The South andthe National Government

ByThe Honorable William Howard TaftPresident-elect of the United States

An AddressDelivered at the Dinner of the North Carolina Societyof New York, at the Hotel Astor, December 7, 1908

%Introduction%

The speech of the President-Elect at the recent annual banquet of theNorth Carolina Society, New York, found a warm response in the hearts ofthe Northern people, who have not failed to sympathize deeply with theirSouthern fellow citizens during their long years of affliction. 

The orator expresses our feelings with rare felicity, and so keenly didhis sentiments touch our hearts, it was resolved to publish his addressand send it to our fellow citizens of the South as the messenger ofpeace and perfect reunion from their Northern countrymen. 

Our Southern friends will note that no phase of the present unfortunatesituation is neglected by Mr. Taft; all are dealt with in a clear andmasterly manner. The North, as well as the South is enlightened as totheir respective duties toward bringing about the desirable return ofthe South to its normal condition politically, so that American citizensin all sections of our common country will again belong to both of thegreat political parties, thus proving to the world that both partiescommand the allegiance of good citizens in all parts of the country whoare desirous only for what they believe to be best for the good of thenation as a whole. 

The future President of our common country, North, South, East, andWest, who appeals to us, is a man of large heart, warm sympathies, andcool brain, of sound judgment and lofty purpose, who has at heart as oneof the greatest possible triumphs of his administration the restorationof normal political conditions in the South. Under his wise andsympathetic leadership the writer is sanguine of success--certain of itif the influential people of all sections give him the support he sorichly deserves in this truly patriotic mission. 

ANDREW CARNEGIE. 

%The Solid South%

ADDRESS BY MR. WALTER H. PAGE

IN INTRODUCING THE HONORABLE WILLIAM H. TAFT

At the Dinner of the North Carolina Society ofNew York, at the Hotel Astor. December 7, 1908

Here, if nowhere else, we leave political parties and preferences alone. But here, as everywhere else, we are patriotic men; and we NorthCarolinians have as our background a community that from the firstshowed a singularly independent temper. A freedom of opinion is ourheritage. We once drove a Colonial Governor who disputed our freedom ofpolitical action to the safer shelter of the Colony of New York; andthroughout our history we have shown a sort of passion for independentaction, in spite of occasional eclipses; and that same temper showsitself now. We are, in fact, never sure that we are right till half ourneighbors have proved that we are wrong. 

We are, therefore, and have long been, much distressed by the politicalsolidity of the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire andPennsylvania; and we wish that it were broken--not for the sake of theDemocratic party nor for the sake of the Republican party (for thebreach would benefit each alike) but for the sake of greater freedom ofpolitical action by our unfortunate fellow citizens who dwell there. Where one party has too long and secure power it becomes intolerant andthe other party falls into contempt. Thus these states have becomestagnant or corrupt. For the sake of free political action we wish thattheir political solidity might be broken, so that the whole conscienceand character of their people might find full political expression. Whatconstructive influence have they, or have they in recent years had, inthe nation's thought and political progress?

For the same reasons we have taken an especial pleasure in the recentbreaking up of Ohio, Minnesota, and Indiana--where on the same daypresidential electors of one party and governors of the other party werechosen; for this breaking asunder of party dominance makes both partiestolerant and careful, helping them both and showing the utmost freedomof political action. And these states contribute much to our politicallife. 

By the same token we rush in where Texas and Virginia fear to tread, andwe shall welcome the impending and inevitable breaking of the SolidSouth (perhaps we shall lead it), not for the sake of the Democraticparty nor for the sake of the Republican party (although it would helpeach party equally), but for the sake of open-mindedness and of freedomof political action, so that all men there may walk by thought and notby formulas, and act by convictions and not by traditions. Where-everone party by long power breeds intolerance, the other falls intocontempt. And what constructive influence have the Southern States inour larger political life? From some of them, where parties have fallenlow, we have seen men go to one national convention as a mere unthinkingpersonal following of a candidate even then clad in garments of twofolddefeat; and to the conventions of the other party we have sometimes seenoffice-holding shepherds with their crooks drive their mottled flocks tomarket. We are tired of this political inefficiency, this longisolation, and these continued scandals; and we are tired of theconditions that produce them. If parties are to be instruments ofcivilized government, the conditions that produce such scandals mustcease. We must have in the South a Democratic party of tolerance and aRepublican party of character; and neither party must be ranged on linesof race. 

