The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-08-21
The Shirt and the Olive Branch.

The Republican party is attempting
the impossible feat OF riding two horses
going in opposite directions upon the
Southern questiOn-One of them bearing
as an emblem the ''bloody shir!,' and
the other an olive branch.
Mr. Blaine saws, in his letter of. ac-
ceptance, that ''Prejudices have Yielded,
and are yielding, while craving cor
diality warns the Southern and the
Northern heart alike" ''Can any one
doubt" he continues, ''that between
the sections confidence and esteem are
to-day more marked than at any period
in the sixty years preceding the election
of Abraham Lineoln?' Senator Logan
not only doubts, but denies, for he de-
clares that ''the disagreeable fact of the
case is that, while theoretically we are
in the enjoyment of a government of
the whole people, practically we are al
most as far from it as we were in the
ante-bellum days of the Republic. If
this were true, how could Mr.. Blaine's
statement by any possibility be true?
Could there be greater confidence and
esteem" between the sections than at
any period in the sixty years preceding
the war-as is undoubtedly the case
If there were the utter subversion of
popular government at the South which
General Logan alleges? A more direct
contradiction between two candidates
OF the same party has never been seen
in our politics.
Mr.. Blaine further observes that, If
there be occasional and violent out
breaks in the South against the peace
full progress, the public opinion of
the country regards them as exception
al, and hopefully trusts that each will
prove the last" General Logan, on
the contrary, AYERS that careful and
impartial investigation has shown these
results democratic victOrieS) to follow
the systematic exercise of physical in
tmidation and violence, conjoined with
the most shameful devices ever prac-
ticed in the name of free elections"
The cand date who thus raises the
bloody shirt beneath Mr.. Blaine's en-
blem of peace inadvertently admits,
however, that the legislation (which
guaranteed by every legal title the citi-
Zenship and full equality before the law
in all respects of this previously dis
franchised people amply covers the re-
quirementS, and secures TO them, so far
as legislation can. the privileges of
American citizenship" If no
further legislation is needed or
proposed in relation to the
suffrage or the protection of civil
rights at tie South, and if the Repub-
lican Presidents during the period of
eighteen years since these laws were
passed have practically done nothing,
as General Logan in effect admits, to
enforce them, the question naturally
arises, Why does he raise and discuss
the issue? A stalwart Republican has
been for three years in the Presidents
chair, and during that time he has
never made use OF the word section"
or recognized in any manner the exist
ence of even a remnant of the old South
ern question. The outbreaks at the
South, according to Mr. Blaine, and &C
cording to the facts in the case, have
been occasional and exceptional"
and each one is hopefully regarded as the
last. If nothing in the way of legis-
lation is proposed, and the Federal ex-
ecutive interference has altogether, and
very properly, ceased under Republican
rule, what do General Logan and his
stalwart sympathizerS mean in bringing
the 'outrages" again to the front?
There is but one explanation. They
hope, as one of their number has ex-
pressed it, that there may be zone more
President in the bloody shirt
The insincerity and unprincipled
character of the present Republican
leadership are perfectly illustrated in
this attitude of Blaine and Logan. To
the former, who 'pitched into jeff Da-
Wis., to make an issue in 1876, and
waved the bloody shirt in the Maine
campaign of 1880, was assigned the
role of Il pacificatOr, while to lighting
Johnny was intrusted the CShgenial
task OF prolonging the echoes of the old
war cries. Neither expedient will save
the party. The defeat which it organ
lied and invited at Chicago, in the nom
ination of its ticket, will surely over
take it.-Boston Herald (I1dD.