The Portland daily press., 1890-07-26
The Boycott Programme

In spite of the caution of the more conser-
vative Of Southern statesmen the advice cf
the Atlanta Constitution and Coy. Gordon to
boycott Northern business men in case OF
the passage of the Federal election BILL
seems TO be gaining great many adherents,
especially In the far Southern States. Along
the border it is not SO popular. One is re-
mided In reading the deliverances of these
Southern hot heads very forcibly of the
utterances in the South that followed the
first election Of President Lincoln. Here is
the President of bank at Rome, Georgia,
declaring that I'VE will take care of the God
given rights which are ours" Precisely this,
kind of talk was made when Lincoln was
elected. The God given right" which they
were going to take care of then was the
right to hold men in bondage; now it is the
right to stuff ballot boxes and throw out the
votes of men who do not vote to suit the
views Of the best people," Ont in Louisi-
ana there is talk Of holding general con-
vention Of representative men of the South
ern States to devise means for prosecuting
the industrial warfare that is meditated
against the North. A general convention of
the Southern States was prominent fea-
ture in the proceedings of 1861. There is
this very marked difference. however, be-
tween the procedure now and thirty years
ago. They don't talk now of taking up
arms. They have got enough of that. The
new warfare Is to be peaceful. 1t is going
to be confined to the boycotting of Northern
sellers and Northern buyers The cotton
is going to be exported to England, so that
Northern cotton mills canget none of it,
| and the manufactured articles which are
needed are going to be imported directly
from England. This is the programme laid
| out.
| OF course its object is to brighten Northern
merchants and manufacturers and thus in.
duce them to labor for the defeat of the
Federal election bill. Indeed the Atlanta
| Constitution frankly admits this to be its
purpose in the following remarkable deliver
| ance
The obnoxious bill will not be disposed of in the
fbat s he done az o nqs rnere Is WORK
are now placing orders at the North for the fall
trade. Let these orders be made conditional
orders are to be cancelled If the Force bill passes
with this positive condition attached to every
order for goods the Northern trade centres will
De mace TO appreciate the gravity OF the situation
l
that the people of the North were not to be
coerced into desertion of what they be-
lieved to be right by threats to disrupt the
Union and plunge the nation into war. The
South will find that its present threats are
equally impotent. The advocates of the
election bill are meditating no persecution
of the South, no interference with the rights
OF the people of that section. Local sell
government at the South is not to be inter
fered with. The people there are to be left
to manage their own affairs in their own
way All that the advocates of this bill in
sist upon is that the South shall in elections
that are purely national observe the consti-
tuition of the country and allow every
man who is an elector under the constitu-
ton the privilege of voting and of having his
vote counted. This new uprising of the
South, like the former, is an uprising against
the constitution Of the country.