We aspire to a higher part in the Republic than can be played by men ofclosed minds or of unthinking habits or by organized ignorance. Weaspire again to a share in the constructive work of the government inthese stirring days of great tasks at home and growing influence abroad. 

I am leaving party politics severely alone, but I am speaking to anational and patriotic theme. A Republican Administration or aDemocratic Administration is a passing incident in our national history. Parties themselves shift and wane. And any party's supremacy is oflittle moment in comparison with the isolation of a large part of theUnion from its proper political influence. 

The manhood and the energy and the ambition of Southern men now findeffective political expression through neither party. The South, therefore, neither contributes to the Nation's political thought andinfluence nor receives stimulation from the Nation's thought andinfluence. Its real patriotism counts for nothing--is smothered dumbunder party systems that have become crimes against the character andthe intelligence of the people. The South gives nothing and receivesnothing from the increasing national political achievement of everydecade. Politically it is yet a province; and we are tired of thisbarren seclusion. Men who prefer complaint to achievement may regardthis as treason: let them make the most of it. We prefer a higherstation in the Union than New Hampshire and Vermont and Pennsylvania andArkansas hold. 

From the first our commonwealth conspicuously stood for somethinggreater than any party, something that antedates all our parties, thatspirit of independence in political judgment and action which broughtthe old thirteen states into being and made the Republic possible. Andthat spirit is not dead yet. 

If it cannot regain its old-time influence through one party, it willregain it through another. 

We are the descendants of men who fashioned parties in their beginning;and, if need be, we can refashion them. For the aim of government is notto preserve parties but to give range to free individual action in ademocracy. And it is in this spirit of national aspiration that wewelcome our distinguished guest of honor--a man now placed aboveparties, and too just to regard the Republic by sections, our bestequipped citizen for the highest office in the world. 

TO THE PRESIDENT-ELECT: _May his administration mark the return ofSouthern character and sincerity to its old-time part in theconstructive work of government and the end forever of politicalisolation from the achievements and the glory of the Union!_

%The South and the NationalGovernment%

ADDRESS BYTHE HONORABLE WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES

North Carolina presents an admirable type of the present conditions inthe South. It offers, therefore, a suitable subject for the discussionplanned for this evening, and I count it a privilege to be present tohear it. One, in any degree responsible for the government and welfareof the whole country at this time in her history, must take an especialinterest in the trend of public opinion and the conditions, material andpolitical, of the South. 

The laws of the United States have equal operation from the Canadianborder to the Gulf of Mexico. Congress has representatives from everypart of the country, including the South, whose votes are recorded uponnational legislation. Railroads do not break bulk between North andSouth. Interstate commerce goes on unvexed between the one and theother. The Post-office department distributes its mail with impartialityon each side of Mason's and Dixon's Line. Prosperity in the North isaccompanied by prosperity in the South, and a halt in the one means ahalt in the other. Northern people meet Southern people, and find themfriendly and charming and full of graceful and grateful companionship. 

What is it that sets the South apart and takes from the Southern peoplethe responsibilities which the members of a republic ought to share inrespect to the conduct of the National Government? Why is it that whatis done at Washington seems to be the work of the North and the West, and not of the South? Should this state of affairs continue? These arethe questions that force themselves on those of us concerned with theGovernment and who are most anxious to have a solid, united country, ofwhose will the course of the Government shall be an intelligentinterpretation and expression. 

