The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-11
"The South and the Presidency
By ALyA FITZPATRICK


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 Against the record of practically 50 wears of southern ostracism in the active administration of our federal affairs, 1t is prideful to consider the claim that statistics have forged for the south as a factor in American political development from the formation of the government in i17ss so the election of MT. Lincoln m lS:0.
 Extending this observation into the mi1 utiae of historical detail we find for that even:ful period of 70 years, the south in numerical power and intellectual prestige very nearly assimated political trust in the domination of every department Of the government executive, legislative and Judicial.
 The war proved a trust buster, whose efficacy we have had occasion so long to admit that we are fast beginning to dis count the real causes for that tremendous episode and recognize Slavery and se- cession artful subterfuges of pothern pol A1tcians-a scheme to shasrer a monopols of rule and genius which iI It's srecu and insolence was operated in ruthless re. . xtraint of ambitions that vaui'ea anc stumbied upon the other side of the Mason hnd Dixon line.
 If the hypothesis is true mere was ,1ustice involved in the trick that eaiis Tor an admission obviously attesteo In the ineoualty of distributed sectional non ors from inc times of Washington 10 T .incolp. or the 15 Presidents within that time eight of them were from the souta, and of the remaining seven, one (Mr. liar a1son) was of southern birth, and TWO tMr. Pierce and MT. Buchannan) were largely swayed by southern sympattles and fashioned their administrative poiiolcs lnder southern guidance and eonsuls one half of the Ii Vice Presidents were southern statesmen, and notwithstanding a requirement. traditional in American executive annals for sectional equahZa- .1ion of selection of the constructive ma ferial for cabinets, S7 of the 196 cabinet members of the r Presidents hailed from tine thinly settled area of the south. With this rounded title to almost mo- ropolistic ownership of .he honors of l the presidency of the nation from It's birth 10 it's disruption, the south hles eYen a cor.pletcr possessional claim on the pride and glory on the American federal il.dic.ary. Of the 70 years or history that lad up to this time marked the lie of the nations highest tribunal 60 of thera had heen measured to tenures of southern chief Justices in the terms of Judges Mar shall and Fancy. In the personnel or the dignity, honors were even between t'e sections, Judges Jay and Ellsworth pe- ing the northern ncumbents or the or flee Of the 34 associate justices VITO served with these illustrous jurists sl were southern and IA were northern law Sers More than two-thlrds, therefore, or the men who composed the federal su- preme court during that crucial epoch III which the government through interpre- tation of the constitution was moulded into form and harmonized into parts were the south's contribution 10 AHctl- can judicial history. r The south was as potent Tn congress before the war as she was in the presi- ,lency or on the federal bench. With pop ulation as basis of representation III that body states of the north and west with larger civilization centers, natural ly predominated in numerical representa- lion. but the preponderance was more nominal than real The democratic party, with an inter-regnum of four short ad- ministrations directed the affairs of the yovernment from Jefferson to Buchanan, and then, as now the south ruled the democratic party. Through southern principles of which democracy is largely sfhe essence and expression 1t may be ra~ tionally contended that even more com- pletelv than in the chair of the chief . executive of the nation or on the fedefa tribunal has the voice of the south in na- fional legislative halls sounded With the triumph of the victor and in tones or the Oracle This preponderant claim was scored despite a minority population count.
 Based on the figures of the census for the eight decades between 1790 and 1860 the average white population of the American union was Il 4S5.Sl,, of which number 3,S4,121 were citizens of Inc south It is apparent in the deduction fa1 in 1fal rat Q figures that from the smallest portion of the American people have come the larg- est increment in that splendid leader chip which guided the destinies and shaped the policies of the nation from its birth 10 the morning of its prime. Ii this op servation be specifically applied to iis- llres quoted, it will net us the interesting faet that for two generations and more. with d third of the population of the union as it existed when southern poll eies were supreme, the south furnished more than one-half of its Presidents, one half of it's Vice Presidents, tWC-thirds or the men who constructed it's constitution, and dominated for half a century and over the political party which in legisla- tive halls ordained and enacted nine tenths of it's governing laws.
 These were halcyon times-happy days in, an era of pride and glory for the | south. An era that terminated In ex moro, lnOtu 1dSulOil uDder NiilcH tHc Soueh l voluntarily resigned the relations -.nd conditions that kept southern intellect and southern brains in the ascendant, in the nations strife and strides to the earlier future. War came on. and the south, consistent with the principles that had animated her course from the incep tiou of the government 10 the severance of her union ties, accepted the issue that ii presented. She fought her battles, lost the prize staked upon ther wage, ''en- dured the cross and despised the shame Of. the defeat that followed, sunered the miseries and ruins of reconstruction, iud finally chastened, but not humbled. re- sumed relations that she had given nor best blood and treasure to discard. She dfl this without penance or apology, and ith a respect peculiar to her noble civ ilization, settled down to busy hefseli ~,,l, nroblems that the war had brought S----c-----------