The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-12-14
THE NEW BLOODY SHIRT


A man may have been ''rebel," and pro-
vided he is knave enough to be Southern
Republican politician he may have anything
IN the gift of the party. Is it not about time
for honest Republicans to see that their
party is being eaten up by knavery, by poc-
rsy, shoddy pretenders, and snobs-tnen
who shout aloud against the enormity Of
treason one day, and the next reward man
who has been ''rebel' with place and power
because he has been knave enough to become
a reputation Republican,; men who clamor
to-day of bloody shirts and Southern out
RACES and yet elevate the very authors of
what there is of the system they pretend to
condemn? What party can long stand that
sort of hypocrisy and pretense?-Cincinnati
News Journal.
Ignorantly or willfully, it is difficult to say
which, the writer of the above has distorted
recognized facts to serve the purpose OF his
argument. The Republican party does not
honor ''rebels" because "they are knaves
enough to be Republicans" but for the bet
ter reason that they have ceased to be bull
doing, night-ridng Democrats and have be-
come American citizens. The bloody shirt"
the war, with all its horrors and
enormities, is thing of the
past in politics Arguments are
no longer made against the Democratic par
ty on account OF Andersonville and Belle
Isle. The hundreds of thousands of Union
dead are no longer laid anew at the door
of the Democratic party. The thousands of
millions of war debt are no longer referred
to as the legacy of defeated Democracy. The
burden of 100000. 600 annually for pensions
is borne by all the people, and mention is
no longer made of the party that made such
a vast outlay necessary. The war is over
and gone. Andersonville and Belle Isle are
recalled only as nightmare is recalled. The
grass is green on the graves of those who
fell fighting on either side, and
often the living blue and gray com nlingle to
honor the blue and gray that are dead The
national debt has been so far liauidated that
one of the questions now to be settled is
whether it is advisable to still further reduce
it, The business of pensioning our citizen
soldiery is progressing so satisfactorily that
nobody feels the burden, and scarcely a
thought is given the matter except to ask if
all deserving men and women have been
found. The war is over, and the 'bloody
shirt is buried. If either of them rests heav-
lily upon the Democratic party, it has only
itself to blame These mighty things haye
been dropped; these crimes for which no adj
equate atonement has been or can be made,
are charitably ignored by the Republican
party in the interest of general amity and
national unity.
The Republican party has a hearty well
come for all 'rebels" who abandon their reb-
eism. Such action has noble significance.
The Republican party stands for universal
suffrage, North and South; for free ballot
and an honest count in every State in the
nation. l. believes that a white Democrat
has as much right to vote as has white
Republican, and no more. 1t believes that
black Republican has as much right to vote
as has any other citizen of legal age.
1t believes that each of these three
classes should be equally protected
with the Others The Democratic party is
the negative of all this. Despairing of com
ing into power by honorable means, it I'M
hesitatinely resorts to violence and fraud.
The South once solid for slavery has been
made solid for spoils. No intimidation has
been too fragrant no violence too desperate,
no fraud too bold, to restrain Southern DEM
ocrats from the work of destroying Repub-
lican majorities 1t is of these fresh wrongs
that the Republican party complains,
and is met by the cry of bloody shirt"
There is a bloody shirt in the solid South
whose stains are not dry from outrage
to outrage. The bulldozers of Louisiana
were initiated by the red-shirters OF South
Carolina and Georgia in the slaughter at
IGlenton. In turn the Chisolms were as
sassinated while in custody because they
dared to be Republicans. The tissue ballot
fraud in elections finally captured South
Carolina. A dozen newly-slaught colored