The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-08-09

VIZ great national parties
ID has regarded that sec
n ton as very promising
0 ground for missionary"
endeavOr. Presidents
have cultivated Southern gentlemen
as though there were no others; they
have visited Southern communities
and b~esOught the high men, the old
families to come back to the mouse
Of their fathers" and enjoy the Ieasts
that would speedily be prepared as
Ior returning prodigals. 1t is COM
monty reported in Southern commune
ties that one president has said, ana
repeated the saying, that he would
take the risk of a campaign for q
third successive term if but one of
those old Bourbon" States would
promise him it's vote.
What is the cause of this burning
missionary zeal, what the meaning of
the popularity of the Southerner; and
what is the cause Of his 'solidity."
"h0Vinity,' as some one has aid 1t
is the purpose Of this article to try
IL answer some OF these Questions.
In the first place all the great ma
tons Of Europe have been afflicted
with solid" sections. No good South
German likes the ways of the Hohen-
zoIIern, and few vote for Prussian
p0IlCltS except as they are concerned
with foreign affairs.
For centuries South France was like
q foreign country to the Partisan;
and during the last two or three hun
dred years there has been a Mason
and DiXOn's line in England almost as
sharply drawn as that which for
seventy years separated the semi-hos-
tile parts Of this country.
There is then nothing new or strange
to the student of history about a
"solid' South. Indeed there is now a
solid North and 1t was quite as early
in the field as the solid" South. And
in his homogeneous North, as in Eng
land, France and Germany, while
there are differences of race and of
tradition to se~ctionalize the people,
there are not millions of men of a diff
ferent color and Of entirely different
rig to complicate the situation. AS
ISOLATION, cooperation, intermarrIage
are always practicable there.
However the existence of so large
a mass Of indigestible population only
accentuates, it is not the cause of our
American history: the election oil JEFF
t~eTSOn, the annexation of Texas, the
success Of the Republicans in 1860, and
the Bryan campaign of 1895 the
cause Of solid masses of votes being
given TO one or another candidate or
J0-bN as Iol SldNtIy IOl III iitS1
as a problem. In lS2O-21, when Mas
Sachusetts voted unanimously against
the admission of Missouri because
OF slavery" or because the new State
forbade citizenship to the free negro,
the real sentiment Of the old Bay
State" was expressed in the refusal by
the local Legislature, in 1921, of citi-
ZenShIp to these same free people OF
col0r.' 1t was not devotion to the
negro nor owe of humanity in genera
That actuated as many as q half {
dozen Of the congressional votes IT
1870; it was the desire for power, fo1
supremacy IN the national councils
winch power or supremacy was to be
used for sectional advantage, which
determined that contest.
Once again, in 1896 when every
city, town and hamlet in the country
was profoundly moved by the issue:
which the nomination of Bryan in Chi.
cago precipitated, the question wa:
one of power and the section of thu
country which gave the Democratic
leader its vote stood solidly together
because in the success of its candidate
there was a chance Of winning a ma
tOnal control which would shift tht
burdens of government and the un
equal distribution of privilege tt
other shoulders. And when there wa;
imminent danger of such a change O
regime in Washington, there were no
wanting men of influence in Philadel
PIMA, New York and Boston who talk
ed OF the extreme remedy of secession
me North was quite as solid in 1889
as was the South, and on each sid
1t was simply a question of who shoult
get the greater advantage from tn
cnlon-the longest purse decided tn
issue.
ASIDE from historical Influence
winch nave given rise to two distinc
StCtlOnS of the nation tharp are fO697
very potent and practical eason 70
d solid South. The first is the con
sentative character of the commo1
people of the old Confederate States
nowhere has there been a considera
pie inflow of foreign population dur
ing the last hundred years, and tn
races which came directly to the "bacl
country of Virginia and the Caro-