The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1880-08-11
No Esc.pe from The ReeaFd.

AT last the bloody-shirt cry Is
eiified !" This is what every Demo-
cratic paper in the country has been
shouting with genuine or stimulated
10Y ever since their ticket was putin
tothefeld. 1t is plain that the Demo-
cratic leaders wish to have II under
stood that they have escaped an i'm
pending peril, and it is therefore
worth while to inquire just what the
( danger is, and just how it has been
removed.
Of course no empty "ery'-no
~cry" which does not give audible
and articulate expression to some
vital fact or fecling-can help or
hurt any party or any man. What
the Democracy are pleased to call
the bloodv-shirt cry was annoying
and threatening simply because it
was q declaration of the Nations
deep distrust of that party in view
of It's attitude toward the freedmen,
and its sympathetic aid extended
to late sccessionists in all their at
tempts to regain, by multiplying leg
islation. what they had fought for
and lost in the war. In the first
place, among the loyal citizens there
is damaging presumption against
a party which counts upon the elec-
torial voteof every State which help
ed to organize an armed rebellion
against the country. This presump-
ton is strongerwhcn it isremembcr-
ed that-the voters in thcss States who
areallowed to 90 to the polls continue
to Justify their reasonable course as
reasonable and patriotic. This dis
trust is decpcned by the admitted
fact that the men lately in arms
against the country and pardoned
into full privilege OF citizenship have
violently robbed of all practical
political rights the only class of citi-
zens in those States which was and
is stubbornly loyal to the Union.
The popular dread of handing the
Government over to these men Is
naturally increased when the Briga-
diers in Congress by the grace OF the
loyal majority threaten to leave no
vestige of war legislation on the stat
ute books" a threat with meaning
in it whea it is remembered that no
Democratic Legislation at the North
voted to ratify the amendments
which embodied theprinciples ofcon-
stitutional liberty saved to the com-
try from out the havoc of civil war.
4 record OF this kind Is certainly
a desirable one for any party to get
away from and if the Democracy
have suddenly blottcd out their his
tory bv sEillful nomination, the
achievement is one upon which they
will do we'll to congratulate them
selves. The claim is that this has
been accomplished by the nomina-
ton of a soldier who has fought for
the Union. But is not the very fact
that they have selected such can
didate, ,withoutproicssinganych change
of heart or purpose, an advertise
mcnt that they intend to capture the
Presidency by stratagem Do they
acknowledge in terms the justice OF
the war for the Union any more than
they did when they set up McClel-
. Ian. still more famous soldier? ?
Wade Hampton greeted the nomma-
tinn of Frank Blair another Union
soldier. in Tammmy Hall twelve
years ago with the same elusive
demonstrations which have lately
been witnessed in Cincinnati. Was
anybody dcludcd bythis pantominc?
Docs any one doubt that the tri-
mph of the Democratic party at the
coming election would be the tri-
umph Of the Solid South and the
ideas Of the South rs conspiciously
I as if Wade Hampton was the candi-
date instead Of being one of the chief
managers of the campaign?
The fact is that, by nominating a
soldier o-tcnsibly for his record as a
soldier. they have themselves reviv-
cd the issues of the war. Ifthey had
selected a man with any known
views upon finance, or tariff, or tax
alton, they might have withdrawn
some popular attention from their
attitude during the war, and from
their attitude since that time toward
the questions which grew out of the
struggle for national unity. General
Hancock's sole services to the coun-
try which educated him We're render
ed in that war He was in the wrong
then, or the great body Of his sup
portcrs are in the wrong now. 1t
may be that he repents Of his servi-
ces. During the brief period when
he was brought into contact with the
plans for reconstruction, he did his
best or worst to defeat the plans of
/ Congress. In any event, the Demo
Gratis have deliberately ''rekindled
the embers of sectional strife" by
Sinking all other questions and the
country knows whose fault it is
that there are any embers left to kin
die Everybody knows how the
kindly overtures of Mr.. Hayes were
secuted, and a majority of the voters
of the country will express a pretty
emphatic opinion in November as to
the imprudence Of a section which
ventures to make still heavier de-
mands upon the Nations forbear-
ance. Instead of dancing hornpipes
over their escape from history, able
Democratic editors had better sober
themselves down to face record
which the civilized world has con-
demned as unpatriotic, disloyal and
cowardly.-N \. Tib1me
Lightning and Trees.
Professor Collandon, Of Geneva,
has made some interesting observa-
tions on the course of lightning
when it strikes trees and houses. He
holds that the great discharges which
Iinjure trees and houses seldom or
never happen while the lightning