Year: 1879

Y
to the criticisms of the Northern press
upon the Southern mode of carrying
elections and presenting to the country
solid Democratic South sneeringly
says: What are you going to do about
it? Every State Government is now
manned by Democratic Governor; and
not one of these Governors will ask the
President to interfere by any exercise of
Federal power Congress, at the last
session, so tied his hands that he cannot
use the army of the United States as
posse comitatus. Prosecution for alleged
offenses against Federal election laws is
necessarily a slow process, and must be
had at the South, if at all; and Southern
juries will see to it that Southern white
men, if Democrats, will be in no serious
jeopardy from this source. The "concili-
ated South namely, white Southern
Democracy-having gotten the whole po-
litical power of the South into its own
hands, and hating everything that bears
the name of Republican, whether black
or white, salutes the North and West
with the selfcomplacent inquiry: What
are you going to do about it?'


There is one thing that the North and
West should not attempt to do, and
which they could not successfully do,
were they to make the attempt They
should not, on the theory of redressing
wrongs at the South and protecting the
eedmen in their civil and political
rights, themselves become trespassers
upon the constitutional rights of the
Southern States, considered as members
of the Union. These States have been
reconstructed and rehabilitated into their
former position; and. whether it be for
veal or woe, the political consequences
of their autonomy, on an equal footing
with all the other States must be accept
ed as facts ACCOMPLISHED. They are
States in the Union and parts of the
Union, and not territories or subjugated
provinces. If they abuse their powers
within the limits of State power, there is
no remedy in the powers of the General
Government; and any attempt to apply
such remedy, while it would be an act
of usurpation, and, hence, dangerous as
precedent, would in the end involve more
evil than it would prevent We have al
ways believed and we still believe in that
doctrine of State rights which the Con-
stitution warrants and guarantees.


How, then, shall the question, so de-
family flung by the Richmond State at
the North, be practically answered
What shall be done "about it,? 1t is
well to remember that the North and
the West have a much larger voting
power than the South, and that after the
next census this power will be nearly or
quite double that of the latter. What
the white Democracy at the South is aim
ing at is not simply supremacy on its
own soil but, with that and through it,
and by the aid of its Democratic allies at
the North, the control of the General
Government The slave oligarchy of
the South for years before the war held
this control and dictated the Nations
policy; and this is the prize, lost by the
war, which is sought to be won again by
a solid South, with the help of Northern
Democracy.


And as to this programme, we take the
liberty of telling the Richmond State and
the Democratic party generally, whether
at the South or the North, that Northern
and Western public sentiment is being
awakened to the peril of the situation,
and as rapidly consolidated into a strong
and unyielding purpose that the solid
South shall not gain the National prize
it SO eagerly covets. The majority of the
people are not yet prepared to commit
the fortunes of this great country to
those whom they SO recently had to con-
quer on the field of battle. One of the
things they are going to do about it, is
to keep the Government in their own
hands, and for this reason, Judging from
present indications, the Republican par
ty will in 1880 choose the majority in the
House of Representatives and elect the
President The solid South, with its red
shirted rifemen, its ballot box suffers,
and its bulldozing processes, has entirely
overdone the business; and now a keen,
sharp, and excited public sentiment at
the North declares with emphatic utter
ance that this political conspiracy shall
be rebuked by a decisive defeat. A solid
South presages and means solid North


Yes, gentlemen, that is what we are
"going to do about it." We are going to
think about it. We are going to talk
and write about it. We are going to vote
about it. We are going to keep the Gov
ernment out of your hands, and to keep
you in the minority. We are going to
enact laws within the limits of the Con
stitution, if need be, for the protection
of the rights of all the people; and we
are going to see to it that these laws are
enforced. We are not going to let any
Justly by the political rights of the Negro. |
We believe in free discussion and equal
rights, and we mean to have both; and
we mean to ight the battle for freedom
and justice until victory crowns the
struggle, and every man in this broad
land can vote as he pleases, with no dan
ger of having his brains shot out by
bulldozer. We are very much in earnest
on this subject and if you think we are
not you are gravely mistaken.