Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-10-08
The Nature of the Contest.

The Democrats can afford to lose Ohio in
October, provided the Republican majority
be not too large-say, twenty or thirty
thousand. The Republicans cannot afford
to lose Ohio in October. A Democratic ma
jority of even one hundred in that State IN
October would be equivalent to the election
of Cleveland in November. Let the Demo-
Gratis gain the irrevocable advantage OF a
victory in Ohio in October, and all the
money, work, speeches, and what not OF
the Republican party would not avail to
stem the torrent Of Cleveland's popularity
This torrent would thereafter bear down all
opposition as easily as the overlooking James
does the waving grass upon its banks when
the mountain streams send down their trl-
butte of rain-water to swell it's flood.
We cannot bnt regard the case of the Re-
publicans and Ohio as just stated as an IL
lustration of the case of the southern people
and the whole Union. The northern Re-
publicans can afford to lose this election for
President of the United States. The south
ern people cannot afford to lose it, To the
northern Republicans the election of a DEM
ocratic President threatens no harm. They
will continue to dwell in peace each man I'M
der his own vine and fg-tree, with no one
to modest or make him afraid. But to the
southern people Republican elected upon
a platform in which they are denounced as
enemies of a free ballot and fair count
seems to be not much less than an enemy
bent upon wronging them.
The Republican party is the party that is
responsible for all the unfriendly legislation
with which the South has been vexed and
annoyed and wronged for the last twenty
years. The Republican party originated
and passed those outrageous laws concern
ing whites and negroes which the Supreme
Court Of the United States last year pro-
nounced unconstitutional and void. A Re
publican Congress based laws intended TO
control the conduct of persons upon con-
| stitutional provision which in its very terms
showed that no law could be founded upon
| it which did not apply exclusively to States.
| The Republican party passed the laws I'M
der which State officers of election are put,
like slaves under the eye of taskmasters,
under the appointees of Republican judges.
| Deputy marshals and supervisors now show
themselves at the ballot-boX at every con-
gressional election. The money of the peo-
pie is used to pay them for attempting to
overawe the peoples servants.
The Republican party passed the jury
law under which corrupt judges packed the
juries in their courts. But for the persis-
| tent efforts of that grand old Roman, Uni
ted States Senator Thurman, Of Ohio, the
southern people would still be at the mercy
of such judges
| The Republican party is responsible for
all the i'll will that still divides the people
of the North from the people Of the South.
Just agine, if you can, what would now
be the condition of the southern people, if
| the northern Democrats had been willing to
join the Republican party in their crusade
against this section. Just picture to your
self, if you can, the South sitting in ashes
under the operation of Republican force
bill.
But why go backward for facts? Read
the platform upon which Blaine and Logan
now stand. Read the Republican journals
of the North. Nay, read the Republican
| journals of the South, and learn that your
enemies are not strangers only, but "they of
your own household" Listen to the
| speeches made in your own hearing. Think
of the charges daily brought against men
who are bone of your bone and flesh of your
| flesh
If this contest shall end in Democratic
| success there will hereafter be no more Sec
tional animosities. The bloody shirt will
| never again be waved. 1t will be furled.-
Peace between the sections will follow
Sectional prejudices will no longer disgrace
the land. The two parties will in 1888 di-
vide on ico-economical questions, and
the discussions upon the stump will be as
such discussions were before the war. All
will be agreeable and pleasant to the speak
ers.
In word, Democratic success means a
victory for patriotism-for the country,
| whilst Republican success means a victory
for sectionalism mere party.-Rich-
| mond State.