The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-04
THE ovBRsHADoWING QUESTION.

/
than merely political organization. Having
been in the majority at the last federal cleo
ton, it is the government according to the
Constitution of the United States. 1t is for the
Republican party and the officials it has chosen
to discharge the high duties of governing the
whole country, in every State and county, ac-
cording to the Constitution, so that whenever
the people shall call upon the party for an ac-
count of its doings the showing shall be in
favor of the country's best interests, the party
prospecting when the country at large is the
best served. The Republican party, as
the actual government, has no right to shirk
any obligations however onerous, nor to neg
lect any interest however fraught with dan
ger it may be. The history of the Republic
an party shows that the people placed the gov
eminent in its hands at time when to &C
cept the trust was to accept with it the issues
Of civil war. With unquestioning confidence
in the justice of the cause of the people it
was elected to represent, the Republican adj
ministration of 1861 bravely accepted the sol
emn trust and courageously undertook the
! fearful obligations of the hour. There
was no time for deliberation or
compromise; the party could not even tenn
porize War was already organized. There
was but one way to avoid armed collision, and
| that was to ANONYMOUSLY concede everything
demanded. Had the government at Wash
ington recognized the government at Mont
| gomery as an organized and independent re-
public, the carnage that followed might have
| been avoided There were other questions of
public policy that might have engrossed the
mind of the public, and to these the attention
of the government was called by those who OPP
posed the coercion of the seeding States.
But there was supreme question that so
greatly overshadowed all others that it
could not be avoided Civil war meant an
expense of from $780, 600, 900 to fifty times
that amount; it meant the killing of tens and
hundreds of thousands of citizens; it meant
all the horrors and suffering and deprivation
attendant upon internecine strife. But it
had to be undertaken, because the very life of
the nation was at stake. The Republican
party then, as now, was the government, and
upon that party, through the executive chosen
| by it, devolved the work of putting down the
rebellion first, at whatever cost necessary.
One of the fundamental principles of gov
eminent is now crippled and palsied through
force violence and fraud The functions of
the ballot box-the heart, intellect and con
science of popular govemment-are DISTRACTED
and turned from their natural operations. The
verdict given forth by it is not the honest senti
mento of the majority, The majority does not rule
in certain sections of the country, and through
the intimidation so openly practiced and glo-
ried in in those sections, the wishes of the
whole people are misinterpreted To such an
extent has this thing been carried in some
States, that the politics of the nation are now
at the disposal of a few brutal, constituencies
political ruffians who dare by murder and out
rage to keep legally qualified voters from
exercising the right of suffrage, The
Republican party cannot afford to for
get that it is yet the government, despite all
these things. 1t owes it to the people of every
party to give to the country a free ballot hon
estly counted, to each and every qualified
voter not to continue itself in power, but to
preserve to the country the institutions vital
to its integrity
The American people are all interested in
this great question 1t overshadows all others,
lust as did the issue of rebellion in 1861. I'm
rebuked and left to itself, this force will as
surely strangle the republic as would the war
of the rebellion had not the Republican party
declared that secession must die, and backed
the declaration with every life and every dollar
in the North. The questions Of internal i'm
provements, of taxation, of tariff, and of in
ternational polity sink into secondary import
body, North or South, to obstruct a full and
free ballot While it is notorious and shame
full fact that in many States South men are
openly assiassinated because of their political
beliefs, it is also apparent that evil and cor
rupt influences are at work in the North. To
correct these evils the Republican party
should move promptly and fearlessly. The
question q tariff may become a leading one
when the question of popular government is
finally settled in favor of a free vote and an
honest count. If the party is becom-
ing too time serving to undertake the bust
ness of giving the peoples government into
the hands of all the people, and to see to it that
every oualifed voter is allowed to vote his per-