The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-05-12

the English alliance and free trade
once more. Free trade is still the
dream of the old South, whose
cornerstone was the plantation idea,
wide lands. an accomplished few en-
| riched by the ignorant many toIllng
for bare subsistence. The old South
whose old master class can forget.
with magnanimity, the bitterness of
the war. but cannot forgive the en-
reimbursement of their slaves. The
old South, which appalled, at the rule
of the ignorant majority, resorts in
turn to violence or fraud, convinced
that if ever the small white minority
yields at the ballot box to the grow
ing black majority, then will be the
doom in the cotton States of public
and private rights. The old South,
which, bewildered by the gravest
problem of civilization, blindly keeps
solid the black vote by outside pres
sure, by the denial of full citizenship,
which excuses the fraudulent denial
of fair poll or count in communities
where there is a black majority by
reason Of color, ignorance and power.
ty; convinced that fraud affords the
only escape from the supremacy of
the poor and ignorant mass. The
old South, which passionately forbids
massed black ignorance to be counted
against its own intelligent white mi
nority, but with shameless inconsis.
tency believes it right to count this
uncounted black vote wherever the
South needs an Offset to as many in
telligent Workingmen's votes actually
cast in the North and West, believes
1t right TO thus quadruple the power
of the white minority of the cotton
States at an election for President
and Congress. This old South, whose
old Confederate leaders on this floor
now seek by free trade and the Eng
lish alliance to readjust the old plan.
tation idea to raw products of mines
and fields with cheap peasant labor.
'"There is hope in the new South
with her exultation in her new-found
treasures, her inexhaustible mines of
coal and iron. her mountains of iron
and salt, her copper. lead, her gran
lite, her fire clay, her cement and
lime rock. all imperiled by this bill.
The new South, with its nascent in
dustrial fire, its CLEANS of wealth
through whirling spindles and looms
and molten glass.
"The new South, with its growing
impatience with the plantation idea,
the growing belief that the Northern
township system will not sustain
Southern booms.' The new South,
by slow degrees learning that the
healthful growth of Southern towns
and cities must be grounded upon
the education of the whole mass of
the people, by the free consent of all
under local self-government with
equal civil rights as citizens. The
new South, conscious of the value of
its free black labor, beginning dimly
to see that this labor, robbed of its
dues for two centuries, must be edu-
Gated if the South would rival the
Northern labor, if it wants the fac
tory to raise the value of the farms,
and around the shops to grow a viii
lage.
1.-THE new South, which believes it
must lift its labor above the level of
Europe, and that, like the North, 1t
must eventually pay its skilled
workers in metal, glass, wool and
cotton fifty per cent. more than the
old world, if it would transform It's
towns into cities and diffuse pros
perity over countless small farms.
"Upon this new South. thrilling
with mighty enterprises, developing
her mines. founding her cities. Mr..
Cleveland's message against pro-
tective tariff fell like some unWel-
come bell kneling a departed friend.
This cry of free raw materials is the
device whereby to drive the new
South back to free trade before the
Transformation weds her to the tariff
which made New England great.
John Randolph said he would go
mile out of his way to kick a sheep.
He hated the animal which made
the farmers protectionists. Like an
other Tannhauser, the new South
has just broken away from the tolls
of slavery. 1t has awakened to the
industries of the earth, just when it
is exploring the seams Of earth to ex-
tract its ores, just as it stands by the
mouths of its new made coal pits. the
Presidents message and Mills bill
summon the new South again to
slumber, that the vines may cumber
the forests, that bats and owls may
inhabit the shafts of deserted mines,
that spiders may weave their webs
over the mouths of the coal pits, that
the grass may grow again in the viii