The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-12-26
How to Stop the Bloody Shirt' Busi-

The Richmond (Va.) STATE, one OF
the most prominent Bourbon organs of
the South, assails the Republican papers
of the North and charges that they are
wantonly vilifying and traducing that
section by O. leir comments upon the
affair " at Danvil.e, the affair at
Copiah, and the various other "atfai-s"
which have occurred in South Carolina
and elsewhere. IL declares that they
are appealing to prejudice, ignorance,
and sectional animosity, that they are
seeking to s.arouse again that danger
Gus spirit which should long ego have
ceased to exist in this, country, and that
they are waving the bloody shirt to
aroure sectional hate and promote
partisan ends.
II the Richmond State does not want
the bloody shirt waved, then why does
il not join hands with other Bourbon pa
pers in the South and urge its people to
remove the necessity of waving itp
They have it in their own hands to stop
the waving of the ensanguined banner
any time they cho ,se. All they have to
do Is TO demand of their people that
persecution, bulldozing and murder
shall stop; that every man in the South
shall have the right to vote as he
pleases, free from intimidation and
peril to life; that the. negro shall have
tho same right to go to the polls and de-
posit his vote that a Bourbon has, and
that his vote shall be counted the same;
and that Republicans shall have the
right to express their opinions, to de-
clare them on the stump, and to carry
elections where they happen to be in
the ma ;ority. If this were done there
would be no waving of the bloody shirt,
there would be no cause for unfriend!y
criticism of Southern political methods,
and IL is little less than folly to suppose
that the North will stand idly by and
witness such rank political in ustice and
persecution and the disfranchisement Of
thousands of Republicans without con-
demning IL.
Does the Richmond State in its de-
nunciations Of Northern newspapers for
waving the bloody shirt mean 10 imply
that there Is anything like political Jus
tice or equality in the South? That
voters who oppose Bourbonism are al
lowed FREQ and unrestricted exercise
of the ballota That a negro has the
same political freedom as q white
BourbonP That in any'city, county or
district where there Is q Republican
majority, however overwhelming IL
may be, that ma jority can be voted and
declaredp That when the negro vote
cannot be suppressed by violence, 1t is
not counted out by every fraudulent
device that ingenuity can suggest? II
so, then the history Of events In the
South during the last year and through
many previous years stamps the imph-
cations as false. The record of the last
year, the massacre at Darville, the muir
= s-L Il. . Al.~xG l.
Carolina Congressional districts, which
the National Government Is now inves-
tigating, the reduction of the vote in
representative districts at least fifty per
cent. below the average vote in the
North, show that there is no in
tention in the South to depart from
the policy which 1t has pursued
for years of denying free suffrage
and practically restricting it to Bour-
bons. Mr.. Matthews was shot down
like dog at Copiah for no other reason
than that he voted against the Bour-
bons. The Coroner declined to hold an
inquest. The murderer gave himself
up and was set free at once. The en-
tire Bourbon community met and passed
resolutions commencing his act, and
the murderer has announced himself a
candidate for Mayor and will be elected
upon the sole issue of murder. This Is
the violent method. The other is the
fraud method, and it was so gross in
South Carolina that the United States
Court at Columbia will try the knaves
who were engaged in it, which the State
will probably regard as another wave
of the bloody shirt. Any infraction OF
National or State Election laws that will
insure the success of the Bourbon ticket
and suppress Republican majorities is
considered justifiable in the South, and
any exposure of such injustice or de-
mand for equal political rights is resent
ed as hostile to the South.
| The South, as we have said, has it in
its power to bury the bloody shirt out
of sight at any time by conceding to all
its people the right to speak, and act,
and vote as they please without inter-
ference; but until that right is fully and
freely extended as it is in the North the
bloody shirt will be waved, and the
fault lies at the door of the South. So
long as q white or black Republican is
disfranchised by violence on the one
hand or trickery on the other it will be
waved. So long as men are murdered.
prosecuted, terrorized, tortured or driv-
en- from their homes for speaking OF
voting their opinions it will be waved.
| So long as legitimate majorities are
suppressed by fraud It will be waved.
So long as every election in the South
is characterized by brutal outrages and
unblushing corruption on the part OF
Bourbons it will be waved, and the
Richmond State need not lay the fiatter-
ing unction to its soul that its com
| plants or whines are going to stop it.