The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-15
HTHE BLOODY Shirt

were not to be frightened by it. it may be
well to take another look at the "bloody shirt"
bugaboo set up by Democrats in the hope of
soaring timid Republicans and others afraid
to stand by their convictions. When Senator
Sherman made his famous Mount Gilead
speech. demanding in unqualified terms the
same freedom of elections in the South as in
the North, a howl of rage was uttered by ev
cry Democratic paper, far and near, and Dem
ocratic oratory was turned loose on him in
way that showed he had touched tender
spot, and one that Democracy didn't care to
have uncovered. This was to be expected;
and it was in this expectation, doubtless, that
the Senator determined to make Democracy
Nfend its iniquities before the public and to
expose its moral shame. 1t was center shot,
that rang the "bell" of prescription and cleo
ton frauds in the Democratic camp. The
Indian popped up from his ambuscade just as
he does in shooting gallery when the marks
man makes 'bull's eye." So far the expert
ment was success; the enemy's battery was
unmasked. But, with that inexplicable IA
tuity which has impelled alleged independent
papers to initiate toadying Democracy in most
shamelessly yielding to recognized injustice
in order to placate the implacable element in
the South, the derisive and mocking cry
"bloody shirt" was taken up by them in Ere
ply" to Mr.. Sherman's plea for free elections.
Throughout the land the changes were rung
on the enormity of saying anything calculated
to revive the prejudices of the war and the
recolections of sectional questions, as if, for
sooth, Senator Sherman himself were not
pleading for exactly the same thing. The as
sertion of partisanship gave to the utter
ance Of the independent or mugwump press
an Importance that could not attach to the
partisan cries of that party which has proited
by the evils against which the Ohio senator
inveighed.
In explanation now to such papers as fol-
lowed Democracy into its indefensible position
on this question, and incidentally for the edi-
fication of Democracy ITSELF at present so
badly disfgured, a few words may unite the
Gordian knot that still holds the yoke of
Northern Democracy to the pole of ante bellum
Southern prejudice and intolerance. John
Sherman, of Ohio, remembering the sectional
soldity of the South and how it had been
brought about and maintained, and giving
voice to the widespread patriotic Indignation
that such injustice could obtain, spoke out
manfully against it, and made a ringing speech
in favor of holding out against solid sectional
ism until its instigators and supporters should
weary of it and consent to allow the same
political freedom in the South that obtains
elsewhere. Waxing in the righteous wrath of
long pent-up indignation, he favored reducing
the Southern electoral representation by the
same ratio that suffrage was reduced there
either by violence or fraud, both of which have
been perpetrated so boldly as to shame every
| self.respecting man in the Nation. This was the
head and front Of John Sherman's offending.
He demanded only that no political party, in
any portion of the country, should WELD
greater influence, man for man, than any
other political organization in that or any
! other locality. By some inexplicable process
of ratiocination, the mugwump or independ-
ent press was persuaded to the Democratic
| Wow, that this was a wanton revival Of the
| issues of the war, and that the South could
not be expected to acquiesce in such demands
Democrats and mugwumps, Independents and
lickspittles in general, have howled in real or
imagined terror every time any man of prom
inence has dared touch this sacred evil
The Democratic papers of Ohio were even
infamous enough to urge the South to "boy-
colt" Cincinnati merchants if they failed to
rebuke Sherman for the position he had taken
in defense of free elections in all parts of the
Union. The people of Ohio are too patriotic
and have faced danger too often, to be de-
tered from their plain duty by threats to in
| jure their business. Allowing every man in
the State-white black, rich or poor-to cast
vote, and to have it counted as cast, they
could not see how it could be a crime to ask
the same of other States. Nor were they by
any means persuaded that the solid South
solid in elections-was solid in hardened
iniquity. They knew that the great
mass of the Southern people do
not profit by the frauds perpetrated
in the South against free ballot, and that,
therefore, they did not feel inclined to make
war against the trade of any man who had the
manhood to denounce the murderous partisans
of their section. The South will not 'boy-
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