their own persons.
They were viewed, not merely with dis
trust, 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 as 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 majorites, to alb
solutely rule more than one American com
monwealth!'
"The results" the writer says, were
horrible; horrible, and yet the candid
historian will say inevitable" Negro
suffrage was naturally offensive to the
southern whites. Naturally they banded
together to resist it in the states where
the negro population, either alone or
by the aid of small fraction of the
white vote, was in the majority. The
ignorant negroes became the prey of
the worst white leaders. The carpet
baggers obtained control, and "the
saturnalia of corruption, the carnival
of misrule which followed, constitute
: the most frightful satire upon popular
government ever known" Revolution
} was the remedy the southern whites
employed. The government removed
the soldiers and by violence and fraut
/ the revolution was made complete
, Reconstruction had sought to put the
bottom rail on top to reverse the high
= est and lowest strata of society, to plac,
= ignorance and poverty in authority
3 over intelligence and property" The
4 revolution put the "bottom rail +" no
f only beneath but out of sight, politi
f cally, and, with tragic frequency, physi
Q cally. The negro vote was suppressed
g and it was from the first only ques
S ton how soon and in what way tn,