We can answer these questions as the historian would, and we can explainthe situation as it is; but I don't think we can justify or excuse acontinuance of it. Looking back into the past, of course, theexplanation of the difference between the South and the other twosections was in the institution of slavery. It is of no purpose to pointout that early in the history of the country the North was asresponsible for bringing slaves here as the South. We are not concernedwith whose fault it was that there was such an institution as slavery. Nor are we concerned with the probability that, had the Northerners beeninterested in slaves, they would have viewed the institution exactly asthe Southerners viewed it and would have fought to defend it because assacred as the institution of private property itself. It is sufficientto say, as I think we all now realize, that the institution of slaverywas a bad thing and that it is a good thing to have got rid of it. Itdoesn't help in the slightest degree in the present day to stir up theembers of the controversy of the past by attempting to fix blame on onepart of the country or the other, in respect to an institution which hasgone, and happily gone, on the one hand, or in respect to theconsequences of that institution which we still have with us, on theother. These consequences we are to recognize as a condition and a fact, and a problem for solution rather than as an occasion for crimination orrecrimination. 

Over the question of the extension of slavery the Civil War came, andthat contest developed a heroism on both sides, in the people from theNorth and the people from the South, that evokes the admiration of allAmericans for American courage, self-sacrifice, and patriotism. But whenslavery was abolished by the war the excision of the cancer left a woundthat must necessarily be a long time in healing. Nearly 5, 000, 000 slaveswere freed; but 5 per cent. Of them could read or write; a much smallerpercentage were skilled laborers. They were but as children in meetingthe stern responsibilities of life as free men. As such they had to beabsorbed into and adjusted to our civilization. It was a radical change, full of discouragement and obstacles. Their rights were declared by thewar Amendments, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth. The oneestablished their freedom; the second their citizenship and their rightsto pursue happiness and hold property; and the third their right not tobe discriminated against in their political privileges on account oftheir color or previous condition of servitude. 

I am not going to rehearse the painful history of reconstruction, orwhat followed it. I come at once to the present condition of things, stated from a constitutional and political standpoint. And that is this:That in all the Southern States it is possible, by election lawsprescribing proper qualifications for the suffrage, which square withthe Fifteenth Amendment and which shall be equally administered asbetween the black and white races, to prevent entirely the possibilityof a domination of Southern state, county, or municipal governments byan ignorant electorate, white or black. It is further true that thesooner such laws, when adopted, are applied with exact equality andjustice to the two races, the better for the moral tone of state andcommunity concerned. Negroes should be given an opportunity equally withwhites, by education and thrift, to meet the requirements of eligibilitywhich the State Legislatures in their wisdom shall lay down in order tosecure the safe exercise of the electoral franchise. The Negro shouldask nothing other than an equal chance to qualify himself for thefranchise, and when that is granted by law, and not denied by executivediscrimination, he has nothing to complain of. 

The proposal to repeal the Fifteenth Amendment is utterly impracticableand should be relegated to the limbo of forgotten issues. It is verycertain that any party founded on the proposition would utterly fail ina national canvass. What we are considering is something practical, something that means attainable progress. It seems to me to follow, therefore, that there is, or ought to be, a common ground upon which wecan all stand in respect to the race question in the South, and itspolitical bearing, that takes away any justification for maintaining thecontinued solidity of the South to prevent the so-called Negrodomination. The fear that in some way or other a social equality betweenthe races shall be enforced by law or brought about by politicalmeasures really has no foundation except in the imagination of those whofear such a result. The Federal Government has nothing to do with socialequality. The war amendments do not declare in favor of social equality. All that the law or Constitution attempt to secure is equality ofopportunity before the law and in the pursuit of happiness, and in theenjoyment of life, liberty, and property. Social equality is somethingthat grows out of voluntary concessions by the individuals formingsociety. 

With the elimination of the race question, can we say that there areremoved all the reasons why the people of the South are reluctant togive up their political solidarity and divide themselves on party linesin accordance with their economic and political views? No. There areother reasons, perhaps only reasons of sentiment, but with the Southernpeople, who are a high-strung, sensitive, and outspoken people, considerations of sentiment are frequently quite as strong as those ofsome political or economic character. In the first place it is nownearly forty years since the South acquired its political solidarity, and the intensity of feeling by which it was maintained, and theostracism and social proscription imposed on those white Southerners whodid not sympathize with the necessity for such solidarity, could not butmake lasting impression and create a permanent bias that would naturallyoutlast the reason for its original existence. The trials of thereconstruction period, the heat of the political controversies with theRepublican party, all naturally, during the forty years, implanted sodeep a feeling in the Southern Democratic breast that a mere change ofthe conditions under which this feeling was engendered could not at onceremove it. The Southern people are a homogeneous people; they preservetheir traditions; they are of the purest American stock; and the faithof the father is handed down to the son, even after the cause of it hasceased, almost as a sacred legacy. 

