Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-06-14
THE sOurHs POLITICAL EFFActMEHr.

A prominent Tennessee man, Laps
ID. McCord, has been sending out cir
cular letters to newspapers in the
Southern states and over large part
of the rest of the country asking how
much longer Southern men are going
to be excluded from favors in Demo-
cratic national conventions. The que
ry is timely. Its author declares or in
Inmates that he viii make a simultan-
eous demand all over the South for the
nomination of a Southern man for
President" He hnds, on looking over
the list, that no Southern man has been
elected President by the Democrats for
over half century, and he takes the
sensible view that this exclusion OF
men from his section from the prizes
of Democratic national conventions has
been carried on long enough, and that
a change ought to be made at once. 1t
is his aim to influence public senti-
ment in the South so that section will
insist on the nomination of President
from below Mason and Dixon's line in
the Democratic convention of 1904.
It is to be hoped that the Tennessee
crusader will meet with success. The
exclusion of the South from political
favors in Democratic conventions has
certainly been carried on SO long that
further forbearance on the part of the
South would be cowardly. In the ear
ly days of the government the South
often carried off prizes of the national
Democracy, but the latest Southern
man who has been elected President
by the Democrats was Polk, and he
was chosen hfty-seven years ago. Nor
have the Democrats nominated any
Southern man since, except in the split
of 1860, when it's southern and small.
er wing put up Breckinridge. All the
national Democracy's presidential
candidates since Polk have been from
the North, though in most of the
Presidential canvasses the bulk of the
electoral vote has been
from the Southern states. The South
has displayed a meekness under this
sort of treatment which has been re-
maIkable and not altogether credit
able. Although most of the votes
which are necessary to elect Democrat
ic Presidents come from the South, |
that section has been vigorously shut |
out from all chances of furnishing any |
of the presidential candidates. This |
seems to be an oppotune time to start !!
a movement which will force the Dem
ocratic party to remove the ban from
Southern aspirants in national nomi- !
mating conventions.
From present indications it would
seem that the Republicans are likely
to extend favors in presidential con-
ventions to the South earlier than De-
mocracy. Indeed, the Republicans
elected a Southern man more recently
than ->. the Democrats, for Lincoln,
though resident of Illinois, was born
in Kentucky. The Wings, too. extend
ed a like favor to the South at later
date than did the Democrats. Zachary
Taylor, whom the Wings elected in
1S4S, resided in Louisiana and was
born in Virginia. Breckinridge's nom
ination was given by only one section
of the Democracy, the Southern end,
was given at a time when no Demo-
crat could have been elected, and even
that candidacy was over forty years
ago. This is an extremely good time
for the Southern Democrats to compel
their party in the nation at large to re-
move its boycott against Southern
presidential aspirants. In the election
of 1900 Bryan received 155 electoral
votes, but all except thirteen of them
given by the eX-slave states. Outside
Of four of the small silver mining
states the Democratic party had no
standing anywhere in the country last
year save in the South. If the South
any longer permits its effacement in
Democratic presidential conventions,
while furnishing practically the whole
of the electoral votes which are given
10 Democratic candidates, it will be
guilty of a cowardice which has not
ordinarily been considered Southern
trait.