Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1880 — THE POSITION OP THE SOUTH. [ARTICLE]

THE POSITION OP THE SOUTH.

Reported by Senator Hill, of Georgia, in Answer to a Letter from a Vermont Inquirer. Dear Sib; You ask, “Do you favor Gen. Grant for President under any consideration (as eome people claim)? Has Grant any following among Southern Democrats, and in case of his nomination by the Republicans do you think he could carry a single Southern State?” Ido not favor Gen. Grant’s election to the Presidency under any contingency I can now imagine. Gen. Grant does have some following in the South among those who say they are Democrats, but if nominated by the Republican party he could not carry a single Southern State. There are a few men in the South who are still unfriendly to the Union. Having failed to dissolve that Union by secession they now hope to see a worse remit practically accomplished through the opposite extreme of centralism and dospo ism. They believe this result can be reached more certainly aDd speedily through the third election of Gen. Grant thau by auv other means. An illustration of this class is furnished by Gen Toombs of my own State, who sent a congratulatory letter to Gen. Grant at Chicago, ending with the ex-prest-ion, “Death to tne Union.” But this class are very few, and they are all intense original secessionists. There are also a few men at the South wbo, while not infriendly to the Uoion, have utterly despaired of the preserva’ionof that Union under our constitutional system, who believe its subversion in principle has already been accomplished, and its subversion in form is only a question of time; and they believe this inevitable result can ba reached more easily and with less shock through Gen. Grant than through any other man. I doubt whether both of theso cla see combined number 100 men in Georgia, but they am men of intelligence, and they eutci tain with favor the idea of electing Gen. Grant nominally for a third term and reaily for life. There is a third class in the South who believe GeD. Grant will bo elected by the Northern people anyhow; who know liis partiality for Lis friend's, and who expec’, by announcing themselves as his foremost friends in the South, to commai d the offices which will then be iu bis gift. These last are more numerous and more noisy and less intelligent t' au the two first classes mentn ned above, out they are too weak in every sense to authorize any chance of giving the electoral vote of any Southern State to Gen Grant. Nearly ail the Southern pcaple have a kindly feeling for Gen. Grant. He is stronger at the South than any other Republican. Oar peo| le will never forget his manly and magnanimous conduct toward them at the close of the war. If he had mamfeitol the same magnanimity in his administration of tho Government ho would have become an idol with the Southern people. But his seemhig disregard or ignorance of constiiutional obligations; bis use of the army to sustain the carpet-bag plunderers; his encouragement of the Returning Board frauds, both in S ate and Federal ( lection ’, and his unexpected subserviency to bad men who filled the world with scandals during his administration, have fully convinced our people that Gen. Grant was not equal to his grand opportunities and ought not again to be trusted with power} however personally honest and kind he may be. It is a national calamity that the N irthern people are not permitted to understand the real views and feelings of the Southern people, and those who prevent such understanding aie the worst enemies o’’ both sections. Let mo state one fact. All thinking men in the South feel and believe that our constitutional system of free government is in very great peril of final and complete overthrow. With the few exceptions I mentioned before we arena’urally more anxious to avert that over dirow thau are the Northern people. Wny should we feel more anxious? It is because our Southern people feel and believe that tho causes which produce this peril have derived much s’rength—peiliaDS their chief strength-from their own art—the net of secession. While not so intended by them, they yet at o' that the sectional spirit which eliminates the Republican party, aud which enables that party to dominate tho Northern people, lias grown to its dangerous proportions through the pass ous engendered by secession and the war. if, therefore, this sectional spirit shall finally plunge all sections of our country into despotism, the Southern pooplo fiel that they will be ho'd in history as largely responsible for that resuT, although such result will have been wrought by the Republican party and iu a direction directly the opposite of secession. It is thus proper and natural that our people in the South should be anxious above all people to allay the sectional heats their own conduct so gicatly inflamed; to restore the constitutional integrity their own mistake eo wofully unsettled, and to preserve the union of States their own madness so nearly destroyed. Tlie fact I have Just stated will explain much of Southern history sinoe the war. There never was such a social, industrial and political revolution as that into wh’ch we of the South were so suddenly thrust by the result of the war. So, also, there never was such au ordeal of humiliation, insult, robbery and wrong as that through which we wero forced to pass in the negro domination and carpet-bag rule of reconstruction. That some resentments were provoked, Ido not deny. That eome excesses were retaliated, 1 freely admit; and that sonro temporery violent remedies were resorted to in tbe desperation of relf-prestiration, I concede. But when tlio history of that terrible ordeal shall be fully known, tlie world will bo amazed at the forbtaranco, the endurance, the patienco aud the self-controlling courage which the gr. at mass of the Southern people exhibited. Our peoplo wore largely enabled to exhibit these rare virtues becau-e they know that those who inflicted the wrongs derived their power to inflict them from the passions engendered by secession, and because they saw also that every groan, every murmur, every protest aud every individual excess or indiscretion was eagerly caught up by their plunderers, and exaggerated and heralded before the Northern people as evidence of a continuing spirit of rebellion, in order to continue their oppressors in power. The Southern people have lost everything by sectionalism. The Republican party owes all its successes, all its power and all its offices to this same sectionalism. The Southern people desire above all things to put an end to the sectionalism w< ich has destroyed them. The Republican party desires above all things to keep alive the sectionalism which has made them. But the Republican party cannot keep alive that sectionalism, if the Northern masses can once fully understand tho present feelings and views of tho Southern people; and, therefore, it is that the leaders aud journals of the Republican party are determined that the masses of tne North never shall understand the masses of tlie South. It is to prevent the Northern people from understanding the Southern people that the leaders, journals and beneficiari s of sectionalism have persistently misrepresented everything in the South with all tho energy which the greed for power can inspire. In the last Presidential count the Southern Democrats insisted upon submitting to the loss of a President elected by the peoplo rather than hazard the dangers of another civil war. Yet Republican loaders who knew this fact, aud who in private here expressed warm admiration for it, w ent homo to their people and represented that the country would be in danger again if tho South, with the Democratic party, should again obtain power! Aud tvery Republican partisan paper daily emphasized the falsehood. During the late extra session it was well known that while the Southern Democrats desired the repeal of cerlain laws, and most especially an odious jury law under which nearly all white men in the South could be excluded from the Federal jury-box, they were yet determined never to adjourn without voting appropriations to support the Government. Yec the Repunlicans who know this brazeniy represented to the Northern people “ that the rebels, having failed to shoot the Government to death, were seeking to starve it to death!” And all the Republican papers repeated the slander. All Southern Democrats have admitted on all occasions that secession was settled by the war and it would be treason to attempt again to reassert it. But because they believe what the constitution so plainly says, “that the powers not delegated to the United States are secured to the States respectively or to the people,” these Republican leaders and journals have actually sought to create a panic at the North py affecting to believe that the South is again reviving tho doctrine of secession ! These instances, with many others, illustrate the two great facts; (I) That the Southern people dseire to allay eeclionalism; and (2) that the Republican party, as a party, is determined that sectionalism shall be kept alive. The truth le, the Republican party is of tho essence of sectionalism. Outside et section* 1« Ism that party has neither history, nor policy, nar purpose, nor prospect*. When it shall oeasa

