Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1884-06-04
ReirOspectiOn.
Bland SOuth-W I

The politics OF Virginia since tie
war have been productive of
strange results. Before the war
there were two great parties in
this country, each composed of
honest, patriotic men, and each led
by men of acknowledged ability
and craftsmanship. All parties
have had leaders, and a party
without leaders is like an army
without Generals-fit for nothing
but pillage and plumber.
The two parties were known as
the Democratic party and the Re-
publican party. The great issue
between them, which more con-
cerned the South than any other,
was the slavery question, the agi-
tation of which eliminated in the
late war, the results of which are
known to all. 1t freed the colored
race, and left the South in desOla-
ton and ruin, and the cOlOred man
being free as a legal sequence was
entitled to all the political and
constitutional rights of the white
man, and these rights have been
secured to him by appropriate
amendments to the Constitution.
Our resort to arms was the highest
tribunal to which we could appeal,
and its decision, it is to be hoped,
has settled the matter forever, and
the result was acquiesced in and
acknowledged by all patriotic, fair
minded men, not blinded by jeal-
ousy and prejudice. The old sold
iers who had faced the enemy
in a hundred battles; who had
starved in the bitches; made long.
weary marches in all kinds of hard
ships, when the war was ended,
settled down like good citizens to
business and were willing to &C
cept the situation. They want no
more war, they are good citizens in
time of peace, and are trying tOI
build up our waste places.
There is another class of men in
the South who were too cOwardly
to enlist in the army and engage in
the fight, who by feigning to be
sick or some other device, managed
to keep out of the war. These
worthless creatures are now (the
most of them loud-mouthed Bour-
bon-D9mocrats. They are terribly
afraid of negro supremacy They
would sell their souls for mess of
pottage, and are generally the
mouth piece of some leading Bour-
bon.
The Democratic party of the
North urged the people of the.
South into this dreadful war,
promising them eflicieneaid, but at
the firing Of the first gun shame
fully deserted them and ran away,
leaving them to fight the battles
that they had brought on. After
the war this same Democracy ex-
pressed great sympathy for the
South in her distressed and bank
rupt condition, and again appealed
to our people with the assurance
that with our add what had been
lost by the bayonet could be re-
gained by the ballot. The South
ern people were too poor to be
ceremOnious, and favored the ALI
ance with party that had once
been a traitor to them, and thus
the solid South became Il plant
tool--a cats paw in the hands of
the Northern Democracy.
In 1872 this Democracy nomina-
ted Horace Greeley for President
"a man who had done more to
bring about the war, a man who
had done more to crush the South
than any other man in the Union.
The Southern people were PERSIA
ded to go to Baltimore to secure
his nomination and then to vote
for him, and for what? Because
the acknowledgements waDIed to
get possession Of the 'desh-pOts,
and thought by putting up rene
gade Republican that they could
win. But Greeley was beaten, and
the poor, old man-no doubt heart
broken-sunk into his grave.
In 1876 these BOurbOn-DemO-
Gratis changed their tactics. They
had found that they could not sue
coed with a renegade, so they con-
cluded to put the saddle on Mr..
Tilden, fish out Of their own pot.
The South was again urged to
rally to his support, and 50 they
did, and what was the result I
Tilden was elected, but was coun-
ted out, or they rather traded
Tilden's election off for the electoral
college, and Hayes was lifted III Oh
South Carolina and Louisiana.
Seymour and Blair, Greedy and
Gratz Brown, Tilden and Hendricks
Hancock and EDglish-all defea-
ted Now, with such experience
with Bourbon Democracy, are the
Southern people willing to trust it
longer? The solid South has voted
against the solid North for twelve
successive years, and all in vain.
1t seems to us that we have been
the slave of Bourbon-DemOcracy
LONG enonph. The Democratic mar