The Honolulu republican. [volume] (Honolulu, T.H.) 1900-1902, 1901-06-09


week after the defeat OF the Repub-
hcans in 1885. In the midst Of all
these evidences Of sectional hostllffy.
which we're never SO strong as nov,
Ne are called upon to receive the cleo
ton OF Mr. Buchanan-elected -
cause the enemies OF the South couId
not agree among themselves; elected
by very small majority. elected BY
q minority OF the popular vote-as z
proof OF the prevalence Of the Union
and constitutional principles. and as 4
pledge that the conditions OF the Con
federacy are hereafter TO be fulfilled
We think we have reasonable guam
tity of creiuiity, but we have not
enough to swallow this creed The
Mercury had been the organ Of the
Rulliiers back in 1882. and had been
the mouthPiece Of the radical element
Of the Southern people from those
days on TO the beginning of the civil
war. When. By the rise of Calhoun
IN the notification days, South Caro-
lima snatched from Virginia the pri-
macy in the South which that state
had held along TO that time, and which
the Palmetto State enjoyed afterward
until the crash which began at Sum
ter, the Charleston Mercury became
the foremost journalistic exponent of
the radical sentiment which culmin-
ated in secession Il had at one time
and another, as contributors to It's
columns, such Southern leaders as
Calhoun, Hayne, McDufie, Hammond.
Barnwell, the Rhetts and others well
L. -. al ssaFfxsa11 fffa
of South Carolina. In the Fremont
campaign Of 1856. about the time that
Taber, one of its editors. was killed
in q duel which attracted the atten-
tion of the country ar the time, the
Charleston Mercury exerted as great
an influence as ever the Richmond
Enquirer welded In the great days
of the elder Richie.
OF course the feeling of the South
toward the Republican party did not
improve as the party grew in strength.
The hatred Of the Southern extremists
toward the Republicans, in fact, be
came so marked during the Kansas
struggle that some of it was diverted
toward the Northern section OF the
Democrats. This antipathy toward
the Douglas faction, which comprised
the bulk of the Northern Democracy,
was so empathic that the split in the
party in the Charleston convention
was foreseen before q quarter of the
ten days in which that gathering was
In session had expired. William l..
Yancey, a delegate from Alabama in
the convention, in a speech in which
he assailed the Douglas men fierceiy,
said: when | was a schoolboy in
the Northern states abolitionists were
pelted with rotten eggs. But now
this little band of abolitionsts has
grown so that it is spread out ia-
to three sbands-the Black Republic
ans, the Free Sellers and the Squat
ter Sovereignty men" The walk
OUT of the Southern delegates, who
were in the minority in the convention,
was clearly foreshadowed in the
speeches of Yancey and the other
leading spirits of the cotton states in
that body, and that meant a split in
the canvass which would make Re
publican success certain.
The South of those days, indeed,
was so hospitable to everything which
it imagined had leaning toward Re
publicanism that il assailed Douglas
in the canvass as an ally of Lincoln.
At this appearance in Norfolk, in a
stumping tour which he made through
! few of the slave states as well as
through many of the free states, a
Breckenridge supporter asked Douglas
If Lincoln should be elected would the
South be justified in seeding. Doug
las answered promptly, No, the cleo
ton of no man to the presidency in
a constitutional way would justify
any attempt TO dissolve the Union
Asked by another person in the same
place, also a Breckenridge supporter,
IF the South should secede on Lin
coins Inauguration, before he had a
chance to commit any overt act
against their rights under the consti-
tuition, would you advise resistance
to the South's secession % The an
swer came quickly. 1T is the duty of
the President of the United States to
enforce the laws as passed by Con-
gress. and as. interpreted by the
courts. And |. as in duty bound oy
my oath of fidelity TO the constitution,
would do all in my power TO aid The
government in maintaining the supre-
macy OF the laws against all resist.
ance to them, come from whatever
quarter il might The President Of
the United States, whoever he may
be. should treat all attempts TO break
up the Union by resistance to us
laws as Old Hickory treated the null
fiers in 1881" Whenever Douglas was
questioned by the Breckenridge men
In the South be gave similar answers
None of the Republican spellbinders
Of the day denounced disunion more
vigorously than did this Southern
Democratic leader.
These words were not calculated 10
win votes for Douglas in the South.
Since the country began no constituent
cy was ever before or since in such
humor wooed as the South was by
Douglas in the campaign of 1869.
Douglas was too shrewi q man TO
be In any doubt as to the outcome.
He knew he himself had not the sha-
dow of chance TO win Moreover.
he foresaw that Breckenridge was also
doomed to defeat From fifteen Of the
states Lincoln was shut out. but Doug
las predicted early in the campaign
that Lincoin's election was certain.
Fremont received less than thirteen
hundred votes in the whole of the
fifteen slave states combined. Fill
more was Buchanan's only competitor
In the South. Missouri. however. was