The Vashon Island record. [volume] (Vashon, Wash.) 1916-1919, 1918-09-12
"reminiscences Of a Georgia Itinerant
NOW A RESlpENT oF VAsHoN ISLAND
tconcluded.)

'You have all read of Southern
election methods and have heard OF
the solid South, and are undoubtedly
aware OF the means by which solid
South was obtained and is still pre-
served. But these cannot be fully I'M
derstood unless we have some under
standing of the political system Of the
South. That there has been a wide
difference between the social system
of the South and that of the North
has been partially understood.
On the other hand, the wide differ
ence between the political systems OF
the North and the South seems never
TO have affected the Northern mind at
all. The Northern statesmen and
political writer's seem always to have
proceeded upon the assumption that
the removal of slavery, the changing
of the legal status of the African re-
sulting in the withdrawal of one of
the props which supported the social
system of the South, would of itself
overthrow not only that system, but
the political system which had grown
up along with 1t, and which was skill
fully designed for its maintenance and
support OF the absolute difference
between the political systems OF the
South and of the North, and OF the
fact that the social and political sys-
TENS stood by each other in the mu.
tual relation of cause and effect, the
North seems ever to have been pro-
foundry ignorant.
The question is not whether this
political system arose out of slavery,
but whether It would OF necessary fall
with the extinction of slavery as o
legal status. 1t is, perhaps, impossible
for any one to say exactly how much
of the political system of the South
grew out Of slavery, and how much of
slavery and its consequences were due
to the Southern political system,
If you will consider for moment
tue history of the country, you will
observe that system prevailed in the
non.slayeholding states which was UNI
known, either in name or essential at
tributes, throughout the slayeholding
part of the country-in one word the
township" system-the Yankee town.
meeting.
venture to say that the presence
and absence of the town-meeting--the
township system or its equivalent-in
the North and in the South, constitut-
ed a difference not less vital and inn
portant than that of slavery itself. l
sincerely believe that 1t is to the town
ship system that the North owes the
fact that it is not today as much slave
territory as the South was before the
war. To this, in the main, it owes its
freedom, its prosperity and its intel
ligence. And there are certain facts
connected with our history which l
think, when you consider them care
fully, win incline you to the same
belief.
The first of these is the fact that in
every state in which the township sys-
tenn really prevailed, slavery was abol-
ished Without recourse to arms, with
out civil discord or perceptible evil
results. The next is that in the states
in which the township system did net
prevail in fact as well as in name. the
public school system did not exist. OF.
had only nominal existence; and the
proportion of illiteracy in those states
as consequence was, among the
whites alone, somethink like four
times as great as in those states in
which the township system fourished.
And this, too, Notwithstanding almost