The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-30
JOHN SHERMAN In VIRGINIA.
He Is Greeted by a Large and Enthusi-
astic Audience at Petersburg.
General Malone Introduces Him as the Fore
most Man of the Country-He Presents
the Living Issues to the People.


spoke here onight, in the Academy of Music to
a crowded audience. The stage was filled with
white people, while the body of the building and
galleries were occupied by colored people, the
outskirts of the crowds being fringed with
whites. Senator Sherman was introduced by
General Malone, as the foremost man of the
country, to whose warm heart and love for every
State in the Union he bore cordial testimony.
General Malone esteemed it great honor to
have the privilege of introducing the distin-
guished senator from Ohio to Virginia au-
dence He came here he said. to address the
reason and not the prejudices of the people, and
he bespoke for him cordial greeting. and re-
spectful hearing. Senator Sherman was cordial
1y greeted and was accorded most respectful
and attentive hearing.
Senator Sherman said:
Fellow Citizens / accepted with much diff
dence the invitation to speak in the canvass in
Virginia. chiefly because l feared the public
prints might have made false impression 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 l accepted it, how
ever thatI might, face to face, show you how I'M
Just is the clamor evoked against the Repub
hcans of Ohio-to dem onstrate to you that what
the Republican party processes In Ohio to
national questions is the same that it processes
in Virginia. and that the 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 distin-
guished gentleman who is the Democratic candi-
date for Governor of the State of Virginia, has
said to you that was waving the bloody shirt
while he contending under the Union flag.
If he meant by waving the bloody shirt that
rff in yfuaxy IN hn 0VIY Nf
the war; then he greatly mistaken, for in
tho speech to which he refers, and in every
speech l made in Ohio, constantly said that the
war was over and the animosties of the war
should be buried out of sight; that / would not
hold any confederate soldier responsible for what
he did during the war, and that all wished was
to maintain and preserve the acknowledged re-
suits of the war. Among these | claim is the
right of every voter to cast one honest vote and
have it counted; that every citizen, rich poor,
native or naturalized, white or black, should
have equal civil and political rights, and that
every man of lawful age should be allowed to
exercise his right to vote without distinction of
race or color or previous condition. 1 charge,
among other things, that these constitutional
rights and privileges had been disre
garded by the Democratic party, especially
in the Southern States that at the
last election, in the year of our Lord 1884,
Whereve" the vot ties of the coored people would
affect the result, they deprived of their fran
chise by one device or other, and thus political
power apportioned to the colored population was
transferred to and exercised by white Demo
Gratis of the South, so as to make their political
power greater than other citizens, and by these
means, Grover Cleveland 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 certainty of
its substantial truth, that the Democratic press,
and General Lee as WELL 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 related not to the
war, but to frauds and crimes committed long
since the wax. which overthrow the sanctity of
the ballot-box and upturned the foundation of
Republican or Democratic government 1t was
the war upon the ballot-box and not the war of
the Rebellion that arraigned
The truth of what said was not controverted
by Governor Hoadly nor Senator Thurman nor,
as far as am advised by General Lee / point
ed to the pubic records, which proved all said
and especially quoted from recent leading pub
LEGATIONS in the South their full and unequivocal
admissions of the facts stated by me so far as
they affected the States of South Carolina, Geor-
gia and Mississippi and their frank avowal of
and defense of their conduct. l made no appeal
to the Union soldiers but to all good citizens,
South as we'll as North and said would do it to
the people of Virginia. General Lee on the
other hand. if l am not mistaken, has conducted
his canvass almost entirely upon the basis of AN
appeal to the confederate soldiers, to the pride of
Virginia, for the courage they exhibited in the
war, and with military trappngs, flags and cav
alcade he tries to turn the attention of your peo-
pie from the questions of the present time, from
your material development. from protective ia
riH, to the memories of a war in which Virgin
ians fought bravely while there was a hope, and
submitted honorably to the arbitrament of arms
when their cause was lost.
1t was of the present was speaking and no.
of the past, and said that this evil of depriving
legal voters of their right to vote was so great,
wlde-reachlng In its influence, that it never
would be submitted to- but that some remedy
would be found to prevent its success. / did not
AGoAA A. %x1~z
and violence in the South, of which I com
planned, were about to be transferred to the
State of Ohio. Yet so it was. In the recent
election in the city of Cincinnati where the
Democratic party had control of the police, and
substantially of the election, they resorted to
fraud and violence gross and shameless that
even among the Democrats of Ohio there is an
outcry against such proceedings 1 denounce
them as l denounced kindred frauds in the
South, and invoke against them the honest in
dignation of Virginians as did of the people of
Ohio.
Fellow-citizens: The great and pressing issue
OF the times TO which | invite the earnest atten-
ton OF every Democrat well as of every Re
publican, involves the Fundamental principles of
our government that elections must
be free, and open., and fair; that
every honest voter should be permitted
to cast his vote, and every honest vote should be
counted. and no others. If this principle is once
overthrow republican government is at an end,
and the war of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines,
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 jackson. and all the leading
men of the past, who Justly denounced any vio-
laton of the purity of elections as the greatest
crime against Republic.
therefore appeal to men of all parties, in
the name of all the great men of Virginia. in
voking your just pride in your history, to see to
il that in the present election whatever NAV be
the result of it, 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 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