The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-01
:, The south's Maligners.

speaks the truth with respect to the political
situation in the south, is certain to be misrep-
resented and bitterly assailed by the Republi-
can leaders of the "bloody shirt" kind of the
worth. In the current numberlof the Forum
Senator William E. Chandler has an article
entitled "Our Southern Masters, in which
he asserts that the political control of the
United States is in the hands Of persistent
and unrelenting southern oligarchy. In
the course of his article, speaking of some
southern republicans of prominence, he
says: 'Ex-Gov. Bullock has purchased his
peace and safe return to Georgia by pub
licly advocating, while yet claiming to be
republican, the deliberate abandonment
by the north Of the fifteenth amendment"
Is this statement respecting Gov. Bullock
true7 Let him answer for himself HIS
attention being called to Senator Ch1adler's
article in the Forum, he said: "Ene refer
ence to myself is wholly uncalled for, and
is without foundation in fact IRave never
advocated, publicly or otherwise, the
abandonment of the fifteenth amendment
by the north and it has nfver been neces-
sary for me 10 purchase d safe return to
Georgia, in this or in any other manner.
So far from my advocating the abandon
ment Of the fifteenth amendment by the
north, have urged its full acceptance by
the south"
1t remarkable that SO prominent man
as Senator Chandler should have delib
| eyhtely put into print statement that he
Unjust have known was untrue, and which
was calculated not only to create false
impression in the north, but also to arouse
in The minds of a very large portion of the
Lorthern people feeling of hostility toward
the south. Senator Chandler, and men like
him, pretend that they want a friendly
feeling between the north and south, and
yet they never miss an opportunity to mis-
represent the real condition of affairs in the
south, and do not hesitate to sacrifice truth
| to accomplish their object
The motive for Senator Chambers I'M
founded charge against ex-Gov. Bullock is,
doubtless found, in the letters which the
latter wrote for the New York Press a
| few months ago, in which he urged that it
would be wise for the republican party to
abandon the issue that it had been trying to
make, viz: That the colored southern vote
was suppressed. The reason the ex-gov-
ernor gave for advising the abandonment
of that issue was that it was not based upon
truth.
Senator Chandler refuses to admit that
all colored voters in the south are not re-
publicans. He does not seem to desire the
truth. Because all colored voters do no
vote, and vote the republican ticket, he as
serts that they are not permitted to vote.
His assertion is so consplcuously untrue and
unfair that it ought not to receive serious
consideration even by the most bitter of the
northern republicans. Unfortunately,
however, it is seriously considered and be-
lieved by thousands Of people who have
neither the opportunity nor the inclination
to find out what the truth of the matter is
If Senator Chandler alone were engaged
in spreading false information respecting
the south the harm that would be done.
perhaps, would not be very great, but the
most extreme of the republican journals
are all the time doing the same thing, Only
few days ago the st. Louis Globe Demo
crdt asserted that Texas was the only south
ern state in which northern man could
live In peace and have the good will and
respect of his neighbors There are hundreds
of northern mon in every southern state who
are ready to testify that there is no truth
in this statement. Lately, Col John A
Macdonald, of Eustis, Fla, an OK federal
soldier and northern man, published in
the Lake Region a communication in
answer to letter from man living in a
northern state who wanted to know how
northern men were treated In the south
In this communication he said:
We northern republicans have been here
a quarter of a century. Our sons and
daughters are southern born. They are
white and they are democrats, and all that
we old-fashioned republicans can do would
not make republicans of our sons. And it
is not the southern people, our neighbors,
we have to blame for it, but the northern
demagogues whom we affiliated with in
former years. | can say that in twenty
years of my life as republican in Florida,
when to be II republican meant something.
| never was insIlted by democrat for my
politics, and never could find that it made
the slightest difference with me either in
business or socially.
What better evidence than this do the
maligners of the south want that there is
entire freedom of political opinion in the
south, and that mans reception in the
south depends upon his merits and not upon
the section from which he comes, nor the
political opinions he holds?