Semi-weekly interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1881-1905, 1882-08-18
The Republican Convention.

flying to the respectable appearance O
its members, and to the orderly anc
decorous manner in which they con
Quoted the business before them. Ev
cry thing was done decently and in
good humor, and apparently in perfect
harmony, and with loud manifesto
tons, whether genuine or assumed,
of enthusiasm and confidence in a com.
ing victory. But the pains taken by
the several eloquent speakers to BELT
tls rev,r,es receatly sustained by tn e
party in Garrard, Lincoln, Madison
and elsewhere, together with their vo
ciferous "so-help.me.Gods' and "by-
the-eternal Gods" about carrying the
flag to victory in November, to calm
spectator, did seem TO betray a con-
seriousness on their part of immediate
necessity for offering consOlati on to
the killed and wounded in the late So
called "skirmish. Whether a party
which has just been whipped, routed,
run over, pulverized and scattered in
several counties, where they have here
tofore had their own way, can be made
happy and confident again by the
mere declaration that their drubbings
were received in skirmish, remains
to be seen. However that may be,
we dare say there is many mutilated
and used up republican, who to-day
heartily curses him self for going into
that skirmish, and who will hereafter
be just little shy even about a regu
lar battle. Getting "wore out" as
these poor fellows did, while serving
as skirmishers for General Bradley, is
neither profitable or amusing-except
to democrats.
A prominent feature ofall the ora.
tions and other deliverances of the con-
ventiou, was the emphatic and oft-re-
peated reminderto their colored breth-
eren of their imm ense and irredeema-
bic Indebtedness to the republican par
ty for their freedom. Every orator
had to'holler" into the ears ofthe dar-
kies, 1--WE set you freel" And lest
this might not be sufficiently impress
i've, the convention unanimously re-
solved that they were entitled to the
glory of setting them free-four mil
lions of them. Now, we think this is
little hard on the colored man. If
the republican party set him free, it
did so voluntarily, and because it
thought it right, and if it was right,
the colored man owes nothing for it.
But he is regarded and treated by the
white republicans as though he had
Been liberated for a consideration
liberated under n solemn contract by
which he is to be forever held indept-
ed to them in such a manner that he
must render perpetual service at the
polls. 1t is not pleasant to be in debt
under any circumstances, but to owe
a debt which can never be paid, and to |
have it thrown into his face every day
Of his life, we insist, is very unhappy
for a human creature to be
placed in.
But however true it may be that
The republican party. as party, did
mainly contribute to the liberation of
he colored race. it is unblushing n.y.
pOcracy for Kentucky republicans to
claim any credit for it. For it is a
truth that SO out of every
100 of them we're strenuously opposed
% their emancipation, and that they
'esented as an insult every intimation
hat they favored it, and that they
tubbornly persisted in this until forced
~ Northern sentiment to acquiesce in
t. These very Kentuckians, who are
low every day Boosting of the liberia
ion Of the negro as the greatest
chievement of the age, and who are
laiming, yea, demanding, the abject
'Olitical servitude of the black man
m account OF it-every one of them,
Nth rare exceptions, opposed his
Iteration with all their might when
be question Of his freedom was at its
risis.
What evidence have the Kentucky
epublicans given the colored man,
ince bis Liberation, that they are his
pecial aud ahectionate iriends2 What
lore have the done for him than the
emocrats have done? Have they
iveu him more employment, or bet
sr wages, assisted him more when in
ant or affection, or in any way ex- i
ibited more genuine kindness and
toward him than democratic G
md how have they treated him po- {
tically in this State? What polite G
fvors have they conferred upon him,
rather what political privilege have ,
,ev nermitfed him toeniov save that