The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1908-10-23
Mr.. TAFTs VISIT TO THE SOUTH

Kentucky and Tennessee We are told
for the purpose of breaking the solid
arity of the south by winning those
two states into the embrace of the
doctrines of the republican party.
But why should not the south turn
the tables and convert this distin-
guished visitor to the embrace OF its
doctrines?
Mr.. Taft is said TO be a very genial,
clever, good natured gentleman anu
open to conviction, so why not lead
him into the paths Of political right
eousness?
Why should be not embrace these
doctrines? Does not the south still
hold to the theories and cling to the
traditions CT the fathers" and in do
ing SO is she not doing right?
The democratic party, TO which the
south belongs, and is welded, had its
birth when the government was found
ed, and received its baptism at the
hands of the fathers" It is a twin
brother to the declaration Of indie
pendence."
How different to the party to which
Mr.. Taft belongs?
The republican party received it's
birth in a campaign of sectiOnalism
and was baptized at the fount of ha-
tired to the south and its institutions
So why should the people of the
south throw their arms around its
neck and embrace it?
During the first administration of
the republican party it waged i re-
lentless and bloody war against the
south and its peculiar institution, "
for which the south was at best only
partly responsible.
This peculiar institution" was
handed down to the south by Wash
ingtOn and his compariots; its status
was fixed in the constitution, and if it
was to be disturbed at all it was not
TO be disturbed in blood.
Having its birth under these condi-
tons, what was the next act of this
party?
After the bloody war, so ruthlessly
waged by it. had ceased, it establish
Ell q dictatorship over the conquered
territory.
What else did it Go?
1t not only manumitted the four
million slaves Of the south in one fell
swOop, but without a moments pre-
paration. placed the ballot in their
hands and made them the lawmakers
over the conquered territory.
What's the outcome?
The south is subjected TO a terror
far more menacing than the danger
that threatens from the beasts of the
field.
No home in the conquered terri
tory" feels safe for a day or for an
hour without a male protector. No
white woman is safe alone upon any
public highway.
This is harsh and brutal thing to
lay at the feet of a political party, but
ii is nevertheless true.
But can one expect to gather figs
from thistles? Could a party, born of
sectiOnalism, nurtured on war and ma
tired, and blinded by partisanism. have
been expected to bear anything but
evil fruit?
Was not the Credit Mobilier. the
whiskey frauds, the star route frauds.
and their concomitans of evil. born
under the dispensatiOn of this party?
Are not the sugar trust. the beef
trust, the steel trust, and the system
of graft that is extending its tentacles
in all directions, the legitimate off
spring of this party?
Is not the system that makes the
American farmer pay twice as much
for his implements as his neighbor
across the sea, and from which
wrongful eXactiOns he is compelled to
make his bread by the sweat of his
face" the boosted policy of this par
ty?
And in like manner, does not this
party discriminate against the Amer
lean housewife in the purchase of ev-
cry article that enters into the do
nestle economy, from the garden rake
TO the sewing machine?
Why should we, as a section, kiss
the hands that smite us in every con-
ceivable shape-in the forum, shop
and field?
Has the republican party ever re-
garded and does it now regard the
south as forming an integral part of
the federal union?
Every one knows that it does not.
An examination of its laws and its
( official appointments in the consular
and diDlOmariC service in lis pobiuot