The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1890-10-04
KAFTERSOS IN BOSTON.
[Age-IIerAld.l

sets Reform League in Boston Friday
night likely TO attract more attention
than any oratoricsl effort made in this
country since Mr.. Grady spoke in the
same city just prior 10 his death.
MIR. Watterson began his speech
with the following pointed sentence,
as characteristic as it was epigram-
matte:
Two dangers seem to me at this
time to threaten the integrity of the
Union and the prosperity of the peo-
pie. One of these is the gospel of
force, and the other is the doctrine of
protection. The first is expected to
hold the country, whilst its fellow
skins it; and to both, the Republican
party has committed itself.'
There is great deal Of truth in the
sentence and 1t aptly describes the
present attitude of the Republican
party. There is not so much danger
In the doctrine of protection per Sc,
but in tho perverted use to which the
Republicans have put it there is not
only danger, but actual oppression.
Mr.. Watterson has rightly depicted
the Republican policy. That policy is
by measures of force to fasten ITS hold
on the country and then proceed to
legislate at its will in the interest of
favored classes.
But the most valuable portion of
Mr.. Watterson's speech was the appeal
he made tho North to cease Its prose-
cution of the South to abandon the
doctrine of eternal hate. al come not
here TO make apologies" he said. al
stand in this great and free city of
Boston, this shrine of American man.
hood and liberty, an American citizen,
with all his faculties about him and all
his rights intact, to call halt upon
fifty years of sectional elimination and
recrimlnation.' Mr.. Watterson further
said.
"Ever since the termination of the
sectional war with the total collapse Of
the Southern Confederacy, there has
existed at the North body Of public
men, who, with varying degrees of
indiscrimination, but an eyer-increasing
resonance, persist in ascribing to the
white people of the South, purposes
and character wholly foreign to
them. According to these prophets Of
evil, the average Southerner is cross
between a feudal lord and modern
tough. According to them, society at
the South is organized into aristo-
Gratis and ruflians, united by the CON-
mon bond of hatred alike to the negro
and the Union. The poor blackman,
Is pictured as patient martyr, abased
and menaced In his person, cheated of
the fruits Of his labor and deprived Of
his legal right to vote. On these
premises and pretenses a series of ex-
traordinary schemes of relief from
Mr.. Thaddeus Stevens original plan
Of reconstruction to Mr.. Lodges re-
cent bill for the regulation of Federal
elections, have been formulated and
proposed, and some of them enacted
into laws. Most of them have been OF
doubtful constitutionality, aud all of
them an actual injury to the blacks
and the whites of the South, and to
the cause of a complete restoration of
fraternity between the sections. None
of them could have woathered the dis
closures of unprejudiced and free dis
cussion, and few of them would ever
have been thought ofexcept for a be-
lief In the Northern mind that the
South required more than the arbltra-
ment of arms to qualify 1t for its re-
habilitation In the Union that II re-
quired system of reorganization and
a term Of probation and discipline be-
fore 1t ceuld be trusted being, as a
matter of fact, composed Of human
material so different from that COM
posing the North. For twenty-five
years these delusions have been art
fully cultivated by the Republican
leaders and offered from time to time
as justification for such measures of
party necessity as the changing pres
sure Of public opinion seemed to de-
mand
All this while, the white people Of
The South have stood sometimes dazed,
and sometimes amazed, and sometimes
indignant, wondering at all times how
the people Of the North could find II
In their minds and hearts to pursue
course so mistaken and relentless. All
the while, South as North, men and
women have lived and died, have
prayed, loved and toiled, true to their
country and themselves, hoping year
after year for better times, still look
ing, not backward, but forward un-
til, at this moment, the war, and all
that 1t embraced, rises like spectre
in the memory Of those who bore O
part in It, whilst to the millions who
have been born and have come TO their
majority since It's close, II is myth Of
the Middle Ages. Yet the mailed
hand Of the Republican leader still
clasps the sword of conquest, aud the
savage face of eternal vengeance is
turned upon US, without the least
abatement, or distinction. 1t Is
enough that q white man living in
the South is not q Republican to OBJ
tain for him from those who claim a
monopoly of patriotism, enlighten-
ment and virtue, the description of an
enemy and traitor"
Appeals of this kind ought to have
influence with the more sensible and
conservative people of the North, aud
we believe they will. AL grounds
for jealousies aud animositcs have
long since ceased, aud it will not be
in the power of anachronlc fanatics
and designing politiciansjo perpetrato
and unnatural dislike.
Mr.. Watterson, Of course, had a
great deal to say about the tariff, and
in mastery way pointed out the in
Equities of the Mckinley bill. He was
very much at home on that subject,
and though an extremist, he handled
1t in very interesting manner.
In his peroration be REQUIRED TO the
sectional phase of politics aud closed
eloquently thus:
II will take Arkansas, Texas and Mis-
sissippi for my examples, and, asking
you to judge them by the representa-
tives they have at this moment in the
public life Of tho couDsry-and chal-
lenging the closest scrutiny place