The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-04-28

Hancock and the solid South, tissue ballots
r1nle-clubs, ku-klux Khan; Garfield and
free ballot and an honest count Which
did he take Where did he go There wa:
chance for the Senator from Virginia Il
j show his devotion to a free ballot and an
honest count. With all these magnificent
erations resounding around him, with all
these editorials he deliberately cast his loi
| IN with the tissue ballot party, as the Re-
/ publicans called it, of the solid South and
not only that, but in his superserviceable
zeal he telegraphed TO Hancock, MY party,
| the Readjusters of Virginia, will give you
| 900 majority over the grip-sack and the
funder parties put together" If the Sena-
! tor from Virginia could take the Democrat
| &c party then, what has come over that par
| ty since November that he cannot take it
now
Mr.. Sherman: | do not wish to disturb
my friend, but | desire to say that it was not
the Democratic platform that the Republi-
cans objected to; it was the Democratic
practice under it.
Mr.. VEST. All Mr.. President, the voter
who took Hancock took him practice and all
and he knew it. When he voted for Han
cock he knew all about Democratic practices,
for the Republican party had made it re-
sound from one end of this Union to the
other that Hancock was backed by the solid
South and We know that the distinguished
Senator from New York brought down the
applause of the whole party when in the
Academy of Music speech he said "They
tell US that Hancock is a man of nerve and
will not be controlled by the solid South
when he is elected. Fellow-citizens, the lion
and the lamb may lay down together, but
the lamb will always lie on the inside" The
whole country heard this. And yet the
Senator from Virginia deliberately threw
his great weight as a political leader and the
electoral vote of his State in favor not only
of the principles but the practices of the
Democratic party. If he took one he took
the other. He knew that Hancock was
Bourbon Democrat; and yet today We are
told that it amounted to nothing.
Mr.. President, we have witnessed remark
able scenes in this chamber. Eighteen
months ago the President of the United
States declared in speech in the State of
Ohio that he would never, so help him God, |
extend his hand in friendship across the |
bloody chasm to any man who had been en-
gagged in rebellion who did not openly ex-
press his repentance for it never would he |
grasp in friendship the hand of any man |
that struck at the life of the nation until he |
publicly and openly declared his repentance |
for that great crime. The Senator from |
Massachusetts has rung the changes on it
here over and over again-the junior Sena- |
tor. When did the Senator from Virginia |
repent? The other day saw the Senator from
Virginia stand in the midst of the Republi-
can Senators and in emphatic accents declare
that for his part in that in that struggle he
had no repentance to express, no apology to
make. have no apology, he said, to make
to any man for my participation in that
struggle, and then after this heroic declara-
ton he fell back into the amorous embrace
of the junior Senator from Massachusetts,,
and they billed and cooed together while
the air was heavy with the fragrance of
flowers sent here from the Executive con-
servatory to grace the wedding feast.
Two years ago almost said on this floor
that there was not Confederate Brigadier,
reeking as they called it with loyal blood
spotted and stained with treason, that the
Republican party would not take into its
embrace if he would only agree to vote the
Radical ticket and give power to the Radi-
cal party. Sir, the waters of the Jordan,
all the medicinal springs from the days of
down to this, have not the
healing virtue of one single Republican
ballot; it covers all sin, hides all iniquity.
The chief recommendation the Senator
rom Virginia gives to your candidate for
at-arms is that he was full-fedged
raitor before he was Is years old, and {
a company in the Confederate
lrmy. That is his chief recommendation ,
yet to-day all is forgotten; you take him
nto full fellowship and communion without
my examination by church or session. He
5 ready for the New Jerusalem, the temple
lot made with hands, eternal in the )
heavens"
Mr. President, where is the consistency
# this great party that controls the gov !
Gentlemen, you have to day by !
n accident, control of the organization of
his Senate you have planted the flag of
Democratic Virginia in the midst of its Z
hereditary foes. Sir, there is a legend [
mong the Mortimer OF the olden time of t
Danish king whose banner had waved in
riumph over hundred stricken fields till
t last he fell in defence of it with his
erce warriors around him. His hereditary
oemen seized that battle flag and bore it of
n triumph, and at night, with wine and {
7assail his foes celebrated their unexpected |
ctory. The wine flowed red, and the .
ong rose high around the flag that hung
nournfully and sullenly in their midst.
suddenly a hush came over that band of c
evellers. In their midst stood the form of 1
he dead king and his spirit hand seized Y
hat flag and tore it away from his heredi- c
airy foes forever. Sir, if the gallant living !
f Virginia (and she has thousands as brave
8 any that ever rode through shot and
hell and sabre-stroke) do not in the coming .
all redeem this flag, dear to me as my own [
Onor because in Virginia lest the ashes of Y
ny fathers-if her gallant living redeem {
ot this flag from where it stands to-day I
diluted by the grasp of those who have :
lways traduced and slandered it, / would
xpect, under God, that the awful majesty
f Jefferson himself, father of the Demo
ratio party, would darken this hall and {
nth spirit hand would wrest that banner
rom those who have always hated it and |
i've it to loving hands. Applause in the {
alleries.