The Portland daily press., 1888-11-13
The Solid South

ne campaign Just closed Is the first Presi-
Genital campaign since the reconstruction
period IN which what is popularity known as
the bloody shirt has not been waved. II
Is the first campaign in which issues growing
out OF the VAR have not cut a conspicuous fig
ure. The tariff and civil service reform mo-
nlpollzed the stump and the organs Of both
parties to the almost total exclusion of every
thing else. The wisdom of excluding war
issues has been demonstrated by
the resnlt.s West Virginia has probably
been carried By the Republicans, in Virginia,
the Democratic majority is cut down to a
small figure, in North Carolina the Republi-
cans have made gains in consressInen, and
the same has happened in Tennessee and
Missouri. II is safe to say that none of
these things could have happened had the
Southern question been made prominent in
the campaign. By eliminating in some de-
gree the race Issue the Republicans have
succeeded In dividing the white vote Of sew
eral Of the Southern States and in SO doing
have secured to the negro the right to vote
and to have his vote counted The cam
paign has foreshadowed the way in which
the Solid South can be broken. and the Re-
publican party has only to pursue this way
In the future to etfectually break it.
Some time before the opening of the cam
paign Republican editor of West Virginia
travelling in Maine was asked this CUES
ton:
VIII effect upon The Republican party in your
state 40 s mea,urss Ike Mr. ohanders bill 10
the bloody shirt In the North have?
And his anq1uar ,uae.
They hurt. We are making ilroads oilthe De.
m cracy Of West Virginia, most of all the riff
issue. And the farther we can get AWAY from
thnse issues which southern m Ii regard as war
issues the more rapid and greater the iuroads. we
shall l:ake into the Democratic forces.
The correctness Of this gentleman's views
completely demonstrated by the recent
lection. The Republicans have made in
ads into the Solid South because they have
rned the attention of the whites of the
uthern States from the race issue. AS
as that issue is the pr miuent one in
South the whites will be found ranged
silly on one side and the negroes ON the
other. And in such a contest as that
h@ers count for much less than iutelli.
se,, money and brains. Even where the
heees have outnuInbered the whites two to
oneaey have been circumvented by force
ana fraud and effectualy deprived of
theibolitical rights. Til, is entirely in
conniwith the foundation principle of a
repuDan form of government, that the
MAJOR shall have the right to rule and ex-
ercisel But wherein lies the remedy? The
sehtlme of the North will no longer per-
mt troo' to be stationed in Southern States
70 secursto the negroes free ballot and a
lar coul, and that remedy utterly failed,
700, whent was applied. The supervision
VI oouther elections would do little good,
because shtAgh ii might secure fair count
IT. would No inspire the negroes with suffi-
cient courigeand confidence to induce them
to vote frey. Today the negro is ter
rorized. Uhta that condition is removed he
never can y induced to vote freely and &C.
cording To he dictates of his own desires.
10 protect nm election day, but leave him
exposed the Est of the year will accomplish
nothing. Befre his timidity can be removed
he must be mae to feel that portion of his
white neighboi will protect and defend him
in the exerce OF his right to vote
every day il the year. But while
the race isst predominates he will
always find hiswhite neighbors arrayed
sOlldly against hi The only remedy then
for negro DISBURSEMENT is to divide the
white vote. Whe this is done we need
nave no fear but t. negro will exercise his
right 20 vote freely I'D will have his vote
honestly counted. Al the only way to break
the whlte vote is to irAct new !. snes antiraIv
disconnected with IT, race question. The
tariff question has dos more IN breoI .no
solid South than all theegislatio a. twenty
years succeeding the rsonsuuction period
1t can be depended on IL break il
still further If it is not nuili6ed H.,
the sevival of the "blGdy s.irt.n The
Republican party need not abate one ,ot or
tittie Of Its demand for fre ballot anG a
iair count. 1t can fully justly itself in IT.
Iusing 10 directly interfere il Southern cleo
lions ON the ground that to d, SO will inevi.
taoiy postpone the realization # its demand
we believe the country long ag, came to the
conclusion that the settlement Of the South,
ein question must be, left largely to time and
to new issues. The issues are row at work
and 1t will be the part of wisdom not to in.
terfere with them.
1t should be the aim Ofthe Republicans for