The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-02-25
ssTURy BACK THE HANDS, p

to ''step down and out, has the ring of
the true metal in it,
Have We then been counting time
too fast, and must we turn back the
hands upon the dial platel Ii was pleas
ant to think, while grass was growing on
the torn battle-ields and grain was
springing up in the ragged burrows of the
war, and kindly nature was at her heal
ing work wherever armies had marched
and cannon scorched the plain and graves
been dug, that time was setting Us each
day further from the bitter griefs and
burning passions of that fearful time,
quenching the hate it engendered and
melIowing into tenderness the memories
1t left us. We did not suppose, We could
not hope, that in every breast either
North or South the fire that had ragged
so fiercely had gone out; that there was
no spark of passion or hatred or revenge
full feeling left We could not in our
hopes or expectations draw SO largely
upon mans frailty for the diviner quail
ty in his nature. We asked of them no
sacrifice of feeling or of opinion, no re-
cantation or confession; nothing but
that they should recognize the logic of
events, admit that the cause for which
they fought was lost, the occasion for
secession removed, and express a willing
ness to return to their allegiance. Moth
ing dishonorabIe or unreasonable was
demanded of them IL the victors were
magnanimous, the vanquished were for
the most part manly and frank. There
was no parade or repentance, no affecta-
ton of regret; it was enough that while
they maintained their pride they ban
ished resentment. There were excep-
tions. There were men in the South
whom no grace of forgiveness could
touch, no amnesty soften. They were
not great men or brave men; they were
the small, mean, and spiteful. We ex-
pected nothing of them, but were willing
they should nurse their venom and mis-
erably live out their generation. We
did not dream, however, that these men
or any of them would be put forward as
representatives of the Southern people,
or that they themselves would have the
assurance to ask office at the hands of
any political party. Above all, we could
not suppose that any party would take
the responsibility of making them repre-
sentative by giving them official posi-
tions.
cit seems we were too fast. The
Democratic party chooses for the Gov
ernment places in its gift men whose
venom is proof against kindness, who
cannot forget to hate, and who in cold
blood and with forethought and deliber-
alton glory in the work of murder and
give posthumous honor to an assassin.
Here was one man in all the South-let
\. 1f h,r,,, H.
was but one such-who three years ago,
in 1872 or 3, the war having been seven
years closed, the men who forsook the
Government and took up arms against it
having been pardoned and restored to
theprivileges they had forfeited, and an
era of reconciliation been opened-who
at such time and under such cIrcum-
stances gave to his own helpless child
name for that child to bear through all
its future life, and bearing it to show to
all the world its fathers undying hatred
for a government that had pardoned him
his kissing maIignity to the memory of a
great and tender hearted man, who had
never harmed him, and his reverence for
an assassin whose name only survives by
its infamy. Think of il for d moment,
What kind of a man must he be who
DIVERS his Just born child with the name
of John Wilkes Booth? Does it in the
coolest of cold blood, with deliberation
and not upon impulse. Seven years after
the commission of the murder which
sent a thrill of horror through all the
South as well as through the North; a
murder so horrible that in the very white
heat of the war, when the passions of
men were at their angriest pitch, no de-
cent man anywhere did other than de-
nounce it as a most infamous crime
this man calmly fastens on his own poor
helpless infant the murderer's name.
This was moi idiocy; though it seems in
credible that it should be done by per-
son of ordinary intellect and intelligence.
1t was Just dull brutality ;beastly cruelty.
The man who could approve of the as
of Mr.. Lincoln would be just
such monster as to curse his own flesh
and blood with such a christening and
make his child the instrument for carry
ing over to the next generation the
badge of his fathers shame. Poor child,
to be thus fathered and thus handi-
capped for life.
s'And now, there being such a man,
such patriot, such citizen, and such |
a father, where do We fiad him? Ask
Mr.. Morrison, Chairman of Ways and
Means, leader of the Democratic party
in Congress. He found him and had |
him appointed Clerk of his Committee, |
where he draws pay from the Govern
ment he SO loyalty supports. Ask Mr..
Michael G. Kerr, the Democratic Speaker /
nf the House, who made Mr. Morrison |
the leader OF the House and gave him
the opportunity to appoint this man.
Ask the Democratic party, which elected |
Mr.. Kerr and Mr.. Morrison, and which
is responsible for their acts and for the
of this representative Dem
1crat. Who is this man, who within
three years has recorded at the baptisinal
iont over the head of his infant son his
.everent regard for President Lincoln's
assassin? Is he of the sort that the |
Democratic party chooses out for its
lonors and emoluments? Is this what
We are voting to bring in when we aid in
securing a Democratic victory! If so.
et las know it and have a fair under
standing. We have held the Republi-
,an party responsible for its appoint
nents: we do the same with the Demo
,rars. This man is not Mr.. Morrison's
Or Mr. Kerr's exclusively. He is the
1arty's. 1t must carry him. He is not
to be sure. He is only
.lerk of a committee. But there is not
any place obscure enough to shelter such
4 man where he can draw Government
pay. He affronts justice; he shocks
common decency. The man who ap-
Dlauds assassination would be an aSsas-
,in himself if he dared. There is no
illness, no propriety, no sense in his
being anywhere where the eye of self
citizen may light on him,
much less in any public place where the
nations gorge rises at sight or sound of
lim.
''Mr Morrison, neither you nor your
Speaker nor your party can afford to
Ippoint to Office man who seven years
!fter Mr.. Lincoln's murder christened
lis o IN son with the Hurderer's name"
THE people of Ottawa county are
aving a little sensation. An examiner
Tas appointed and duly qualified ac-
ording TO law to mako an examination
f the County Treasury. On going into
he office and demanding the keys of
he safe he was forcibly elected by the
reasurer, who, perhaps, expected to
ain time enough to ''fix things" to suit
i'm. The examiner had evidently never
earned show not to do it." He should
ave called at the residence of the
raa snrer when he was absent from 4