The Red Cloud chief., 1883-12-14
Bloody Shirt Sneers.

Since the publication of Senator Ma
homes address exposing the murder
Gus tactics by which the Virginia BOur
bons won their recent triumph. horri
BILE visions of ensanguined shirts ar
continually troubling the minds OF on
Democratic contemporaries. why
they inquire, ''shOuld such dreadful
objects be exposed t. the public gaze
Why not pass by on the c6her side, ant
pretend not to see the evidence o
barbarity and intolerance? The spec
tacle is calculated to awaken scnti'
ments of antipathy toward our South
ern brethren, who are compelled tc
choose between political defeat at thu
polls and the massacre in cold b.OO(
of persons who will not vote the Demo
cratic ticket or stay at home. Thinl
of the g~rievOus alternative to which
they are reduced. of seeing themselves
defeated in the elections or nObl,
slaughtering their opponents. Extend
to them your sympathy rather than
your blame. Reflect upon the anguish
that must wiring their chivalric souls
when they contemplate the certain
ty of being excluded from Office and
power. and deprived of the emo.u'
ments appertaining thereto, unless they
iudu'ge in q little butchery by way OF
diminishing the obstacles which con.
front them in pursuit of these desirable
things! Be content with behOlding the
grand results flowing from the Bourbon
system of conducting political cam
Paigns, and remain silent. Don't stir
up bad feeling$ Perhaps the thing
isn't as bad rs witnesses report it to be.
At most only q few lives are sacrificed,
comparatively. Two or three dozen
murders in a State Just before election
day, ordinarily suffice. and what are
they to make a fuss about, anyhow?
Let us have peace. We have heard
enough of the bloody shirt. and don't
want to be bothered about it any more.
If you keep on waving it we will swear
that nothing of the sort exists, no mat
ter how conclusive the testimony of
outrage may be-" And so the con-
science of the Nation is to be st;fied, if
possible. But, s:rs, the damned spot
will nOtout. People will talk and act.
too. as far as they are able to do so, and
plant the seal of their condemnation
no, only upon the immediate Grim mails
but also upon their apOlogists.
If Democracy can not maintain itself
without murder to serve as q hand
maiden, in the South. or anywhere else,
it is right that the fact be known to all
men, in order that they msy pass judg-
ment upon it. Representative Barbour.
of Virginia, is reported to be in New
York denouncing Senator MahOne's ar
ra:gnment of the BOurbOns as an out
rage. The Democratic State Commit
tee of Virginia has met in Richmond
and passed resolutions protesting
the revelation of Bourbon
Barbour says Senator Mahone's
is an imitation of others that
have preceded it from other States; but
there is only SO much similarity as nec-
essa"ily inheres in tales OF crime and
growing out of partisan ami
and greed. The fact that in
famies of the same sort have been prac-
before in the South does not ex-
or palliate in any degree the culpa-
biiity of the Virginia BOuib7ns. The
Mississippi plan" of carrying elections
IS nothing new, of course, but the
appalling wickedness of its intro
iuction in Virginia is net dimia-
shed by pleading precedents. Muir
der dates back to the DAYS of
Cain and Abel, but it is not to be ex-
;nsed Of that account. There is no
moral statute of limitation properly ap-
plicable to deeds of bloOd-guiltiness. 1t
will not do TO assume that the deeds
at Danville and other places
n Virginia are lessencd in blamewOrth.
ness because Senator Malone and his
friends have made an outcry about
They were known in something
If their blackness before the election, |
Ind their purpose was at once suspect /
ID. Since then suspicion has been
urned into such q degree of certainty
~ cOrrobOrating circumstances as to
Justify the verde t for which the Sena- |
or asks. And it is well that the atten-
ion of good citizens everywhere should
,e directed to the means by which Bour- |
non Democracy maintains q solid South
md hopes to secure control of the Ma
ional Government finally, with the aid
# Northern sy~mpathizcrs and friends.
concerning the exhibition of
shirts will hardly result in sup
independent comment upon
he recent Bourbon atrocities in Vir-
(N. ~ Times.
-s -
"A firm that advertises in Chicago
Gad to close its doors twice in a recent
fternoon to prevent eager shoppers