The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-01-23
Sharp Words.


Next summer the Republican orators
throughout the land will round their peri
odswith recapitulation of the victories and
beneficences of the party, and will appeal
to "the intelligence and convictions of the
Northern voters" by recounting the evils
OF rebellion and the horrors of the Kuklux
era. Then Danville will be remembered;
Hamburg's bloody history will be hunted
up, and the forgotten dead who lie in
nameless graves will be exhumed to awak-
en- pity for their sad fate. 1t is all right
that this should be done. The Democratic
party should be made to bear the full bur-
den of ignominy resulting from the acts
ofits allies. At the same time, ifhe would
be precisely true TO history-if he would
be honest with his hearers-the Republi-
can orator should say Gentlemen, the
negro gave us upwards of hundred
thousand stalwart soldiers to help put
down the Rebellion. We made the colored
people of the South voters in high haste
lest we should be defeated in Presiden-
tial contest. We promised them support
and protection in their right of franchise,
but when the wealth and intelligence of
the South banded against their weakness
and ignorance and they shed their blood
because of their faith in our promises, we
covered before the jeering cry of the
Bloody Shirt and left our trusting, Won
dering allies to their fate.
Even then, when they would not aban'
don belief in our honor and our faith, but
came and asked us, out of our abundance,
to give "a little to enable them to grow
strong and wise, that they might learn to
defend themselves and use Alright the bal
lot We had forced into their halfunwilling
hands-eyen then we fed them with false
promises. We met in convention and said
to them, Your claim is just and shall be
granted. We solemnly declare that II is
the duty of the general government 10 do
all in its power to render emancipation eff
fective and to prevent enfranchisement
from being any longer farce. They
heard and for time were glad. We held
undisputed sway. The people had given
a. the power into our hands. We did
nothing Not dollar was voted, not q
cent applied to the performance Of even
this tardy pledge. Justice demanded the
enlightenment Of Southern ignorance be
, cause the nation had protected slavery and
fostered the ignorance essential to It's
growth. Honor demanded it, because
those who asked for knowledge were our
allies and had saved us from disaster
Sound policy demanded it, because there
is nothing SO dangerous to liberty as great
masses of ignorant voters, Yet years
elapsed and we lifted not a finger to re-
lieve the burden resting on the shoulders
where we had placed 1t for our own saliva.
tion. Then kind Providence so blessed
the land with prosperity that the treasury
was overflowing. Our millions were so
many that we were at loss how TO dis
pose of them. The future promised even
/ greater abundance. Our wise men took
} counsel as to what should be done with
D the surplus. How might it be spent, vast
3 ed, given away' These were the ques
? tions we asked ourselves. Our cunning
, men, the shrewdest and the keenest, de
vised one scheme after another. Rivers
and bays and creeks-ships and harbort
and forts-commerce and cities and con
tracts-all ofthese were remembered. But
the souls that sit in darkness-the blind
i who bear the sword of power-the weak
who had saved US when we were in NOR
T tai peril-those who held in pawn oui
: honor, and to whom we had pledged the
!; peace of the future-of them no one
8 thought, no one dreamed We said to til,
slave who prayed and fought for us-to the
s Freedman who voted and suffered for III
q to the land that trusted us-we said Il
' all the world, We will cast our treasures
' into the seal We will bury them in the
: Mississippi We will feed the noble
, army OF contractors but we will not Civ,
one dollar to make the voters whom We
have created capable of performing theil
duties so that the land may not be in con
tinual peril from their weakness and ig
Q norancel"
viii the Republican orator say tina
next summerS We shall see. To-day i
stands true in word and in letter. Judge
D Tourgee, in The Continent