Again, for a long time succeeding the war, the South continued poor. Itsdevelopment was much slower than that of the rest of the country. Prosperity seemed to be Northern prosperity, not Southern. And, in sucha time, the trials of life of the present only accentuated the greatertrials of the past, and reminiscences of the dreadful sufferings andprivations of the war were present on every hand, and feelings that thecontroversy had given rise to, remained with an intensity that hardlyseemed to be dimmed by passing time. 

But times change, and men change with them in any community, howeverfixed its thoughts or habits, and many circumstances have blessed uswith their influence in this matter. 

The growth of the South since 1890 has been marvelous. The manufacturingcapital in 1880 was $250, 000, 000, in 1890, $650, 000, 000, in 1900, $1, 150, 000, 000 and in 1908, $2, 100, 000, 000, while the value of themanufactures increased from $450, 000, 000, in 1880 to $900, 000, 000 in1890, to $1, 450, 000, 000 in 1900, and to $2, 600, 000, 000, in 1908. Thefarm products in 1880 were $660, 000, 000, in 1890 were $770, 000, 000, in1900, $1, 270, 000, 000, in 1908 $2, 220, 000, 000. The exports from the Southin 1880 were $260, 000, 000, in 1890 $306, 000, 000, in 1900, $484, 000, 000, and in 1908, $648, 000, 000. 

In this marvelous growth the manufactures of the South now exceed theagricultural products, and thus a complete change has come over thecharacter of her industries. The South has become rich, and only thesurface of her wealth has been scratched. Her growth has exceeded thatof the rest of the country, and she is now in every way sharing in itsprosperity. 

Again, the Democratic party has not preserved inviolate its traditionaldoctrines as to state's rights and other issues, and has for the timeadopted new doctrines of possibly doubtful economic truth and wisdom. Southern men, adhering to the party and the name, find themselves, through the influence of tradition and the fear of a restoration ofconditions which are now impossible, supporting a platform and candidatewhose political and economic theories they distrust. Under theseconditions there was in the last campaign, and there is to-daythroughout the South, among many of its most intelligent citizens, animpatience, a nervousness, and a restlessness in voting for one ticketand rejoicing in the success of another. 

Now, I am not one of those who are disposed to criticize or emphasizethe inconsistency of the position in which these gentlemen findthemselves. I believe it would be wiser if all who sympathize with oneparty and its principles were to vote its ticket, but I can readilyunderstand the weight and inertia of the tradition and the socialconsiderations that make them hesitate. I believe that the movement awayfrom political solidity has started, and ought to be encouraged, and Ithink one way to encourage it is to have the South understand that theattitude of the North and the Republican party toward it is not one ofhostility or criticism or opposition, political or otherwise; that theybelieve in the maintenance of the Fifteenth Amendment; but that, asalready explained, they do not deem that amendment to be inconsistentwith the South's obtaining and maintaining what it regards as itspolitical safety from domination of an ignorant electorate; that theNorth yearns for closer association with the South; that its citizensdeprecate that reserve on the subject of politics which so long hasbeen maintained in the otherwise delightful social relations betweenSoutherners and Northerners as they are more and more frequently throwntogether. 

In welcoming to a change of party affiliation many Southerners who havebeen Democrats, we are brought face to face with a delicate situationwhich we can only meet with frankness and justice. In our anxiety tobring the Democratic Southerner into new political relations we shouldhave and can have no desire to pass by or ignore the comparatively fewwhite Southerners who from principle have consistently stood for ourviews in the South when it cost them social ostracism and a loss of allprestige. Nor can we sympathize with an effort to exclude from thesupport of Republicanism in the South or to read out of the party thosecolored voters who by their education and thrift have made themselveseligible to exercise the electoral franchise. 

