The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1909-11-25
MIR. Taft's Speeches to the South
ern People.

Baltimore Sun.
1t is not likely that the speeches Of
any Northern man to Southern peo-
pie have been more entirely accept
able to the Southern people than
those made in the last few days by
President Taft. In q speech which he
made at Columbus, Miss, we find the
explanation. 1t is his recognition Of
the fact that the Southern people can
be, and in fact are, loyal to the Gov
eminent of the United States while
remaining loyal to the Lost Cause. ;"
The President said:
I'm order to understand the South
ern people, especially with respect to
issues OF the war and what grew out
of it, in order to understand their
present position one must know that
your hearts and emotions are broad
enough to entertain entire loyalty to
the issues Of the past which you
fought SO nobly to sustain, and en-
tire loyalty to our present Govern
ment, for which you would be willing
to lay down your life il occasion re-
quired it,
There are few Northern men who
have been able to come to this I'M
Outstanding. President Taft having
done so, is in a better position to
make the appeal to the South that
he is making. He tells them frankly
that he is not asking for their votes.
He understands why it is impossible
to convert this generation of South
erners to the Republican faith. He
knows that in the mind OF the South
ern people the Republican party is as
sociated with the carpet-baggers and
the atrocities of the Reconstruction
times. He knows that the Southerner
has not forgotten and cannot forget
the long effort of the Republican
party to put the negro above him
and over him.
In consequence of these things, ex-
cept in the Cleveland administrations,
the Southerner in Washington dur
ing the last forty years has felt al
most as il he was in foreign cOun-
try in which he had no part nor par
eel. 1t is this feeling of estrangement
and aloofness that President Taft
wishes to do away with utterly. He
asks the Southern people to give his
administration the support Of their
sympathy. He does not ask them
for their votes. He wants them to
get closer to the Administration, to
feel more at home in Washington, to
take n greater part in Federal affairs.
In the last administration, upon one
occasion when President Roosevelt
needed support in the Senate for one
of his measures. he made an appeal
to the Southern Senators. He asked
their help, and got it. But it seemed
that Mr.. Roosevelt only wanted to
use the Democratic Senators as a
weapon to drive his own party into
line. Having accomplished that, he
cast aside the Southerners who had
come to his rescue and disowned them.
MIR. Taft does not impress the
Southerners as man who would do
such n thing as that. They are seem
ingly impressed with his friendliness
and his sincerity, and the reception
lie is having in the Gulf States, in the
heart OF the old Confederacy, is such
as to excite his gratidute and his en-
during sympathy and friendship. In
nearly the entire formative period OF
the United States Government its des-
TIMES were shaped and controlled by
Southern statesmen - Washington
George Mason, Jefferson, Marshall
Madison, Monroe, fancy, Jackson
Calhoun, Clay and the rest. The race
OF great Southern men has not ex
pired. Mr.. Taft wants the South tC
send them to Washington to take
part in the great affairs of the repub
lie. He has put one Southerner and
Democrat into his Cabinet as pledge
of his Sincaritv