National Republican., 1883-09-04
Concerning the "nioody Shirt"

Concerning the "sloody Shirt"
From 1866 to 1879 one congressional COM
mittee 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 glaring frauds whom they
were not tragedies through murders most
foul, bloody, and brutal. The democratic
members Of the same committee, who heard
the same witnesses, declared that the elec.
tions were all fair on tho part of the demo-
Gratis, and that their party friends had com
mitted no wrongs upon persons and no
frauds upon tho ballot. Upon the
issue thus Joined tho debate between the
two parties proceeded for many years The
tales of horror presented in sworn testimony
of republicans were derided by the opposition,
and the committees of congress, before whom
1t was taken, were snoeringly alluded to as
Outrage mills" When republican victims
of bourbon ferocty were murdered in their
beds at night, the blood which saturated their
garments was pointed to in evidence, just
as Abels was against Cain, tho first mut-
derer. The sole reply of the murderers, and
of the party to which they belonged and
which enjoyed tho benefit of their crimes,
was shout Of diabolical laughter at "the
bloody shirt" This hilarity spread
into the republican ranks, snd dur
ing Grants second term large ele-
ment in our party pretended not to
believe that Cain had killed Abel, while
others thought that if he had he was quite
justified by tho offensive manner in which
Abel had offered up his sacrifices of the
dcposcd "bosses" who went over to the de-
mocracy in 1872 and tried to give the country
over to a bourbon restoration, nearly all came
back into the party they had sought to betray,
and demanded that they should not only be
vindicated for their party treason, but that
the party should plead guilty to all the
ISLANDERS they had uttered against it.
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 de-
sire to embarrass tho administration which
had just been continued in power by the
electoral votes of twenty-nine cut of thirty
seven states, including every state in the
north. This new combination took up the
howl against the republican party where tho
defeat of Greeley had interrupted it, and the
cause of law and order was submerged in
filth from the same journalistic sewers that
had poured out like material during
tho disgraceful mud campaign of 1872.
Of course an utter denial that there had been
any southern outrages" was an essential
part of the programme of this combination.
The gang of republican spoilsmon who hai
gone over to the enemy in 1872 had assured
tho people that they were only democrats for
the sake of reform. Every charge, then, Of
fraud or violence proven against the demo-
cratic party was reproach to them. When
they again became republicans they did not
retract their ISLANDERS of our party or their
eulogies of tho enemy, They simply con-
sented to allow the republican party to vindi-
cate them for having sought its overthrow
The object of this restatement of an old story
is to produce in connection with it the comics.
sion by the Natchez (Miss.) Democrat of the
twenty-second ultimo of all that the "bloody
shirt" republicans ever charged. That paper,
having advocated fusion between the demo
cratic and republican parties, on county
offices, and finding the fusion complained Of
by Louisiana bourbon paper, replies in de-
fensc of and excuse for its conduct, that the
socalled fusion has entirely oJridtcd all ne
cessity for revolutionary methods, aud neithe,
Jloodshed nor robbery has been necessary"
This is n confession, by democratic edito,
vouched for, by. over confding republicans al
representing truly the most moderate Of hi
party, that "bloodshed' and robbery" haut
been the means employed by the democracy
and that they will only bc suspended wher
they are rendered unnecessary by peaceful
surrender of the voting power of the repub
licans.
The bloody shirt cry is thus acknowledged
to have been true, and republicans who aidet
in making it appear false, and sinned against
light, were accessories to murder after tht
fact. Those who come out of the bourbon
house of iniquity and abandon its evil ways
should be encouraged in well doing. Wha
shall be said of those republicans who for any
purpose enter into that political Golgoth,
with such admissions as that above quoteC
staring them in the face?
A Political Trinity,