Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-11-17

which reference has been made, and SINH
lar ofienses against the genius Of the Re-
public. We are disposed to believe that
they are sincere. We believe that there is
a world of good meaning in the petition of
confidence in President Harrison, now
being signed in Alabama, and which is to
be forwarded to him, and that asks of
him in return that no Federal appoint
ments be made at the South out of the
carpet-bag or adventurer class, but only
from among men who, by reason of char
acter, ability and patriotic unselfshness,
will command respect. In fact, there are
several indications that new era is dawn
ing in the South and that the clouds of
intolerance and embittered prejudice are
rolling away never again to gather.
But if there are these who propose to
the new President that they viii abandon
the Democratic party as the piice of Ad-
ministration blindness to the repression of
the rights Of citizenship at the South let
them turn back to his speech at Indianap-
oils in October, 1888:
There has never been proposition looking
to the striking off of n shackle from the black
mans wrist, or from his mind or from his per-
sonal freedom which has not received my hearty
Endorsement and my personal help-n0t one"
At Detroit in February, 1888, General
Harrison made these unmistakable ex-
pressions:
There may be legislative remedies in sight
when we can once again possess both branches
of the National Congress and have an Executive
at Washington who has not been created by
these crimes against the ballot. Whatever they
are, we viii seek them out and put them into
force, not in spirit of enmity against the men
who fought against us-forgetting the war, but
only insisting that now, nearly = quarter of a
century after il IS over, free ballot shall not be
denied to the Republicans in those States where
rebels have been rehabilitated with full citizen
ship Every question waits the settlement of
this. The tariff question would be settled al
ready II the 6Oc0,U0J black labOTerS in the South
had their due representation i'll the House of
Representatives
= do not want to fight the war over again.
Not one of this great assemblage OF Republicans
who listen to me wishes ill to the South. If it
were left to US Gere to nigh the streams of her
prosperity would be full. We wish her citizens
to share in the onward and upward movement
OF great people. Our controversy is not one
of the past, il is one OF the present. We ask
that the South live up TO the terms of the
surrender at Appomettox. That great chieftain
said to the army Of Northern Virginia Yon
shall go to your homes, and shall be there un-
molested 50 long as you obey the laws in force
where you reside That is the sum of our de-
mand. We ask nothing more of the South than
that they shall cease to use this recovered citi-
zenship. which they had forfeited by rebellion,
to oppress and disiranchise those who equally
with themselves, under the Constitution, are en-
titled to vote-that and nothing more,&
The bottom principle, the foundation of our
structure Of government, is control by the ma.
Jorlty, legally ascertained by constitutional
methods. Everything else about our Govern
ment Is appendage, is ornamentation. Thus is
the monolithic column that was reared by
Washington and his associates.
The equality of the ballot demands that our
apportionment in the States for legislative and
Congressional purposes shall be so adjusted that
there shall be equality in the influences and the
power OF every elector Why is il to day that
we have legislation threatening the industries
of this country? Why is it that the paralyzing
shadow of free trade falls upon the manufac-
tories ana upon the homes of our laboring class.
1t is because the vote in the Southern States is
suppressed. There would be no question about
the security OF these principles, so long estab-
llshed by law, but for the tact that the working.
men OF the South have been deprived of theil
| influence in choosing Representatives al
Washington.
These expressions of President Harrison
the more significant having been made
within the current year, certainly indicate
in what direction the influence of the
White House will be exerted, and what
will be the policy of the new Administra-
tion toward the South-one of equality
and amity, but one of determination that
a republican form of government in the
full meaning of the term shall prevail
there as well as everywhere else in the
national domain.