Year: 1877

to the strong probability that n thorough


paciication of the South will develop the


old Wing and Conservative elements in op-


position to the Democratic party, which has


nll but absorbed the entire native white ele-


ment In the cotton States. The canvassing


and discussion Of this interesting hypothesis


we're obscured for long time by public


matters Of more immediate concern, but the
final abandonment of Federal Intervention
by the Withdrawal Of the troops from South
Carolina and Louisiana, and the quiescent
condition of politics all over the country, have
again given the subject the Importance which
it deserves. Newspapers, public men, the
Cabinet officers, even the President himself,
have all recognized the political significance
Of the discussion, and it is felt generally that
there will be very decided change in the
relation Of parties in the Southern States.


It is proper to state in the outset that The
TRIBUNE never contemplated the formation
Of new National party, nor the reorganiza-
ton Of the Republican party, nor the change
Of its name to Wing or my other designn-
ton than that which it bears. The Repub-
ican party enjoys an inheritance Of too much
glory, and has the prestige of too much sue
cess, to abandon its name and history. The
change which We have predicted does not
involve disintegration of the Republican
party, but break in the Democratic party
it does not affect the whole country, but only
section of the South where circumstances
have consolidated for the time being all the
native whites into an unnatural political
union, without regard to traditional prin-
ciples and prejudices, and to accomplish q
certain purpose. The problems Of recon-
struction having been finally worked ont into
Home-Rule, the only phase of the Southern
question thatren1ains in politics is the work Of
oonciiating the extreme South with the North.
There arc those in the South who have
always, before the War as we'll as since the
War, been opposed to such conciliation,
but there are others who resented
sectional distinctions before the War,
and have been eager since the War for q
restoration of perfect harmony and good
feeling. Tho formor were the old Bourbon,
fire-oating, secession Democracy; the latter





Democrats.


We regard it as automatic that there must
be division in parties in every community
under a popular or constitutional form Of
government. The practical solidifcation of
the South was therefore unnatural, and
there is not enough cohesive power in it to
resist the invasion of personal prejudices and
selfish interests the moment the raco-issue is
out of the way. It is reasonable to expect,
then, that tho first desertion from the Demo-
cratic ranks will be of those who entertain
personal or hereditary antipathy to the old
time Democrncy,-a pnrty which their faith
ers antagonized and which betrayed them
into disastrous war by false promises. The
natural Democrats Of the South are the ultra
pro-slavery and secession men, who always
bullied and terrorized their opponents
Among those who opposed secession were
the old-time Wings, an offshoot that
supported BELL and EVERETT after the Wing
party had long disappeared, and the Demo-
Gratis of the DOUGLAS school, who believed
thoroughly in his doctrine of popular SOW
creignty and in his personal destiny. All
these men we're swept into the Rebellion by
the superior force of their opponents; not
one in hundred took up arms against the
Government with hoartiness. They did not
come out of the Rebellion with any increased
love for their old political opponents who
had betrayed them into it. Thousands of
them survey to-day desolated homes, ruined |
estates, broken families, and the sorrowful |
remnants of former prosperity with the
earnest conviction that their losses and mis-
fortunes are attributable to the hot-headed
rashness and deliberate deception of their
former political antagonists. They were
told that the North would not fight, that the
Northern Democrats would come to their
help, that Great Britain would interfere, that
q united South was unconquerable,-
they permitted themselves to be dragged
into pitfall Il is unreasonable to suppose
that this class Of people will entertain any
strong political affection for the men who
them,-with the carpet-baggers out
Of the way.


But there is another and stronger, because
more selfish, motive for political disruption
It the South The Offices are now to be dis
oosed Of among Southern men and by the
'otes of the Southern men. Before the
War, the Wing and afterwards the Liberal
party were hopelessly in the minority: in the !;