Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-10

that the Democrats would put them in
slavery again II they elected president.
They told this story to the colored man
in his midnight secret meeting; and
would then tell the Northern voter that
we wanted pay for the slaves. The Re-
publican party has made twenty-five
year campaign of prejudice and misrep-
resentstion at both ends of the line TO
perpetuate their power. and only let up
on 1t little when Northern men, visit
ing and moving into the South, begun to
expose their declarations. Even now,
at this late day, they are not willing to
face the country on economical issues
alone, but must "blow of" on the
bloody shirt.
HOW INFLUENCED.
So help me God 1 don't believe there
is twenty per cent. of the voters in any
Southern state whose political opinions
are any more Influenced by the last war
than they are by the war between the
Romans and Carthagenisns. A very
large proportion of the native voters in
the South were either not born when Lee
surrendered, or were, like myself,
Fbare- footed'' boys, hardly old enough
TO go TO mill, much less war, and as
young as we were, we were taught and
thoroughly understood in six months
after the surrender that our fathers had
risked the slavery question to the for
tune of war and lost. I tell you why the
South is solidly Democratic.
We are an agricultural people, COM
| paratively hard working and poor. We
believe in both an honest and economical
administration of the government. We
want commerce restricted as little as
| possible, especially with the immense
and rich countries to the south of and
| adjoining US, SO we can sell our hard
earned products in the best markets and
buy our necessaries at the low
est prices. The Republican party
has always, and still believes in
restricting trade; has destroyed our
shipping interests on the Southern coast,
contracted the circulating medium and
prejudiced the North against us. as well
as the colored ele ent in the South,
and made US by their policies work
twenty years to recuperate from the
misfortunes of war, when under ordi-
nary conditions ten years would have
found US better off than ever. There Is
no prejudice in the South against the
North, or against individual Republic
cans but there is an opposition to some of
the policies, and especially the e1trava-
gance and the prejudice-creatlng dispo-
sition of that party. 1t was and is now
running the government too much in the
interests of monopoly. 1t has given
millions of unearned acres of land to cor
porations upon which your children and
ours should have found homes at nomi-
nal instead of speculative prices.
1t has sacrificed the producer and
legitimate trading or mercantile inter
| ests to few manufacturers. 1t has
I ,InNt If.aE NJ
forced our Impoverished people to pay
high rates of interest To blind the peo-
pie of the North and keep up their ma
iority and control of the government,
they have told them war stories, and
gave TO the camp follower and bounty
Jumper who could show no honorable
soar, the same pension, that they gave
to the manned Union soldier who fought
from patriotism and whose pensions, the
sous of our fathers, who inflicted wounds
would like to see increased and cheer
fully help pay; they have put bad cold
contracted twenty years after the war
on the same footing as an honorable
wounds.
They have made millionaires out of
pension agents who never smelt gun
powder. They have made political
favorites out of ex-Southern soldiers,
who would participate in these extraya-
Cancies and approve of these policies land
Williams and rebels out of all Southern
men who would not do SO even though
not conceived when the last gun was
fired. They have made Chinese wall
out of 700 miles of Texas border, and
with nothing but creek between us, we
stand on our side and see Germany and
England doing all the business on the
81 n
York and our other immense commercial
cities are no more than cross road VIII
lagos SO far as the commerce of that
country is concerned. Our surplus pop
ulation, neither black or white, will
settle in the fertile and cheap lands of
these countries because our ships and
commerce don't go there.
say to you in all candor that 'the
South Is solid - because she believes IN
Democratic principles, because for every
dollar we pay IN taxes we like TO get
dollars worth of good government, and
for every dollar we pay out for 'sweet-
eningb we would like to have one dollar 3
worth OF sugar and no sand; and when
we buy our cloth we would like to get il
at fair price, and all wool and a yard
wide. We will cheerfully pay our part
of larger pensions if you will pay them to
the men who need them because or WOUNDS
inflicted by our fathers. The Republican
leaders will find that the Northern aud
Western producer is beginning to want
the worth of his dollar as bad as his
Southern brother. and is studying poll
tics with the war chapter left out, and
organizing to see If he can t get this gov
eminent on business basis. All over
this country the business man is begin
ming to ask himself why he shouldn' buy
and sell in larger markets, and own his
own ships, or have his goods carried
cheaper.
The producer is wondering why he has
to take what he can get for the produce
of his farm, no matter how much below
cost, and pay three prices for what he
has to buy. He is beginning to wonder
why out of his hard earnings in farming
and labor he should pay pensions to men
worth more than he is, many of whom
not only can't show q wound but who
never fought, and are strong enough to
throw bull yearling over the fence.
The farmers all over this country work
harder and harder each year, and see
their crops sell cheaper, their mortgages
and their dry goods and grocery bills
grow larger. No, my friends, you will
find that the same causes that have