The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-11-11
THE NECESSITY FOR THE THOR
OUCH ORGANIZATION OF THE
DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN
THE SOUTH,

The necessity in the southern states for
the thorough organization and thorough
ly drilled democratic party is obvious
to all thinking men who consider the con
ditions of the southern states and all
other minor issues are insignificant COM
pared to this great necessity But for
this complete, perfect and compact or
ganization of the democracy the force
bill' could never have been repealed.
The efficiency Of thorough organization
against the measure is prominent illus
tration that while the southern states are
patriotic and loyal, there have been and
will be occasions when the interests of
the people of the southern states demand
just such champion as the democratic
party has been and will be in all sec
tional issues.
There have been numerous occasions
when the necessity existed for the best
elements of the southern states to hang
together with tenacity that brushes
aside all minor considerations, but that
one illustration should be enough to con-
vince southern democrats that for the
safety, the happiness and the prosperity
of the southern states the democracy
should be always. in any and all emer-
gencies. knit together as with bands Of
triple steel.
: We are not of that number of extreme
optimists who believe the northern people
have no lingering prejudice against the
southern people, On the contrary, the
hearts of the northern people can be
easily fred against the southern people
by designing political demngogues. Ihls
is natural. Less than half a century
ago the whole south was in arms against
what they, perhaps truly, considered as
"the best government on earth," and 1t
will require other generations than this
for the north to regard the southern peo-
pie with the same confidence that they
place in their own people; but the north
ern people are fortified by the knowledge
of their loyalty to the government, and
while they feel the necessity of preserv-
ing intact n political organization in the
south to effectually battle against the
reduction of northern prejudice to prac-
teal Injustice against them, they at the
same time desire it to be fully under
stood that they are determined to pre-
serve this organization only to meet
emergencies, when this feeling in the
north crystallizes into practical unjust
and extraordinary measures or proposed
disabilities against them and that such
democratic organization does not mean
any attack upon the integrity Of the gov
eminent.
Many men who came south after the
war to engage in business enterprises and
who were conspicuous members of the
republican party recognized soon after
they settled in the south the necessity
for the existence of the democratic
party along these lines, and many of
them became democrats, who were of
great service to the states in which they
settled. OF this class of men the late
Gilbert ii. Walker, who became the first
democratic governor of Virginia elected
by the people after the war, can be
pointed to as n notable example. Gov
ernor Walker saw that if the southern
states were TO be equal TO the northern
states in state rights and privileges, it
must depend upon the democratic party,
and his patriotism impclled him
10 unite with the southern dem
ocracy. Perhaps the necessity
of the thorough organization of the
democracy in the south for the purposes
we have indicated does not now exist to
the extent that it did in the days of re-
construction, but we know rs long as
this secret distrust of the southern peo-
pie exists in the northern states its neces-
sity is imperative.
While we urge the Importance of the
thorough organization of the democratic
party in the south we do not do so with
any view of exciting sectiorism or sec
tional issues and animosities. If the
sentiment of sectionism did not exist in
the northern states to the extent of this
unjust suspicion against the southern peo-
Pile there would be no necessity for such
a thorough organization Of the party upon
which the southern states must depend
with the objects to which we have al
luded, but all intelligent men know that
it does exist; even those who have emf
grated from the north to the south since
the war know it better than many south
erners know it, and we often find them
more impressed with this necessity than