to be sectional, it will cease to exist Bat sectionalism is the very death of the South. We can b&ve neither hope nor life save in a broad constitutional nationalism. It is not possible, therefore, for Gen. Grant or any other man nominated by the sectional Republican party to carry a single Bcuthern S ate. I admit the Democra'ic party is not, in all respects, what we desire. There is much in the history of that party 1 cannot approve, and it vacillates now on some questions in a manner which is mortifying. But with all its faults it is the only par y in eight with which any man can affiliate who sincerely desires to fraternize the feelings, nationalize the interests, aud constitutionalzo the Government of the American pecpla It would, indeed, be a g’orious movement wlrch could bring all good patriots, North and South, who hate aectionalism and desire to restore honest government into cord'al eo-opera-ticn. The S mthern peop’e wouid hail such a m vement with delight. Wo of the South present no names for Presidcnrial honors. I believe the very best thing which could happen would be an administration of the Government by a wise Southern statesman, for it would be the pride and pleasure of such a statesman to so administer cur national affairs as to banish from the minds of the Northern people the last vestige of distrust and apprehensioh of Southern national fidelity growing out of past sectional controversies. Bnt we are aw-are that tho sectional temper of the North is not in condition to reason calmly on this subject and would not brook such a suggestion. Therefore no thoughtful man in the South is even expecting such honors. All we expect or ask is that Northern statesmen shall b ; presented who will do equal justice t) all sections, and whose lives show that they do not regard the abuse and calumny of any'section as tlie test of loyalty to the Union. There aro many such statesmen in every State of the North in l oth parties, but not one such is even spokea of for tho Repuoiican Domination. I can name men in New England —even in Masiaeliusetts—who would administer tho Government in a spirit worthy of Washington, and either one of whom tlie Southern peop’e w-ould rt j rice in aiding to elevate to that high position. After all, such men must ul imately be chosen, or the peoplo will lose the right to choose at all. Tne poopie must end the triumphs of fraud, or fraud will end the liberties of the penple, and that, too, at no distant day. Very truly yours, Ben.t. H. Hill.