The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-10-03
cencernIng the !. BLOODY shirt.n


From 1866 to 1879 one Congressional
Committee after another, appointed to
investigate Southern election methods,
made majority and minority reports.
The Republican members declared that
the elections had been farce through
open and giaring frauds, when they
were not tragedies through murders
most foul bloody and brutal. The
Democratic members of the same Com
mittee, who heard the same witnesses,
declared that the elections were all fair
on the part of the Democrats, and that
their party friends had committed no
wrongs upon persons and no frauds
upon the ballot. Upon the issue thus
Joined the debate between the two par
ties proceeded for many years. The
tales of horror presented in sworn testi-
mony of Republicans were derided by
the opposition, and the Committees of
Congress, before whom it was taken,
were sneeringly alluded to as '.outrage
mills" When Republican victims of
Bourbon ferocity were murdered in their
beds at night the blood which saturated
their garments was pointed to in evil
dence, Just as Abel's was against Cain,
the first murderer. The sole reply of the
murderers, and of the party to which
they belonged and which enjoyed the
benefit of their crimes, was a shout of
diabolical laughter at 1.-THE Bloody
Shirt" This hilarity spread into the
Republican ranks, and during Grants
second term a large element in our
party. pretended not to believe that
Cain had killed Abel while others
justified by the offensive manner in
al L.
fees. OF the deposed ''bossesn who
went over to the Democracy in 1872,
and tried to give the country over to
Bourbon restoration. nearly all came
back into the party they had sought
to betray, and demanded that they
should not only be indicated for their
party treason, but that the party should
| plead guilty to all the ISLANDERS they
had uttered against 1t.
| The syndicate of Greeley newspapers
were as noisy in their defense as they
had been in defending the Democracy
against charges of violence and fraud
during the Presidential campaign just
closed. The returned deserters and
| these pestilent organs of Democracy
were joined by all who for any purpose
had a desire to embarrass the Admins
tration which had Just been continued
in power by the Electoral Votes OF
twenty-nine out of thirty-seven States,
including every State in the North.
This new combination took up the howl
against the Republican party where the
defeat of Greeley had interrupted it,
and the cause of law and order was
submerged in filth from the same jour.
nalistic sewers that had poured out
like material during the disgracefu
mud campaign of 1872. OF course ar
utter denial that there had been any
Southern outrages was an eS
sential part of the programme
of this combination. The gang o.
Republican spoilsmen who had gone
over to the enemy in 1872 had assured
the people that they were only Demo
q crats for the sake of reform Ever,
charge, then, of fraud or violenct
proven against the Democratic part,
was a reproach to them. When the,
again became Republicans they did no
retract their ISLANDERS of our party o
their eulogies of the enemy. The.
simply consented to allow the Republic
an party to vindicate them for having
. sought its overthrow. The object O
this restatement of an old story is t
produce in connection with it the con
fession by the Natchez Miss Demo
crat of all that the "Bloody Shirt" Re
publicans ever charged. That paper
having advocated fusion between tn
, Democratic and Republican parties, ol
county Offices, and finding the fusio
complained of by Louisiana Bourbo
, paper, replies in defense of and excus
, for its conduct, that the so-called fusio
, ''has entirely o6Uidted all necessity fo
revolutionary methods, and neither blood
shed nor robbery has been necessary"
i This is confession, by a Demo
? cratic editor, vouched for, by over-cor
! fiding Republicans as representa-
truly the most moderate of his party
: that bloodshedn and robbery
, haze been the means employed by tn
) Democracy, and that they win only /
suspended when they are rendered VI
/ necessary by q peaceful surrender {
the voting power of the Republicans.
|, The Bloody-Shir cry is thus az
knowledged to have been true, and r,
: publicans who aided in making it al
pear false, and sinned against igh
1 were accessories to murder. after ii
: fact. Those who come out of I'll
? Bourbon house of iniquity and abando
its evil ways should be encouraged
> well doing. What shall be said of thos
q Republicans who, for any purpose, el
ter into that political Golgotha wit
; such admissions as that above quote
n staring them in the Unconstitutional r
; publican.