The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-04
THE CAMPAIGN AND ITS CONDUCT.

THE CAMPAIGN AND ITS CONDUCT.
So far as oral or printed argument is con-
cerned, the campaign of 1854 is at an end
The pleas, good, bad and Indifferent, have
been made over and again; of them the record
is made up and must stand as written. To-
day the grand jury of the Nation will pass
upon them, and by another day the verdict
will be made public. Looking back over the
work done, we feel compelled to declare that
ilthier, more disreputable campaign on the
part of the Democratic party has never been
known. This is said, not in bitterness nor
resentment but with feeling of sincere re-
greet that any considerable number of Ameri-
cans could so far debase themselves and forget
their personal honor and dignity as to descend
to the mean methods that have been en-
ployed. From the very outset to this hour
the Democratic press, pitching its tone with
the key sounded by the few Independent
Republican papers, has followed the meanest
line of persecution and personal abuse ever
witnessed in American politics. With
brutal disregard of the commonest rules
ants-they can scarcely be called OPP
posers-of Mr.. Blaine got down at
the outset to the low plane of blackguardism
and abuse We do not refer to that most
dastardly attack upon his wife and family,
but to that persistent bounding that beset
him for three weary months, during which the
epithets 'liar" and thief were as freely used
as though the object they were aimed at were
not one Of the greatest Americans Of the age
but pickpocket and burglar. 1t seems never
to have occurred to his mad assailants that
such language was not decent or that such
heaped-up vituperation was not argument.
Possessed of Mr. Blaines private business cor
respondence secured at the hands of the man
who stole it, the very worst construction pos
sibe was put on every unguarded utterance
not been extended him, the self-constituted
court that sat in judgment accorded him not
even the rights vouchsafed man found in
the act of theft. The same process applied to
the private correspondence of any man could
but result in harm to him, however innocent
he may have been in it all. Such warfare
of epithets no man but Blaine has been called
upon to encounter. His bearing through it
all has been dignifed, courteous and forbear-
ing. While the New York press was engaged,
with the man who had stolen his letters for the
purpose of matchmaking him. in the shame
less attempt to blacken and destroy him, he
never deigned to make reply; but, as one
above such contemplate meanness, has pur-
sued his way as if oblvious of their existence
No word or suggestion ever came from Mr.
Blaine that could possibly be used to apollo
gize for the scurrilous warfare made upon him.
In all his public career he has never got
down to such petty spitefulness-he never
seemed to understand il, never had need to do
it. He has denounced and excoriated his op-
ponents whenever occasion seemed to demand
and has made his foes fear to offend him; but
he never soiled his fingers with mud, never
attacked an opponent in his personal charac-
ter. In all the provocation he has had be has
proved himself a great man, worthy of the
peoples confidence and admiration.
AS opposed to the dsreputable methods of
the Democratic and independent press, the
conduct of the campaign on the part of
the Republican party has been digniied and
honorable. Appealing to the intelligence of
the people, and confident in the justice of its
cause, it has sought to bring to the front those
great questions of public polity in which
every American is so vtally interested. Cen
tering its forces on the question of protection
to American industries, every other issue has
been relegated to a secondary position, though
the Republican party has ever shown itself
ready to meet the opposition at any point
where issue could be joined. Generously,
and for the preservation of peace, the party
ignored the fact that from thirty-six to fifty
electoral votes had been stolen from it in adj
vance in the solid South. Relying on the
patriotism and the sense of justice that actu-
ates the loyal States, the party appealed to
the North to overcome by its votes the evils
of per verted elections in those States where
free ballot and fair count are unknown, and
with which the election Of the Republican