Birmingham age-herald., 1894-12-21
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CANCELLATION THE WORD.

CANCELLATION THE WORD.
 The tone of the Northern Republican press toward the South is now one of con- ciliatiou. The bitter, burning words of the past campaign have given place to words sweet as honey and as mild as mush. The Republicans evidently intend to win voters in the South by cosxing, rather than cursing. They see from the result of the November election that there is a hops of splitting the solid South. They claim that more Republicans were elected to Congress from the South than there were Democrats elected in the North. They look on the South as a more inviting field for proselytiug than the North or West. They see that the whites of several States Of tine south are dividing, and this gives assurance of fair elections. The admission of Senator Butler that the election laws of South Carolina were framed to forever keep the whites in power, to the exclusion of the negroes, has caught the ear of the North. The declaration of Senator Butler that Till man and his crowd have taken advantage of those laws to get into power and to per- petuate themselves in office, and that un- less these laws are changed so that fair elections can be held there will be bullets at the ballot box, has not been lost on the Northern Republican pol iticians. They see that the South is going to regulate its own elections so that they will be absolutely fair, and hence there is no need of Northern interference in the shape of Force bill. The need for the Force bill removed takes away the one great disturbing political factor between the North and the South. The better class of Republicans in the North, of whom Blaine was representative, never did favor the Force bill. They knew that it would be impossible to enact any law that would keep the whites under the political dominion of the blacks. All history teaches that the superior race will govern in spite of numbers arrayed against it. There is quality in the ballot, as well as quantity. There is q law higher than any law ever put upon statute book. Blood counts for more than ballots, and bravery more than poodle. Even if the blacks could have been given the supremacy in the South and maintained in that supremacy, these liberal Northern Republicans would not have desired it. At heart they were true Americans, and blood is thicker than water. The more radical Republicans could not overcome this liberal sentiment in their party, and hence the Force bill was a failure in effect. Now these radical Re- publIcans have come to the same way of thinking of their more liberal contem- poraries. They see the drift of events, and they realize that there is more hope of gaining foothold in the South by per suasion than by force. Hence they have ceased to sound the war cry by beating the fom-tom and are sweetly playing on the harmoDicon.
 With such a desire for conciliation pre- vailing the Republican majority in Con- gress will not ride roughshod oyer the mi nority and seat the Republican contestants whether they have any claim to the seat or not. Such a course would alienats the voters the Republican party hopes to gain in 1S96, and again inaugurate reign of force and not of peace. The day of reck on- ing will come in 1896, and tEe Republicans have not forgotten the lesson of 1892. The great majority of American voters demand justice and fair play, and they will turn the party out that violates the canons of truth and right. The New York Tribune, staunch Republican journal, has already sounded a note Of warning for the ears of the Republican majority in the House. It declares that absolute fairness must be observed in deciding the contested cases. The Republican majority is already so large that no partisan advantage can be reaped by taking advantage of the power given the House 10 decide upon the quali fications of it's own members, and great harm may be done the party by such course. The prob bility is that the benefit of lhe doubt will be given the Democratic contestees, and those Republicans in the South who look to partisanship to gain their seats will he woeIully disappointed. Again, it does not stand to reason that the Republican journals that have sent their correspond ents iuto the South to write up the recent election have done 80 for the purpose of getting up evidence to be used for partisan purposes. Such motive would be con- trary to the spirit of conciliation so plainly manifested. The probability Is that these correspondents were instructed to look for fraud on both sides-or at least to write the truth as they found it. We venture the prediction that their reports will be as fair as the Southern dawn and as sweet as Sou heru sugar.