We believe that the solution of the race question in the South islargely a matter of industrial and thorough education. We believe thatthe best friend that the Southern Negro can have is the Southern whiteman, and that the growing interest which the Southern white man istaking in the development of the Negro is one of the most encouragingreasons for believing the problem is capable of solution. The hope ofthe Southern Negro is in teaching him how to be a good farmer, how to bea good mechanic; in teaching him how to make his home attractive and howto live more comfortably and according to the rules of health andmorality. 

Some Southerners who have given expression to their thoughts seem tothink that the only solution of the Negro question is his migration toAfrica, but to me such a proposition is utterly fatuous. The Negro isessential to the South in order that it may have proper labor. Anattempt of Negroes to migrate from one state to another not many yearsago led to open violence at white instigation to prevent it. More thanthis, the Negroes have now reached 9, 000, 000 in number. Their ancestorswere brought here against their will. They have no country but this. They know no flag but ours. They wish to live under it, and are willingto die for it. They are Americans. They are part of our people and areentitled to our every effort to make them worthy of theirresponsibilities as free men and as citizens. 

The success of the experiments which have been made with them on a largescale in giving them the benefit of thorough primary and industrialeducation, justifies and requires the extension of this system as far aspossible to reach them all. 

The proposition to increase the supply of labor in the South byemigration from Europe, it seems to me, instead of being inimical to thecause of the Negro, will aid him. As the industries of the Southcontinue to grow in the marvelous ratio already shown, the demand forlabor must increase. The presence of the Southern community of whiteEuropean labor from the southern part of Europe will have, I am hopeful, the same effect that it has had upon Negro labor on the Isthmus ofPanama. It has introduced a spirit of emulation or competition, so thatto-day the tropical Negroes of the West Indies do much better work forus in the canal construction since we brought over Spanish, Italian, andGreek laborers. 

Ultimately, of course, the burden of Negro education must fall on theSouthern people and on Southern property owners. Private charity andmunificence, except by way of furnishing an example and a model, can docomparatively little in this direction. It may take some time to hastenthe movement for the most generous public appropriations for theeducation of the Negro, but the truth that in the uplifting of the Negrolies the welfare of the South is forcing itself on the far-sighted ofthe Southern leaders. Primary and industrial education for the masses, higher education for the leaders of the Negro race, for theirprofessional men, their clergymen, their physicians, their lawyers, andtheir teachers, will make up a system under which their improvement, which statistics show to have been most noteworthy in the last fortyyears, will continue at the same rate. 

On the whole, then, the best public opinion of the North and the bestpublic opinion of the South seem to be coming together in respect to allthe economic and political questions growing out of present raceconditions. 

The attitude of the candidate and the platform of the Democratic Partyin the last election made this campaign a most favorable one to bringhome to the Southern people for serious consideration the query why theyshould still adhere to political solidity in the South. It may be thatfour years hence the candidate and platform of the Democratic Party willmore approve themselves to the South and to the intelligent men of theSouth. Under these conditions there may seem to be a retrograde step, and the South continue solid, but I venture to think that the movementnow begun will grow, slowly at first, but ultimately so as to extendthe practical political arena for the discussion of party issues intoall the Southern States. 

The recent election has made it probable that I shall become more orless responsible for the policy of the next Presidential Administration, and I improve this opportunity to say that nothing would give me greaterpride, because nothing would give me more claim to the gratitude of myfellow-citizens, than if I could so direct that policy in respect to theSouthern States as to convince its intelligent citizens of the desire ofthe Administration to aid them in working out satisfactorily the seriousproblems before them and of bringing them and their Northernfellow-citizens closer and closer in sympathy and point of view. Duringthe last decade, in common with all lovers of our country, I havewatched with delight and thanksgiving the bond of union between the twosections grow firmer. I pray that it may be given to me to strengthenthis movement, to obliterate all sectional lines, and leave nothing ofdifference between the North and the South, save a friendly emulationfor the benefit of our common country.