Morning journal and courier., 1888-11-21
soUTHERN 7ce5,OIlNsIsTENcY,

lOnsJ Ina elbY WOutO U6 OoASoO " A4oeAAAS
 SOUTHERN CONSISTENCY. TraveIer,s Observations of southern
 Sentiments at Election Time-Brag
 and Riuster-Progress ofthe Third
 Party Movement i'm Georgia.
 ATLANTA, Ga., Nov. 3. To the Editor of the JOURNAL COURIER:
 I have always maintained that the two most marked characteristics of the Southron are his proficiency at bragging and his ina- bility to reason. The first of these charac- teristics may be said to include the forid rhetorical extravaganza of southern oratory; while the second covers the fierce, passionate spirit which is so marked in oratory, jour nalism and even ordinary conversation in the South, as well as always in the conduct of the southern people. The first characteristic is accounted for partly by the fact that the southern people are only just beginning to do the things which the people of the North have been doing for years, and have accord ingly the swelling sense of pride enjoyed by boy with his first pair of top boots. It is, however, primarily accounted for by the iso- lation in which the southern people have lived, and the worse than feudal civilization which slavery developed in the South. On the second point it may be said that, speak ing in large way, the southern people do not know how to reason. They feel too much to be able to reason. Passion, pride, prejudice, sentiment-in short emotion in some form or other-sway the people and l blind their judgment, when reason and law should be their guides instead.
 l Both of these characteristics were illustra- | ted in Atlanta last evening in peculiar ways: First in the burning in ef6gy of the twelve l iurymen who acquitted the slayer of ''poor | Tom Gresham" ." on the ground that he shot | in elf-defense; and second in the Democrat i ic "mass meeting" which was held in the l county court house, the only political de- l monstration which has been indulged in dur l ing the campaign thus far in this city. Of the former incident your readers have preba- bly learned through the medium of the daily 1 papers. The second has escaped general att l tention and may be worthy of somewhat ex- l landed consideration.
 l The democracy of Fulton county deter mined to hold pow-wowl Senator Brown, l Captain Newman of Canton, eleetor from the | ninth district, John T. Graves and others | were invited to speak, the county court house | was secured as B suitable place for the gath ering, and about 8 thousand persops-to | quote the Constitutions own estimate of the | attendance-came together. There was no parade. no pyrotechnical display, no iliumi-
 nation of buildings, no flag raising; but
 there was plenty of fiery southern eloquence, | plenty of southern braggadocio, plenty of | bloody shirt waving, plenty of that tropical
 extravaganza in language in which the South | rons so delight.
 litical consistency Just as each county in Georgia stultiies nearly every other county | in the State in it's attitude on certain ques- ! tions, so at this meeting each speaker would stultify the position of all the rest on issues | involved in the national campaign, and even | his own position in many cases. But this | did not matter. The audience was not there | to think: it was there to feel. Reason and | logic would have created perplexity on the part of those present; invective and sarcasm | and 6orid verbosity reused them to trans ports of enthusiasm. One speaker would de- | clare that the race issue was not involved in 1 the campaign, despite the efforts of northern Republicans to make it appear to be by way | ing the bloody shirt The audience would l applaud the sentiment to the echo. mo. | ment later speaker Senator Brown) would 1 declare that protection vs. free trade was an l issue entirely outside of the present cam l paign; that the grand lssue," the 'tgrand- | est of all issues," race equality, was the great issue involved. The efforts of Repub- 1 licsns to divert attention to the tariff issue was contemptiblei And the same audience cheered itself hoarse applauding this senti- l ment.
 | One speaker would laud Cleveland to the skies for his bravery in issuing the fiat in fa- l yor of tariff reform involved in his message. Another would admit that he disagreed with the last speaker in regard to the tariff; "but
 what of thats The real issue was one be- tween civilization and barbarian; between honesty and corruption; between respects-
 bility and that which was lowest and basest in American life." And the same audience lashed itself into fury of assent to each proposition.
 in very gingerly way, all uniting in the
 declaration so often made by the Constitu-
 ton, that the Democratic party may commit ] itself to any policy, honest or dishonest, wise
 or foolish, without forfeiting the support of
 it's southern contingent. Indeed, though the
 Democratic party should repudiate and abuse
 its following in the South, that following
 would remain true to the democracy if only
 the democracy continued to pursue it's policy of hostility to the negroes.
 Thurman was smeared over liberally with
 southern taffy, but not a word was said about
 his remarks at the Cincinnati exposition or l Democratic day, in which he proclaimed that I the fundamental doctrine of democracy wal the ancient Jeffersonian maxim that all mer | are born free and equal. No more scathinS
 arraignment of the solid South could be con ! ceived than that involved in this declaration
 1t is as if Thurman had said ont and out
 aThe only reason why slavery and the evili which followed in it's wake have existed a l all in the South is that the South has no
 been truly Democratic.n Indeed, accepting his oft-iterated definition of democracy, h. might have added that the caste-cursec , South was so far from Democratic that tht South and democracy were antipodal in thei relations to each other. The Atlanta audi ence of last evening submitted meekly to al l this implied rebuke. It literally kissed tn rod that smote 1t.
 The address of Captain Newman was no ? More than this; it was brutal in its vulgari : ty. He made use of this expression: 5 "A man who is Republican down her isn't man. He is political mule."
 He said he wouldn't discuss the tariff 6 all, admitting that he didn't know anything
 about it anyway. This was quite in lin
 with the proposition which I have alread. , laid down, that argument does not com 6 within the range of the southern orator. : powers.
 Mir. Graves spent some time in assurin, ' the audience that Atlanta, sthe brillian 8 heart of the grand old Empire State,n was il t all respects the leading city in the Unitet
 States, and said great deal about the ne : cessity of rsducing the surplus, ,-withou s darinQ to emphasize much the means of ae $ complishing this suggested by Presiden a Cleveland.
 ' Senator Brown was received with grea enthusiasm.-he whom in the days of recon l. struction the people of Georgia could nc
 sufficiently abuse. wondered whether b
 had forgotten the terrible baptism of hal le through which be was called to pess dusin