Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-11-02
Senator Sherman in Virginia.
Hrs GREAT SPEECH AT PETERSBURG, THURS
DAY, OCTOBER 20.

public prints might have made false impress
zion upon your minds as to my position in the
recent canvass in Ohio, that was neither just
| to me nor to the republicans of that State.
accepted it, however, that might, face to face
| show you how unjust is the clamor
evoked against the republicans of Ohio
TO demonstrate to you that what
the republican party processes in Ohio
as to national questions, is the same that il
processes in Virginia, and that tn practical
application of the principles Of the republican
party would be of vast benefit to the State OF
| Virginia, while democratic success would
tend more and more to harden the times
and prevent the industrial development OF
Virginia.
| Not only your newspaper. but the istin-
guished gentlemen who is the democratic
candidate for governor Of the State of Vir.
GINA. has said to you that was waving the
bloody shirt while he was contending under
the Union flag. If he meant by waving the
| bloody shirt that sought IN any way to renew
| the anmosIties of the war, then he was greatly
mistaken, for in the speech to which he refers,
and in every speech made in Ohio, l con-
stantly said that the war was over, and the
| animosities of the war should be buried out
| of sight that would not hold any confeder-
| ate soldier responsible for what he did during
the war, and that all wished was to maintain
and preserve the acknowledged results of the
war. Among these, | claim, is the right of
every voter to cast one honest vote and have
1t counted; that every citizen, rich or poor,
native or naturalized, white or black, should
have equal civil and political rights, and that
every man OF lawful age shoad be allowed
To exercise his right to vote without distinc
ton of race or color or previous condition.
II oh nat has
constitutional rights and privileges had been
disregarded by the democratic party, espec-
tally in the Southern States; that at the last
election, in the year of our Lord 1884,
wherever the votes of the colored people
would affect the result they were deprived of
their franchise by one device or another, and
thus political power apportioned to the color
ed population was transferred to and exercis-
ed by white democrats of the South, so as to
make their political power greater than other
citizens, and, by these means, Grover Cleve-
land became President of the United States
instead of James G. Blaine.
1t was upon this declaration of mine. made
with full consideration and with absolute Ger
tainty of its substantial truth, that the demo-
cratic press, and Gen. Lee as we'll, declared
that was raising the bloody shirt, when the
events to which was referring occurred last
year, and not in 1861 or 1865; that they re-
lated not 10 the war, but to frauds and crimes
committed long since the war, which over.
threw the sanctity of the ballot box and up
turned the foundation of republican or demo-
cratic government. 1t was the war upon the
ballot box, and not the war of the rebellion
that arragned.
The truth of what SAID was not contro-
verted by Gov. Hoadley nor Senator Thur
man, nor, as far as am advised. by Gen.
Lee. pointed to the public records, which
proved all | said and especially quoted from
recent leading publications in the South their
full and unequivocal admissions of the facts
stated by me so far As they affected the States
of South Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi
and their frank avowal of and defense of
their conduct. made no appeal to the Union
soldiers, but to all good citizens, South as well
As North, and said | would do it to the people
of Virginia. Gen. Lee, on the other hand if
| am not mistaken, has conducted his canvass
almost entirely upon the isis of an appeal TO
the confederate soldiers, to the pride of Vir-
GINA, for the courage they exhibited during
the war, and with military trappings. flags,
and cavalcade, he tries TO turn the attention
of your people from the questions of the pres
ent time, from your material development.
from protective tariff, to the memories of a
war in which Virginians fought bravely while
there was a hope, and submitted honoraby
to the arbltrament of arms when their cause
was lost.
1t was of the present | was speaking, and
not of the past. and said that this evil of
depriving legal voters of their right to vote
was so great, wide-reaching in its influence,
that it would never be submitted to, but that
some remedy would be found to prevent Its
success. did not at that time dream that
the same tactics of fraud and violence in the
South of which | complained were about to
DE transferred to the State of Ohio. Yet so
1t was. In the recent election in the city of
Cincinnati, where the democratic party had
cont o, of the police, and substantially of the
election. they resorted to fraud and violence
20 gross and shameless that even among the
democrats of Ohio there is an cutlery against
such proceedings. | denounce them as de-
nounce kindred frauds in the South, and in
woke against them the honest Indignation of
Virginians. rs did of the people of Ohio.
Fellow citizens: The great and pressing
issue of the times, to which l invite the ear
nest attention of every democrat as well as of
every republican, involves the fundamental
principle, of our government; that elections
must be free and open and fair; that every
honest voter should be permitted to cast his
ed. and no others. If this principle is once
overthrown republican government is at an
end. and the war of the Guelphs and the
Ghibelines, the war of civil strife between
factions and of riots will commence, and
there will soon be an end of all elections. In
support OF this might quote what has been
said by Washington and jefferson and Jack
son, and all the leading men of the past, who
justly deuounce any violation of the purity
of elections as the greatest crime against a
republic
therefore appeal to men of all parties, in
the name of all the great men of Virginia,
invoking your just pride in your history, to
see to il that in the present election, whatever
may be the result of t,that every man entitled
by the constitution and laws of Virginia and
of the United states to vote shall be allowed
freely to exercise that right and that his vote
shall be counted and announced. If Virginia
will but do this she will by her example confer
as great benefit upon the people of the
United States as any of the manifold benefits
conferred in the past, and will prescribe a
type of manhood and justice which will be
followed elsewhere and thus tend to relieve
us from what regard as the specter tina,
haunts American politics.
Aud. now. fellow citizens, what is the fun.
damental difference between the republican
and the democratic parties? Undoubtedly thi,
line of difference is the same that at the very
beginning of the government divided ths
people of Virginia This State had the honol