Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-01-16
WHY THE SOUTH MUST REMAIN
UNITED.

given below, and the reasons why
the South should remain united are
so ably, clearly and forcibly set out
that it is simply unanswerable:
The political unity of the South
maintained through all vicissitudes
since the close OF the war, has been
throughout q necessity for its orderly
progress and development. 1t suits
the partisan purpose OF extreme re-
publicans to say that the democratic
solidity of the South is based upon
the survival prejudices growing out
of the civil war The truth is that
the Southern people have acted as a
political unit for the past thirty
wears as matter, first, of social self
preservation, and next rs 4 matter OF
common business interest.
1t is certain that the great body OF
the people of the North have never
realized the tremendous force of the
reasons which drove all the decent
white men of the South into one
party. and which have kept them
there for Il whole generation. The
republican party, in the first flush of
its resentment, thrust upon The South
II race problem that involved Il men
ace 10 the entire social order of this
section. The attempt, by the use OF
federal power and patronage, TO
make the negroes the dominant and
ruling party was, in fact, a challenge
10 American civilization as that term
is everywhere understood by North
ern as we'll as by Southern men. Ii
the same race problem, under the
same conditions, were 10 day pre-
sented to New York or England. we
doubt not that all party divisions
among the white voters of that
section would disappear as COM
pletelv as they have done through
out tile South, and there would be
but one party OF white voters until
the rule of the untittest had ceased
TO be possible.
The republican leaders still con-
tinue to threaten the Southern PEG
pie with social and political disorder
based upon the use Of the black vote.
ANY new party, however crazy or
dangerous its aims may be. so long as
il promises any advantage to the
National Republican party, receives
its approval and help. We have Just
seen it aiding the holbites i'll Ala
bama. And no sooner was it known
that there was democratic dissension
in Louisiana than the republican
leaders were swift with words OF
encouragement and promises OF as
sistauce TO the diSaffected element.
Anything TO break down the polltl-
cal unity OF the South has been the
keynote of republican policy from
first TO last. The sugar bounty 10
the Louisiana planters was intended
as a bride. The aid given to holb
and his crowd in Alabama was a
threat. The object is always the
salne-to divide the Southern de
mocracy and resurrecu republicanisin
on the race line. Therefore. the
Southern people can no better afford
TO day than at any previous time &c
allow themselves TO be divided. Theil
social order and domestic peace, in a
word their civilization, is still III
stake.
Moreover. as we have said, the
political soidity of the South Is still
a business necessity. The tariff policy
of the republican party is sectional
and destructive of Southern inter
esrs. The democratic tariff policy Is
national, and while it is favorable &c
the South as contrasted with the
republican policy, it is only so TO the
extent that it treats the South with
fairness and promises in time TO leave
it III the enjoyment of its own
splendid agricultural resources, free
from the unjust burdens of protec-
ton which now drain so large a
share of the wealth that properly
belongs to it into the Golfers Of the
protected manufacturers.
1t is in the nature of things that nc
protective system can ever dement,
the farmers and planters OF the South
Year after year they produce an en-
ormous excess of cotton, corn and
other products of the soil which can
not be sold in home markets and
must be sold in foreign markets at
prices fixed by free competition with
the farm products of the round globe,
from India to Brazil. The republican
party could not possibly protect the
South, even if it put tariff rates on
Its staple products as high as the
great wall of China. All that It's
high tariffs have ever done for the
South is to increase the price OF
everything it buys and lower the
price of everything it has to sell.
Old England fixes the prices OF
Southern cotton, corn and wheat,
and New England fixes the cost Of
all the manufactured goods Southern
people buy. And that is why the
political unity of the South is a
business necessity until the republi-
can tariff policy, which dead beats
the South at both ends OF the line,
at home and abroad, has been COM
pletely reversed.
The instinct of self preservation
that has welded the Southern people
into close political union which nc
disintegrating force within and nc
republican intriSues without have
been so far able to dissolve has not
vet fulfilled it's mission. The same
social and business interests that
first made the South unanimous IL
DOllUlcal dCtlOH law sum W "
guarded. The future of the South
is "a glorious one, but it is conditioned
on her people being trne to them
selves. If, bribeG by appeals to MI
nor interests or induced by dema
gogues to follow after new parties
with crank programmes, they once
invite the republican extremists tG
regain foothold among them anc
revive the political methods OF recon
struction days. they will bitterly rue
their folly. Political confusion, SO
cial disorder and business chaos lie
that way.
Much has been won already by the
South's unwaverirg fidelity TO the
principles and policies that not only
make for her own but the nationa
welfare. In spite of all protectionis1
Boosting, it is the South's magnificent
natural industries, unfostered by
tariffs as they have been and always
must be, that form the backbone o!