Year: 1879

|
York, Gen. Stewart l.. Woodford, who has
just returned from Mississippi, where he un-
successfully strove to induce jury Of Southern
planters to convict the red-shrted assassins of
| Cornelia Chisolm, made the longest and best
| speech of the evening. Below we reproduce
his remarks at length. AS the utterance of
conservative Republican politician, who has
been in full sympathy with the conciiiatory
policy of President Hayes, the speech possesses
great significance. 1t indicates the course
which the dishonest ungrateful and mschiev-
GUS course of the Southern leaders will compel
Northern conservatives to follow:


GEN wooDFoRD's ADDRESS.


MIR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
| The night is so short, and this great hall so
crowded that L must compress what would
say into the fewest possible words.


There are certain facts connected with the
pending canvass so clear and distinct that no
thoughtful man can err with regard to them.
The first is this: Whatever may have been
the cause, the South to-day is solid in the poll
tics of the Nation. Another fact is this; That
Solid South, plus the State Of New York, plus
any one of the smaller States of Indiana, Con-
necticut or New Jersey, can elect the next
President of the United States The third
fact is this: If New York go Democratic eth
er in whole or by half, this autumn, Indiana,
New Jersey and Connecticut are encouraged
to unite with New York to give the Presiden-
| tial election next year to the Solid South. The
/ fourth fact is this: If we whip the Democracy
in New York this Fall we elect Republican
| President next year. Now with these facts
staring every thoughtful man in the face,
| should no more think of discussing my private
| like OF dislike of a candidate on the Republi-
| can ticket than L would think in battle OF
! discussing the color of my commanders uni
| form, or whether he was the man L would have
chosen as my leader.


have come here to pass no eulogy upon
! Republican candidates, but have come to say
that in the fierce white light that is beating
ON this Nation in this nineteenth century,
with a Solid South, made solid by force and
fraud, with Solid South which is the product
of shot guns and tissue ballots, it is our duty to
| elect the Republican ticket and save this Ma
ton. If know my heart come to the dis
cussion of this canvass without passion or pref
udice. If know my heart, there turks no
where in its deepest recesses any feeling to-
ward the South except a feeling of pity, of love
and a desire to do them good. Ii might
without irreverence / would say, Forgive
them, for in their blindness and hate they
know not what they do" L appeal to every
returned soldier in this hall to every old sol
dier-comrade tonight, if 1 do not Sspeak the
purpose we had when we went into the strife
when / say that VIC did not go to trample
States into the dust, we did not go that we
might pin conquered provinces to the General
Government, but that we did go that we might
| have Union equal in its power and equal in
its blessing all through the land. We went
that we might crush treason and then save the
traitor by making him a citizen of the land
that should bless his citizenship. Why then
do fear the Solid South?


First, l fear it in the light of history. 1t
was Solid South that tore down that ordi-
nance that gave the great West and North
west forever to liberty and made the Missouri
Compromise that it might get Missouri for
slavery 1t was that Solid South which, when
generation of years had swept by i'll turn,
tore down the Missouri Compromise that it
might give all the Western land to slavery. 1t
was that Solid South which, when beaten in a
Presidential contest rushed into war in the
Spring of 1861. Do you ask the meaning of
the Solid South? read that meaning in the
ridges of every battlefield from Gettysburg to
the Gulf. Do you ask the meaning of the
Solid South? 1 read that meaning in every
soldiers crutch that rattles on your pavement
Do you ask the meaning of a Solid South? L
read that meaning in every empty sleeve
pinned up against soldiers breast. l read
that meaning in the annual coming OF the tax
gatherer. L read that meaning in the million
lives sacrificed in the awful maelstrom OF the
war. / read that meaning in the South devas-
tated, in that land that is blasted, in homes
that are desolate, in all the horrors of war; and
because that is the Solid South of history
plead with patriots North and South that the
South shall never again be permitted to be
solid in our politics if by that solidity it is to
rule and to desolate.


Why do dread the Solid South? Because
since arms were grounded, that Solid South,
| as a factor in our politics, has been the con-
slant enemy of every scheme to maintain the
National honor, and has been the great him
drance in the way of the resumption OF specie
payments. L do not forget that wise Senator
from Delaware Mr. Bayard / do not forget
| fbat oil MiSSSSiDOi
Lamar; do not forget Mr.. Hill, of Georgia;
and here in hard-money New-York L unite
with their warmest friends in apprecating the
financial wisdom that bade them stand for hon.
est money and honor of the United States in
the great financial debates just closed. AT
the same time remember that Zone swallow
makes no Summer" L remember that while
these were conspicuous exceptions, the great
mass of Southern Senators and Representatives
stood soldly for initiation, and initiation meant
| reputation. Fortunately, the same brave
patient honesty sustained us in the long fnan-
cial struggle that sustained us in the war, and
we have solved the financial difficulty by max
ing the paper of the United States as good as
the gold of the world.


METHODS WHICH HAVE MADE THE SOUTH


SOLID.


Why do dread the Solid South? Because
its solidity, secured by such methods as have
accomplished it, is q constant temptation to
the followers of the Democratic party of the
North who are without purpose or object
higher than simply to wear the decoration of
official place and to feed upon the loaves and
fishes of official patronage. Why do I dread
the Solid South? Frankly because 1 dread the
methods by which it has been made solid.
During two visits to the South within the last
two years, Southern gentlemen frequently ad-
mitted to me that their party took the control
of the State of Mississippi in 1875 by actual
, and overpowering physical force, Every
Southern man when making this admis-
sion to me has at the same time as squarely
and Enthusiastically said "We did this thing be-
' | cause it was necessity. Your carpet-bag gov
ernments were corrupt, and crushed us with
such weight of taxation that we were COM
PEELED to take the State into our hands by force
by overpowing them" Now | say most earn
f estly and positively that there is no condition
of affairs on American soil and under Ameri-
can law which justities any part OF a commu-
nifty i'll striking down the other part by force OF
/ arms and substituting the mob in place of the
, | law.


why do dread the solid South? Because it
does more hurt to itself than it possibly can do
| to us and to the Nation. Stop and think for a
moment. 1t crushes out political education.
The white man who, in the garb of the ku-
Klux rider, has whipped the negro into silence;
the white man who has shot to death the white
{ members of the Republican party, will never
|


men to his political belief. Do you doubt poor


Dixon of Yazoo was a hero so long as his rifle


was only aimed at the negro and the white Re-
| publican? Democratic constituencies gave
> him services of silver plate, engraved with the
legend ITO the Bravest of the Brave" so long


as the shotgun only killed black men and
: white Republicans: but when poor Dixon
' thought that he might be permitted, with all


the chivalrc lawyers gathered around him, to
- run for Sheriff of his county, the Southern De-
mocracy shot Dixon 1t was easier than to ar.
}. que and saved money for mass-meetings and
s large expenditures of logic in the county Of


YaZoo.


=, What are the needs of the South? Educa.
tion, reverence for law as law, and liberation
= A liberation that shall enable a man to belong
to what party he pleases, to be Democrat al


the North with full liberty to cheer any Demo
4 cratic leader in Republican meeting; to be n
Republican at the South with a right to cheer
|, in Democratic meeting, and with a right tc
vote, and have his vote counted. That is all


the liberation Republicans want. What then
. | is our dutv? A voice: "To elect Grant