ite of the tremendous advantage given to that Party by the
united vote of the Solid South, the Presidential contest of 1884 was
likely to be so close that, to give Democracy any chance to win, the few
Democrats opposed to Free-Trade must be quieted, the utterances of the
Democratic National Platform of that year, on the subject, were so
wonderfully pieced, and ludicrously intermixed, that they could be
construed to mean "all things to all men."

At last, after an exciting campaign, the Presidential election of 1884
was held, and for the first time since 1856, the old Free-Trade
Democracy of the South could rejoice over the triumph of their
Presidential candidate.

Great was the joy of the Solid South! At last, its numberless crimes
against personal Freedom, and political Liberty, would reap a generous
harvest. At last, participation in Rebellion would no more be regarded
as a blot upon the political escutcheon. At last, commensurate rewards
for all the long years of disconsolate waiting, and of hard work in
night ridings, and house-burnings, and "nigger"-whippings, and
"nigger"-shootings, and "nigger"-hangings, and ballot-box stuffings, and
all the other dreadful doings to which these old leaders were impelled
by a sense of Solid-Southern patriotism, and pride of race, and lust for
power, would come, and come in profusion.

Grand places in the Cabinet, and foreign Missions, for the old Rebels of
distinction, now Chiefs of the "Solid-Southern" Conspiracy, and for
those other able Northern Democrats who had helped them, during or since
the Rebellion; fat consulates abroad, for others of less degree;
post-offices, without stint, for the lesser lights; all this, and more,
must now come. The long-hidden light of a glorious day was about to
break. The "restoration of the Government to the principles and
practices of the earlier period," predicted by the unreconstructed
"Rebel chieftains" those "same principles for which they fought for four
years" the principles of Southern Independence, Slavery, Free Trade and
Oligarchic rule--were now plainly in sight, and within reach!

The triumph of the Free-Trade Democracy, if continued to another
Presidential election, would make Free-Trade a certainty. The old forms
of Slavery, to be sure, were dead beyond reanimation--perhaps; but, in
their place, were other forms of Slavery, which attracted less attention
and reprobation from the World at large, and yet were quite as effectu