The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1884-11-01
Logan's Scrced.

Gencraj JOhn A. Logan letter OF ac-
ceptance, coming from the man who is
supposed to be leading Republican
statesman. is remarkable document.
1t is numbering. awkward, cumber-
some affair, reminding one of a freight
car humping on cross-ties, and weigh
ing at the least calculation twenty
pounds to the inch. Its ideas are the
y attitudes that have been oozing from
the country papers OF the West for
twenty years, and its style is that of a
school-boy who has never discovered
the difference between sound and sense.
Hence, we have the spectacle of a can
didate for Vice President put forth by
the party of culture talking of those
who shave been welcomed to home
in our midst" and of a "stroke of
finesse."
The Logan letter is diluted para
phrase of the Republican platform, and
the dilution is weakened by a pro-
miscuous use of words. From begin
ming to end there is not a spark of indi-
vidualitv in it. We merely have a
glimpse of a tangle haired man wander
ing in bewildered way through maze
of words. One can imagine the beads
of pcrspiration standing out on Logan's
upper lip as he vainly attempted to adj
dress himself to the understanding of
those whose support he covets. The
fact that he had completed his letter
several weeks ago was telegraphed at
the time, and one can well believe it
after reading the document. We
have no doubt that kitchen edition of
this curious epistle was in circulation q
a few days a ter the adjournment of the
Republican Conventions; indeed the
flavor of the letter suggests that it was
composed somewhere between the
kitchen and the horse stable. 1t is
crude, coarse and rank, but these quail
tiles do not redeem its essential weak
ness. Mr.. Blaine's letter is feeble be-
cause tire policy of those who stood at
his elbow placed him under restraint,
but Logan is feeble because Logan is
feeble in his intellectual equipment.
A feeble man Intellectually is gene
rally rash man, and Lo .an's reputa-
ton, such as it is, is based on his rash
ness. He declares, among other things
Ito take an example at raDdom), that
polygamy is a Democratic institutions;
but so serene philosopher as Emerson
claims it as an odsho0t of Puritan. 1t
is almost sacrilegious to couple the
name of Emerson with that of the
coarse-grained political freebooter Lo-
gan. and we have hardly the excuse of
necessity in this instance; for Logan's
Examinations are of no more importance
than those of cowboy on the Western
border.
His description OF the condition of af-
fairs in the South is amusing, though it
is strictly on the line of argument en-
pIoyed by M. Halstead. of Cincinnati.
We Judge from Logan's terrific remarks
that there are States in the South =
Commonwealth in facs where the
negroes are so numerous that they are
hanging over the edges, clinging by
their eye-b rows and holding on with
their teeth. Logan is doubtless of the
opinion that he is the inventor of the
theory that all the negroes vote the
Republican ticket at every election, and
he is inclined to lift the bloody shirt on
high on that issue; but the theory WAS
invented by Eli Perkins to pad out
summer almanac. If Logan desires 10
get the negroes jnteres ted in voting, as
they were when freedom was novelty,
he should come down and lecture them.
We know of no other method. --Atlanta
Constitution.