Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-04-01

HARRIsON's SOUTHERN SCHEME.
 President Harrison's plan of establish ing reputable republican party in the south, which would be in effect to re- vive the old whig party, is not likely to be successful if serious attempt is made toward its development. It is not sur prising that the plan has met with very little encouragement from the press either north or south, though the New York Times thinks it may contain pos abilities which do not appear at first sight. The southern papers as a rule see very little promise ill the scheme.
 In the opinion of the New Orleans Picayune, which has scant confidence i'll the project, there are some insuper- able obstacle in the way of such plan. One great difficulty in the fact that the managers of the republican party in the south are professional politicians, who will never willingly assist movement which would, if it became successful, deprive them of power and influence. A republican party in the south, organized and led by respectable southern men, might pursue policy that would be ia tai to the aspirations of politicians of the negro race, and they would exert their influence to antagonize the new depar- ture. The Picayune believes, and it is no doubt right in its assumption, that it will be impossible to draw into the re- publican party in the south the intellect and culture of that section of our coun- try so long as the party is used in at tempts to force the political supremacy of the colored men. Those engaged in this undertaking it thinks should recog nize the fact that, whatever pretensions of political and civil equality nasty and unwise legislation may have thrust upon the black man, no law and no exercise of physical or political force can create such equality, and that the negro must continue to be ward, under restraints and guardianships, at least until he shall, by moral and intellectual progress, be | made fit for something better, if, indeed the race is cabable of that.
 The Picayune, though probably re- | flecting it's own prejudice against col ored men, is probably not far off in the estimate of the fate that must inevitably l overtake a scheme such as President Harrison's is assumed to be. To form a new republican party ill thesouth means the disenfranchisement of the negroes, and the substitution for them. of the 1 white democrats. In other words it
 would necessitate bringing all the whites of the south into the republican party and arranging them in a solid block against the negroes. This would hardly
 be practicable, since it would be in effect to rob the republican gas grinders of the north of fuel for loading up about cleo. tion times. A republican stumper who
 would be compelled to mount the plat
 form without the stock ammunition of
 southern outrages and the bloody south would be pitiable spectacle, and it isn't
 at all likely that President Harrison o1 any other man would be allowed to rot
 them of this thunder without protest
 The negroes at the south, too, and some
 few honest-minded republicans who arc
 earnestly conscientious in their efforts tt
 secure political equality to the negro
 might be expected, in the contingency
 of such plan coming into operation, tt
 range themselves against the republican party. So that, look at Harrisons plal from whatever side we may, it seem altogether impracticable, altogether i'm possible.
 't It was probably broached rather as al
 offer to share the spolls with such repub lican states as would help to secur them. As such it is not entirely un , familiar in the workings of the repub lican party.