The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1884-11-26

come possessed with the idea that
they will be deprived of their civil
right and possibly of their freedom,
and in their fright they are endanger-
ing the peace of Southern society.
Speaking of this condition Of affairs,
Mr.. Cleveland has expressed his as
tonishment that the freedmen are
apprehensive at the prospect OF
Democratic rule; Whereupon the
Philadelphia North American asks.
But why should he be astonished =?
And answers its own query as fol-
lows:
He ought not to be astonished
that the restoration of the Democ-
racy begets apprehensiveness among
the freedmen of the old slave belt.
We invite him to take up the his
tory of his party. He will then
learn that for thirty years his party
was the bulwark of the institution
of slavery. He will find its first
crooking of the pregnant hinges OF
the knee to the oligarchy Of the
compromise of 1882 --33. He will
find about that time the slave
power submitted its ultimatum to
his party, and that ultimatum was
unouestloning subservience. If he
care to pursue the quest further. be
will find his party yielding such
subservience to the oligarchy
in legislation adverse to the growth
of industry, in declaring war against
Mexico, and the subsequent exten-
sion of the slave area by purchase.
He viii find his party eager to ac-
cede to the demand of the slave
power that the entire body of north
ern citizens should become con-
stabulary for the apprehension and
return of fugitive slaves to their
loathsome bondage. And he will
find the leaders of his party, north
and south, framing the Kansas-Ne-
braska act. by which the right of
slavery to follow the flag was intend
ed to be established.
Passing over few years, during
which time his party hunted men
and women like hounds, he will
arrive at the crisis of 1861, in
which the real leaders of his party
organized and carried, in SO far as
they were able, a great conspiracy
to establish an empire, the basic
principle of which was the right OF
capital to own and buy and sell la
Dor. Passing to 1868, when the
ringing proclamation of emancipa-
ton echoed around the world and
won the applause of the listening
nations, he will find the leaders of
! his party denouncing Lincoln as a
usurper, and the enfranchising vote
as the tocsin of war upon the Con-
stitution itself. Later, when the
people demanded such a change OF
the organic law as should forever
prohibit chattel slavery within her
borders, he will find the leaders OF
his party united in a loud protest
against the change which would
make liberty universal. Later,
when it was proposed to forbid the
reimbursement of slave owners of
their i'll. gotten gains, he will find
the leaders of his party resisting
that righteous penalty, tooth and
nail. When it was proposed to
establish universal suffrage, the
leaders of his party denounced and
resisted that. And he will find
that his party has opposed every
constitutional guaranty by which
the slave of yesterday is assured of
his freedom as citizen to-day. Ii
Governor Cleveland is aware of
these irrefutable facts of history,
we are the more astonished that he
should confess to astonishment,
that the freedmen are filled with
gloomy apprehensions at the restor-
alton of the Democracy. Even the
negroes of the south are aware OF
the facts we have stated.