If the Democratic party does not disclaim and effectively resist such outrages and invasions of constitutional rights. we shall again witness the deplorable spectacle of partiesdivided by geographical linec. a solid South and a united Northarrayed in political opposition. Such a conflict will not only retard the advancement of the negro and delay the restoration of national harmony. but it will inflict immeasurable injury upon the socialand business prosperity of the South itself. Emigration follows the path of liberty. Free and independent Americans will not voluntarily become citizens of a State in which full liberty of debate and of the ballot is not assured. Since the war. it is probable that more emigrants from the North and from Europe have settled in Texas than in all the other Gulf States combined. And this is because the traditions and sentiments of the Texan people have been regarded as more favorable to freedom of personal opinion and political action than those of the people of neighboring Southern States. If the policy of repression and exclusion. which unhappily prevails in most of the late slaveholding States. shall be maintained. each new census will disclose such a relative loss of population and wealth as will prove every way disastrous to their political influence and commercial prosperity.
Keywords matched
Emigration emigrants