Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-08-12

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Democratic "change of heart ~
The disasters which this Democratic
policy always met when the people of
the nation gave expression to their
convictions. up to and including the
contest over the adoption of the 18th
amendment, at length induced Dem
ocratic change-not Of heart, but Of
tactics! 1t had become painfully
apparent to them that in order to gain
the much coveted power, they must
deceiue the American people It was
manifest folly longer to undertake to
bully them. So they professed a
change of front. They commenced
to resolve that they would "accept
the situation" "acquiesce" in the
lessons and results of the war-but
these professions were always accom-
panied by demand that they be at
once restored to power in the Govern
ment. In 1872 they nominated Horace
Greeley and fairly yearned to "clasp
hands across the bloody chasm -
They imagined that with Greeley
who had denounced them and they
him all their lives as their candidate,
they could at once capture the White
House and the Capitol, and then pro-
ceed at their leisure to gather the
''fruits of the war; in vessels of
their own +! They were so confident
of this that they allowed during that
year comparatively fair vote to be
taken-and as a result they were
overwhelmed by defeat, not only in
the North, but in several Of the
Southern States! They deceived
nobody but Mr.. Greedy and themselves.
The people dare not trust them. Their
pretended conversion was recent and
sudden. The South, even, was not
"solid." Everywhere, where a free
ballot was allowed, the ex-rebels were
again emphatically warned that sudden
and gushing professions of reform
accompanied by a demand for imme-
date control of the Government were
not enough, when coming from a pow
erful combination of men controlling a
national political organization, whose
every effort for more than decade
had been to oYerturn and destroy the
Government itself, and failing in that,
to thWart and defeat every measure
which the tried and trusted friends of
the Government had labored to estab-
lish- They were reminded that if they
desired controlling voice in the
administration Of public affairs, they
could secure it only by modest and
continued acquiescence in the just
consequences of the war, at least until
result in establishing confidence in
their scincerity. And the people were
most wise in their decision, as subse-
quent events have abundantly shown.
After the presidential election of
1872, in most Of the Southern States
the free ballot which was tolerated
that year was speedily overthrow.
In all of them it was but a question of
time. The Democrats continued in
their conventions to profess acquies-
cence in the constitutional amend
ments, but in their practice, and in
many of the States in Their newspapers
and the declarations of their leading
men, they openly repudiated and dis
regarded them. They organized
"White leagues and Kuklux Klans,
and established the white, or "color
line, and these organizations, extend
ing throughout the South, were simp-
ly military organizations composed of
white democrats" determined that
negroes should neither vote nor hold
Office, and that Republicans should
not be elected to Office by negro votes.
In those localities where the negroes
outnumbered the whites reign of
terror was inaugurated. Leading Re-
publicans, black and white, were called
from their houses at dead of night
and murdered in cold blood others
were driven from the South on pain Of
meeting similar fate. These events
were too common, too notorious to
require proof here. This condition
Of affairs, and the character and pur-
poses of the men who inaugurated it
have been so fully investigated by
authority of Congress and otherwise,
and the whole facts so indisputably
established that the detailed evidence
need not be spread upon the record
anew. All localities We're not subdued
in day, but as fast as organizations
could form and drill and prepare for