The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-20
MIR. BLAINE,S SPEECH.

with aggressiveness, and has already aroused
chorus of bowls, in which the voice of all
the ours of high and low degree alike may be
readily distinguished The Louisville Courier
Journal says:
''It furnishes conclusive proof of his unfit
ness for any confidence or trust 1t is simply
a declaration OF eternal war between the North
and the South.
"His reasoning is as false as his spirit is in
cendiary. He shows himself poor, whipped
cur, who has not courage enough to keep his
mouth shut. The people of the South simply
pity him and feel a sympathy for the brave
and good men who had the misfortune to be
forced to support candidate capable OF
making such an ignominious spectacle. The
North, which is clear-headed and sensible,
will spit him out Of its mouth and thought as
a wretch who, seeing the world through his
own baseness, would betray his country with
the turpitude of an Arnold or the equanimity
of Burr
'This is a fit elimination of the campaign
of lying and buying inaugurated by Mr..
Blaine and brilliant, though disgusting,
picture of sensationalist and adventurer un
exampled in the political annals of any land
or people,"
This is worth reproducing, and will fairly
stand as sample of the Democratic response
to Mr. Blaine's words. What is it that Mr.
Blaine saida In brief, it is that the solid
South is in control Of the government; that it
is there by virtue of forty-two electoral votes
given it upon the basis of vote which is not
allowed to express itself; that every senator
in Congress from the Southern States was an
active participant in the war of the rebellion;
that in the States composing the Southern
confederacy the one essential to political pre-
ferment is to have served faithfully in the
confederate army; that to have been Union
man during the war of the rebellion is a po-
litical disqualification; that, in effect the
change accomplished by the late election is
to put the men in command of the govern
ment who did their best to destroy it, and
that this remarkable pletamorphosis is accom-,
plished within the lifetime of those who par
ticipated in the greatest struggle Of modern
times
Now We submit that this statement,
whether true or false, cannot be blown aside
by epithss. Chavalier Watterson, Tray,
Blanche and Sweetheart, cannot satisfactorily
answer the arraignment by splitting in the
face of the alleged facts. Are Mr. Blaine's
statements true or falseP That is the question.
If they be true then they will, in time
awaken consideration commensurate with
their Importance, and the Democratic party, the
party of treason and rebellion, will be forced
to plead to them before the bar of the public
Judgment and of history If Mr.. Blaine's
words be true, then the change sought to be
accomplished is as great, to use his own COM
parison, as if the people of England should re-
call the Stuarts to the throne. or the people of
France summon the Bourbons to power; or, we
may add, as great as if the people of the United
States within the first twenty years of the
government under the Constitution should
nave intrusted the administration to the
Tories.
The proper answer to all this depends upon
the spirit and temper of the Southern people.
Are the Southern people themselves so far
removed from the memories of the war that
they are not dominated by themF Is there
any evidence anywhere that the Southern
people have reached the conclusion that they
were wrong in their attack upon the govern
mentf Have they brought forth anywhere
fruits meet for repentance Have they ind-
Gated in any degree that they will administer
the government along the line marked out by
the result of their appeal to armss On the
contrary, is not every shred of evidence that
may be fairly called evidence, directly to
the contrary Has there been single act of
legislation growing out of the war that was
not met by the determined hostility of the
men, North and South, who triumphed in the
late election7 j. C. S. Blackburn declared
that every vestige of the warlegislation should
be wiped from the statute book, and he is at
once promoted to the United States Senate
Before him, Gen. Francis P. Blair said that the
Democratic party should ride through Congress
booted and spurred, and overthrow the recon-
warded with the Democratic nomination for
Vice president of the United States. In the
Chicago convention of 1884 the Democratic
party nominated Grover Cleveland solely be-
cause it was believed he could carry New
York, and then, pell-mell, it rushed into the
arms of Thomas A. Hendricks an anti-war
Democrat of the strictest sect, one who,
George William Curtis said only eight years
ago, had done everything in his power to
destroy the government We submit that
these instances are not sporadic; they are
symptomatic, and in that lies the danger of