The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-04-19
The REPUBLICAN AND THE RE
LICANPARTK.

So far as we can gather from careful
perusal of the Republican papers they are
of the opinion that the way in which the
South has been treated during the last
twelve years is scandalous. The indig-
nant scorn with which they denounce
the carpet-bagger for multitudinous pecu'
lations has very solemn effect, and the
contempt with which they speak of the
natural unfitness of the negro for the
functions of citizenship astonishes even
old-fashioned Democrats. The stern dis
approval which they express for the in
reference of soldiers in the affairs OF a
civil government is worthy of the spirit
of Hampden, and the tender pathos with
which they dwell on the necessity OF
peace and reconciliation among estranged
brethren could not be more moving if
they were endeavoring to get another
centennial appropriation bill passed.
They confess meekly and humbly that
their whole scheme Of reconstruction was
a blunder; that they were harsh and
hasty in 1865, and that since then they
have been laboring under constant mis-
apprehension of the true state OF things
at the South. 1t appears Aow that the
massacres at Coushatta and Hamburg
were not such dreadful affairs after all,
and that the story of Eliza Pinkston is to
be taken with a barrel of Syracuse salt.
Everything is as serene and lovely as an
evening in June. The sound Of the out
rage mill has ceased in the land. The
President listens to the melancholy chant
of DR.. Etchison's poetry. Carl Schurz
plays Mendessohn's dreamy music and
sighs at the thought of the last admiring
letter which he has received from one OF
the sixty superfuous thousands of Mas
Mr.. Evarts coils two or three
of his long sentences about the Louisiana
Commissioners aud ties them hand and
foot in garlands of rhetorical rose. In
the words of the festive Joyce to the fes-
tive Mcdonald during the vicious admin
istration of General Grant, "the goose
hangs atitudalem, the sun shines" And
yet not more than seven months ago,
where we now sit, circled with all that
exaits and embellishes Mr.. Hayes's Ad-
the cumpaign banner hut-
tered in the wind and Bob Ingersoll rails
ed his howl unscared. Here lived and |
lied another race of beings. Beneath the
same sun that shines for us the Republi-
can ofice-holder pursued the Canting
SANDER; under the same moon the Re-
publican scalawag wooed his dusky mate.
The transparenCies shone on the tender
and helpless, the torchlights glared on the |
drunk and staring. The defiant cam
paign song, the deadly Times supplement,
The war-whoop, the tomahawk and the
all were here. Greater
thieves never lived bigger liars never
drew long bow. If they had the vices Of
savage life they had those of cultivated
life also. If they forgave not majorities,
neither did they forget returning boards.
But, alas how changed. The carpet-bag-
ger, the Boy in Blue, the Associated Re-
of Andersonville, the political
Dhilanthropist, the friend of humanity,
.he colored martyr-all are gone. Not q
single principle of all that they once pos
Jessed can they now call their own. They
lied not by war, or pestilence, or famine,
)r lingering decay, but at the approach Of
| fraudulent President they seemed des.
jined to a slow but sure extinction. Here
and there stricken few remains but
now unlike the bold, untamed, untama-
ole Republican They walk like ghosts
about the scenes of their former triumphs
laggard and frightened, for the Democrat
IS upon their trail for terror or despatch.
They have folded the banner of the
bloody shirt under which they march
ed to many victory, and laid it away
with the solemn chant of another lost
cause:
"Furl The banner, for It's wediy;
Round its staff it's dropping dreary;
Furl 1t, fold 1t, 1t is best
For there's not man to wave 1t
And there's not sword TO save it,
And there's not one left to laveit,
In the blood which heroes gave It,
And It's foes now scorn and brave II,
Farl 1t, hide 1t, let 1t rest.
Take that banner down. tbs tattered
Broken Is It's staff and shatteredl
And the valiant hosts are scattered
Over whom It fioated high.
Oh it's hard for US to fold I'll
Hard to think there's none to hold IT.;
Hard that those who once unrolled 1t
Now must fold 1t with sigh
''Furl that banner True It's CORY,
Yet It's wreathed around with glory,
And twill live in song and story
Though It's folds are in the dust;
For Its fame on brightest pages,
Penned by poets and by sages,
ahaI1 90 eoundin0 down the aeea-