Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-09-16
lne True issue

ties of the country has been strikingiy
illustrated by the speeches made at the
Republican conference on Thursday
and the Garfield serenade last night and
those made at the two Democratic rati-
iication meetings recently held in this
city. What is the real issue before the
country to-day? According to the adj
dresses at Tammany Hall and the
Academy of Music it is the restoration
of the Federal Government to it's origi-
nal principles, and its honest, economi-
cal administration for the good of the
whole country, North, South, East and
West. 1t is whether the Constitution,
which limits the power of the Federal
Government, shall be obeyed; whether
the Constitutional rights of the States
shall be preserved; whether the ballot
box shall be kept pure and free from
armed interference; whether commerce
and industry and the arts of peace,
which produce prosperity, shall be en-
couraged; whether the money of the
people shall be honestly and economic
ally spent for the public good; whether
sectionalism, which has been the bane
of our history, shall be exterminated,
and the people of this great country,
whose interests are Identical. who are
bound together by the strongest ties of
race and religion and trade, and who
are together working out the grand
problem of popular institutions, shall
be one in fact and law and the sacred
projections of Constitutional Govern
ment. To these questions the Democ-
racy send up unanimous i" Yes,"
while the Republican party, as the re-
suit of it's twenty years of power, an
swers by its acts and by the voices of
it's controlling leaders, "No."
But according to the leading Re-
publicans who are trying to elect Gar
field, these are not the chief questions
before the country, if they are ques-
tons at all. The real issue does not
concern the fundamental principles of
the Government, nor the solid business
interests of the country, nor the pros
perity of fifty millions of people.
Nothing of the sort. 1t is the bloody
shirt. 1t is whether white men living
in the Southern States, who are loyal
and patriotic and law-abiding in every
respect, shall be treated as citizens or
serfs; whether dozen great States,
whose people are one with us in every
respect, whose industries are essential
to the prosperity of the Nation, whose
rights and liberties we are bound to
maintain, shall be treated as conquered
provinces aud held under subsection;
whether al! he baleful and blighting
passions o u war which ended fifteen
years ago Ill be kept alive to ALLEVIATE
those who ought to be brethren;
whether men who are as loyal and
patriotic as any in the country should
be continually branded as ''rebels,"
TRAITORS" and .Copperheads:' wheth-
er all the vital material and social and
moral interests of the country should
be sacrificed to keep the hideous war
fend alive to stir up new strife and re-
open wounds that else would heal, and
make a real union of our people inn
possible. And to this issue the Repub-
icans send up a tremendous YES"
while the Democrats respond with a
unanimous, patriotic ''NO.'
This difference is terribly suggestive.
1t shows what the two great parties of
the country stand for and represent.
Democrats everywhere protest against
a revival of the old war cries and
memories. now that the country is at
peace, and the Southern States are as
orderly and quiet as any in the Union.
There is not a rebel in America. The
bloody shirt does not represent real
issue. 1t is unpatriotic to force it upon
reluctant country. Craftsmanship
condemns violation of sound prin-
ciple and the sacrifice of solid material
interests for a bugaboo. 1t was only
short time ago that Mr.. Garfield him
self declared in the House of Repre-
sentatives that ''the man who attempts
to get up political excitement in this
country on the old sectional issues will
find himself without a party and with
out support. The man who wants to
serve his country must put himself in
the line of its leading thought, and
that is the restoration of business,
trade, commerce, industry, sound
political economy, hard money, and
honest payment OF all obligations.
This is so plain that every man of
common sense will admit its truth.
But the leading Republicans at the con-
ference and last night repudiated this
sentiment utterly and unqualifedly.
Blaine declared that the real issue is
whether ''the men who fought the civil
war shall surrender to the men who
fought against the Union" Logan was
still more emphatic in declaring that
the question is whether ''the rebel
army and the Copperheads of the
North shall have the right to govern
this country" Harrison, of Indiana,
shrieked in the same warlike strain;
and even John Sherman, the Republic
an tinancier, declared that the great
question is whether 1.-the Republican
party shall resign to the Solid South,
headed by Wade Hampton and the Ku-
klux Khan, and a little segment in the
Northern States calling itself the Dem
ocratc party At the serenade last
night the three principal speeches were
made by Logan, Harrison and Conger;
and all of them were charged with the
war spirit, as though the country
were in the midst of rebellion and
Democrats were rebels and traitors
trying to seize the Government.
These speeches were not Only unpatriot-
ic and vicious as could well be and
false as they were pernicious, but they
insulted the intelligence of the people
to whom they were addressed. What
do the business men of New York think
of such declarations as these men
made? What can anybody think but
that the Republican party is reduced to
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