National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1882-03-11
ISentnckY Politics.


The Jacobs bolt from the Democracy
in Kentucky has not shown much power,
and the Republican sympathy with it
has not been enthusiastic. Neither side
of the proposed coalition appears to have
been enough removed from personal pol
itics.
The revolt of Jacobs and his friends
was based solely upon the unfriendly
conduct of the Bourbon organization to-
ward certain of its own members who
claim to have been prescribed from its
honors. Men who had been Union SOL
diers were complaining because devotion
to the confederacy was made q test inside
of the Democratic party. In vain the ex-
Union soldiers plead that they hated ne
grocs and loved slavery; in vain they
Frustrated themselves from year to year
before the Bourbon throne. Never
were they regarded us equSls. Sew
enteen years of unwavering fealty to
the party which violently overbenrs
maiorities in half the Southern States
brought the ex-Union soldiers no nearer
to the fesh-pots than when they first
separated from their military comrades
of the Republican faith. The spurns
these men took finally moved them to n
protest. They selected as their leader
Colonel Jacobs, who was at one time n
Union soldier. He made speech and
subscribed to resolutions which it was
thought would justify the Republicans in
giving him their support. The "move-
ment was forwarded by some good Re-
publicans and by some not so good.
The Republicans who were opposed to
il declared that Jacobs had left the
Union army in 1868 because of the is
suance of Lincolns emancipation procla-
nation, and that he had subsequently
been sent through the lines into the con-
federacy, there to keep company with
the friends of slavery, who, despite their
war upon the Union, were less distasteful
to him than were the friends of Freedom
with whom he had served in the Federal
army. They declared that for these
reasons Jacobs could receive no colored
votes, and that he had manifested no
political change of sentiment which en-
titled him to any Republican support.
Meetings were held at which strong OPP
position was expressed to any utilization
with the Jacobs boilers.
1t is very clear that the Republicans
cannot be moved in body to the SUP
port of Jacobs. 1t is equally certain that
it would be unwise TO carry portion
only of the party to that support. A
corps may go to the rescue of regiment
if the situation demands it, but it would
be supreme folly for the corps to lose n
division in such movement The cause
Of anti-Bourbo nism needs recruits in
every Southern State. But two essentials
must be kept in view-these are, first,
that the recruits must be anti Bourbon,
and not merely temporarily detached
Bourbons; and second, that our own
army must not be disbanded in order to
recruit it.
We regret to be obliged to confess our
disappointment at the outlook in Ken.
lucky. 1t would be more agreeable TO oui
feelings to make different report. But
our correspondence and conversations
with Republicans who favored as we'll as
others who opposed a coalition all tend
TO show that the Republicans can only be
united by standing their own ground
The Jacobs wing of the Democracy will
perhaps be all the stronger for not being
suspected Of Republican proclivities
May Kentucky Bourbonism be worse con
founded.