The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1890-07-30
An Old Carpet-BaExers Opin-

i u y.
An Old CarPet-BaEKers Opin-
Ion.
Gen, J. Hale Sypher, one of the
old carpet-bag brigade, an ex-cong-
ressman from Louisiana and a thor
ough Republican, has been talking
entertainingly to the Washington
correspondent of the Pittsburgh
Dispatch on the subject of the Fed
eral Election Bill.
/ 1t must not be supposed that Gen.
Sypher has any love for the South,
or any conscientious scruples about
the force bill. No, indeed, for he
believes in old Thad Stevens idea,
and, to use his own language, Awould
have wiped out State lines and cut
up the whole Confederacy into ter
ritories, and kept them territories
until the last man of the generation
of the war was dead or had repent
ed in sackcloth and ashes. No, in
ldeed, Gem sypler bAsss his opinion
that the force and fraud bill will be
a farce and dead letter from the
start, on other grounds, namely
Northern love for the Southern dol
lar Gen Sypher is Disguised and
is exceedingly plain and outspoken
in his language. He says of the
bill:
Given if it were all that it ought
to be to secure honest elections,
which it is not, it would fail of it's
purpose, because the sentiment of
the North would demand that it
be left dead letter am n North
ern man. / was born in Perry
county, Pennsylvania. l studied
law under Thad Stevens. But I've
lived in the South long enough to
know that the South will bitterly
resist the operation of such a law,
and that the bitter resistance on
their part will at once make the
North too cowardly to enforce the
law. The North is dominated by
love of the dirty but almighty dol
lar. If ever demand for Justice
touches the pocket of a Northern
man he will hum and haw and try
to see if there is some way out of it
without the sacrifice of a cent"
There is large chunk of ugly
truth in this. He continues:
"You can see it working every
where now. The loss of dollars is
threatened against the people of the
North, and Immediately the North
becomes cowardly, and those having
profitable trade relations with the
South are demanding that the ques-
ton shall be dropped. The South
has got'the grip on the North as ef-
tectnally as in slave days, and it will
keep it there. The administration
md Congress will at the next elect
ion be turned over to along lease of
Democratic rule as sure as night fol-
lows day, and not all the Quays and
HarriSons in the world can prevent
it. The last election was carried by
playing on the fears of Northern
men in connection with the tariff
That can't be done again, and now
other Democratic successes are to
be enhanced by playing on the fears
of the North that if hands are not
kept off the South dollars will be
lost to the people of the North
There is no sentiment, no patriot
ism, no love of justice intermixed
with the love of the dollar in the
Northern people, and by this sign
the Republican party is doomed.
Here are facts which the North
would do well to consider fully. We
do not believe with Gen. Sypber,
that it was "the dirty but almighty
dollar" alone that changed North
ern sentiment and compelled ces-
sation of federal interference in the
Southern elections. 1t was North
ern decency and good sense. But,
nevertheless, the passage of another
force bill must be disastrous to the
business relations of the North and
the South, which have grown very
intimate, and in which politics and
sectionalism now play no part. 1t
cannot be otherwise. When the
South starts in to express its resent
ment it does not do it by halves and
the effect of a revival of sectional
strife will first be felt by the North
In the region of its pocket book.
Aside from the considerations of
Justice and patriotism, would it not
be well for the North to think twice
before permitting the desperate and
reckless Republican gamblers in
Congress to perpetrate this outrage,
which is their last card? The utter
impracticability of federal interfer-
ence in Southern elections has been
definitely shown and the question
decided long ago.
Mr.. Blaine's reciprocity scheme
seems to have attracted attention in