Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-11-17
A BROKEN SOUTH.

contemplate, the solid array OF North
|ern States with an aggregate Repub-
lican majority Of over I 900, 600 votes,
and at the same time look at the
broken, shattered Southern Democrat
ie column, the question should occur
to them whether it is worth while to
continue the policy of trying to array
solid South against the North. 1t
was tried from 1861 to 1865, but il
went down in the blood ard smoke OF
battle, shattered by the invincible de-
termination of the North that this is a
nation, one and inseparable. 1t was
hoped that that would be the last OF
sectionalism in this country, and that
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and
from the Great Lakes to the Gulf OF
Mexico there would be but one people
This hope was premature. however.
In 1877 the solid South was rehabili-
tated again and section was once more
arrayed against section. This time
the Southern Democratic leaders did
not take up arms. They chose another
method ofgaining their object The bal
lot boxes were seized and by force and
fraud the sixteen Southern States that
had been openly or covertly in rebellion
against the Government were made
solid for the Democratic party. To
accomplish this half million of le-
gal Republican voters were disfran-
chised and hundreds of them fill name
less graves for vensuring to exercise
the political right the Government
had placed in their hands. To make
this Southern solidity effective an al
lance was made with the most disrep-
utable element of the Democracy III
the North. Gerrymandering, Tam
many corruption, and New Jersey pol
luton supplemented fraud and ballot
box stuffing in the South.
For seventeen years this second pc
Rod of Southern solidity continued.
During all that time the North has
seen its rightful political power dinin-
ished and its interests and prosperity
threatened by an unlawful combina-
ton between corruption and stolen
suffrage. 1t has seen one National
House of Representatives after another
returned with Democratic majority
which every intelligent man in the
country knew was the fruit Of theft.
To save itself from financial ruin the
North has been compelled to make
supreme eff. 1T inPresidential elections,
although it knew that fair vote and
an honest count i'll the South would
have insured it victory. For seven
teen years the North patiently bore
these wrongs, waiting and hoping
that the South would see its error and
of its own accord would turn its face
to the light. In all history there is
no such an instance of patient waiting
under wrong as the North has shown
in this matter, patience made the
more difficult by the presence Of a lit
tie band of deinagogues, who sought
to misrepresent every utterance on
the subject
But after seventeen years this pa
thence was exhausted. When the
North saw its prosperity destroyed at
the command of Southern free traders,
its defenders brutally deprived of the
pensions they had, earned and the
national flag dishonored and lowered
in the dust it thought that the limit
of endurance had been passed, and
that the hour for resistance had come.
And it rose in its power and might,
rose higher ard grander than it did
when Fort Sumter was fired upon and
with a fercer, holier determination
than the Fathers had when they band
ed themselves together against British
and smote with its burn
ing, blasting wrath the solid, fraudu-
lent South and the Democratic party
that it had made the instrument of its
crime. And today the solid South
lies broken and shattered and beaten
on the field and the Democratic party
is sharer in the wreck and ruin.
With these two conspicuous failures
of solid South before its eyes is it
not time for the thoughtful Southern
men to ask themselves whether they
have not given the South a wrong di-
rection and whether it is not time for
them to turn their faces away from
prejudice and intolerance and look to-
ward the morning light Of freedom
and liberalitya One solid South was
crushed by the presence of more than
900, 600 armed Northern men on its
soil. A second solid South has Just
been crushed by over 1000. 900 Re-
publican majority in the Northern
States. Is it worth while to try a
third solid South, or is it better to
step into the procession Of American
progress and keep time with the music
of the coming century, This is a
good opportunity for the South to
think over and decide upon this mo-
mentous questio n.-Philadelphia
Press.
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