The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1880-11-04
A CANVASS MADE IN HATE

In spite of efforts to the contrary,
this canvass, which ended Tuesday,
has been waged upon the old sec
tional issues, while the bloody shirt
has been unfurled at the North in
fierce political crusade against South
en- people. Civil service reform,
currency and the tariff-practical
issues-have been ignored, and vul-
gar passion has been led to crowG
down everything in the interest of
hate and malice and injustice, that
personal government may, instead
of constitu ional one, be nourished
and perpetuated in Union of antag-
onisms, instead of in one of mutual
interests and fellowship. The plan
has been to present the North as a
unit against the South, and by force
of reason the South stands united in
the face of an Incorporating and
unjust political foe. But q few
months since Gen. Grant spent much
time in the South, holding inter-
course with Southern people, and
under the impulse of truthful con-
victions he went out from amongst
us and told the people of the North
that there was no spirit of enmity
left among the masses of Southern
whites against the Union; that the
South was thoroughly reconstructed,
and that its people were as loyal
as those of the North These were
honest expressions, made before he
was defeated at Chicago, because
probably he had shown by these
words too great spirit of gener-
osity; before he made the discovery
that to lag behind the bowling pack
of .bloodhounds, that thirst for
Southern life blood, he would be lost
in this rate, forgotten for all time,
and that his thought of empire
would be but a passing dream; be-
fore the ghttering prize, shaped at
ter the fashion of a crown, labeled
1884, was held out to him
and before he resorted to falsehood
to injure the candidacy of noble
companion IN arms, and to wave
over excited Northern throngs the
proverbial Republican banner that
has for years, by force of pure in
justice, led solid Republican
phalanx against the South. Gen.
Grant, after his defeat at Chicago,
sank almost into obscurity, from
which he emerged, only when he
obeyed the instruction of Conkling
and the other Republican giants,
and opened his war upon the South.
He was then accepted as leader,
ground lost was regained, and
should Garfield be made president,
it is intended simply as a stepping
stone for Grant and his personal
government, with all its corrupt
rings and practices, to be re-estab-
lished four years hence. Any one
doubling this sectional hate will re-
collect that when Grant came to the
front in support of Garfield he was
recognized as representing no other
issue than that of the late war. His
reception and the power exerted by
him must be accepted as unmistak-
able evidence of the same feeling
that prevailed when there was war
between the sections. So strong
has been this feeling, that in
Pennsylvania, Joel Cook. q candi-
date for Congress. who opposed war
in 1862, was forced TO abandon the
field to another who had always end
could still wave the bloody shirt.
Such is public sentiment at the
North, and it is stronger now than
it was four or even eight years ago.
What il forbodes can not be told.
Il is neither a healthy nor hopeful
sign for the country that this feel
ing does exist, aud that It does exist
and is growing, and that it controls
the political destiny of the country
cannot be disputed.