The weekly clarion., 1876-11-01
rEz Il WAR ISSUE.
a ScathinG Review of the Policy
which lost the ESePubIfcans the
October Elections.
IIOGAN.

From Speech of Henry Watterson at New
Albany, Ind.
Parties, like individuals, must be taken
at their word, if there be nothing to dis
prove It, The one word uttered by the
Republican party from the beginning to
the end of this canvass-the word which
has passed from lip to lip ON the peace
full banks of the Kennebec, in the happy
hills and wales of the Delware and the
Susquehannah, and thence through our
Western dells, meadows, and streams
has been WAR. There Is nothing to dis
prove that. 1t is the hue and cry of all
the Republican herses-the cue to the
Republican policy. Wherefore? Have
we not had enough Of war? Shall we
turn our legislative halls into temples
and dedicate them to the god Of war?
Shall the genius ef hate and strife plant
torches round our very altars and build
up new shrines to glorify the furies?
That is what the greatest of the Repub
lican orators has proposed and advocated,
echoed everywhere by the Republican
press. Having done what he could to
remove the image Of his Maker from the
minds and hearts of men--to rob the
world of its living God-this bold trum-
peter of treason to the Most High, sets
himself to be the Judge Of men, L find
in every Republican newspaper which L
see ''an eloquent extract" taken from
a speech delivered Col. Robert lngersoll
before body of Union soldiers which
recently assembled IN the capital OF lndl-
ana. The eve of the orator in fine fren
zy rolling turns back to the past. And
what does he see there to lure his gaze
and fill his soul? He sees the serried
line of battle. He sees the red battle-fag.
He sees the prancing steed, he hears the
roar of musketry, he feels the earth trem-
bic. Canon belch out fame and death.
Bayonets fixed, and plunged by brother
into brothers blood And IngersOll is
happy. He looks again. What does he
sec now? The victor's knee upon the
PROSTATE form of the vanquished. Help
less and broken fragments of what were
once called States turned over to pIllage
of the camp follower. Ruin everywhere.
.'The tram pled ear. the desecrated Shrine.
The smOuldering homestead, and the house
hold flower
Torn from the Intel"
Ingersoll reioices. He bids his comrades
look upon the scene and join in his exul-
tation God of dreams for it must be
dream what an unreal and Fantastic
world is this that would have a soldier
echo and applaud such simulated passion!
God of dreams, did 1 say? Oh, any
God, at least any "honest God" even
Bob Ingersoli's own God-though he
was not the nominee of the Cincinnati
Convention-couldn not be sincere in such
utterances. No more was Ingersoll, for,
like many another partisan, bandying dew
ilish rhetoric for mischief's sake, he is a
man not without manhood braver and
purer than he would have men think.
| If he had consulted that manhood for his
fancies have invoked different phantom.
! He would have seen the South, solid IN
deed, but solid in her misfortunes, stand
ing amid her ruins, ragged and helpless
and asking for justice Ola North which,
instead of seeking to make solid against
her, he should be urging to generous ac-
/ tiOuS.