Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1892-06-30
THURSDAY, JUNE 80, 1892.
Democratic Ticket.
The Battle Joined-The Supreme Issue.

The two great political parties have
met in national convention, adopted plat
forms and nominated candidates for Pre-
sident and yice-President. The battle is
now Joined and will be more hotly fought
than any since the war, because the
result of none has heretofore been fraught
with such fa~r-reaching consequences.
The supreme issue in this campaign,
the one before which all others pale into
comparative insignificance, is the force
bill, championed by the Republicans on
one hand, and resisted by the Democrats
on the other.
. The keynote of the campaign was
sounded by the New York San, in its
leading editorial on June "a, when it
tersely presented this issue as follows:
There is one question depending on
the election of the next President which,
in its momentous importance and vital
imperativeneSs, must seem to every phil
osophic observer to exceed every other
political question that the people are
now called upon to determine. All diff
ferences of opinion respecting admins
traIve reform. or silver coinage, or free
trade. or personal qualities, or antece-
dents OF candidates-in short, the whole
ordinary array OF electoral controversies
are, in comparison, of inferior, indeed
of almost trivial, moment. We mean the
question whether those Southern States
which have inherited a negro population
surprising the number OF the white citi-
zens shall, by Federal law and Federal
military force. be subjected to the politi-
ca !ominaticn of negroes, to negro Leg
islatures. negro Governors and negro
Judges in their courts, or whether they
shall continue to be governed by white
men, as now. Now, it makes no differ
ence who may be the President whom the
Republican party elects. Since Blaine is
now permanently out OF the line of
power, that party is, by its nature and
traditions, under the necessity OF enact
ing and executing az election law whose
purpose and effort will be to put negroes
in control of several Of the Southern
States. There Will be some unwilling
ness on the tart of the patriotic minority
among the Republicans who will revolt
at the consequences of such a measure,
but their opposition cannot avail. The
necessity OF the situation will suppress
all such resistance. A force bill is the
first and inevitable result of a sweeping
Republican victory in November. On the
other hand. and by the nature and neces-
sity of the ideas involved, the success of
the Democracy is death to the force bin
project. Killed in this election it can
never be revived. In this view of the
contest, what conscientious Democrat
can hesitate about his duty? Better vote
for the liberty and white government OF
the Southern States, even If the candidate
were the devil himself. rather than con
sent to the election of respectable Benja-
min Harrison with a force bill in his
pocket"
To no one probably was the nomina-
ton of Grover Cleveland more unwel-
come than to Editor Dana, who penned
the foregoing lines. The tariff and State
bank planks OF the platform are also con-
trary to his views on finance and AKA
ton; and, moreover, four years ago he
opposed the reelection of Cleveland even
after his nomination. Yet Editor Dana
lays all this aside and gives his hearty
support to Cleveland, because he recog-
0izes the fact that the alarming conse-
-quences threatened by Republican force
bill o~eershadow everything else.
Surely this example of a Northern edi-
tor, who is really MOI il accord with the
Democratic party in one of its primary
doctrines-that of tariff acknowledging
aside all else in his opposition to a force
bill, aimed directly at the people OF the
South. is enough TO drive every thought
of a Third Party out of the mind of any
southern white man who ever dreamed
of abandoning the Only party which has
always stood as the bulwark of southern
liberty and security.
There is dangerin division among the
white people of the South. Such divi-
sion. or a flank movement broug..it about
by some drifting into the Third Party,
viii only increase the chances of Harri-
sons election, which makes heforce bill
almost a certainty.
Time and again in the history OF the
South nave her white people presented a
solid front. without any b:eak o. sign Of
division ia the column anywhere. This
was because the issue joined involved the
peace and good order of society and the
security OF our homes.
To-day our civilization and white supre-
macy are menaced, ard history is repeat
ing itself.
Strip the issue of al disguise and we
see that the denomination of Harrison,
on a force bill platform, means that a
Republican victory viii place a bayonet
behind every black ballot in the South.
This is the issue, and no patriot, North
or South, can think of it for a moment
without feeling the blood boil in his
veins.
For this reason the %iberty-loving peo-
pie of the North will revolt against the
policy of force and interference cham
pioned by Harrison and his party. AS a
result we shall see many doubtful States
swing into the Democratic. column and
join with the South in triumphantly
e~lecting Grover Cleveland o N the Ides of
November next.
The platform embodies many sound
principles, and the country is to be con-
graduated on the stand taken by the
Democratic party. Barring a few express
sions that are open to criticism, the plat
form will bear the closest scrutiny, even
though it be long and somewhat cumber-
some.
When the farmers who are training
with the Third Party are made to feel
that Democratic defeat means the force
oil in the South they will forget all
about the Third Party.