The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1885-09-04


The words of peace and good will towards
the South that fell from the dying lips of
General Grant met so ready a response in
the Southern as well as in the Northern
States, that the dismal croak of John Sher-
man, in Ohio, jars upon the harmony that
prevails and ought to prevail among the
best citizens of both sections. The mourn
ing for General Grant was fully as sincere
and profound in the South as in the
North, and it was fondly believed that the
ragged remnant of sectonalism was forever
buried in his grave. 1t seems, however,
that this is not the case. John Sherman, in
his opening speech in the Ohio campaign en-
deavors to stir up his party to anger by
waving the bloody shirt before their eyes, in
the same manner as the matador flaunts the
red rag in the face of the bull to provoke
him to fight. He seeks to revive buried
sectional issue solely for the purpose of max
ing political capital. His utterances are not
what might be expected from statesman,
but they resemble rather the frantic rawlings
of crossroads orator. He unbushingly
charges that in the South "the negro is de-
prived OF all his political rights by open vio-
lence or by frauds as mean as any that have
been committed by penitentiary convicts,
and as openly and boldly done as highway
robbery" He declares it to be the hope of
"the men who led in the civil war" and who
are now "the chief officers of the Govern
ment" to "reverse all the results of the war;"
and he processes to regard it as "vital and
necessary to appeal to the Northern States
to unite again against this evil, not so open
and arrogant as slavery, but more dangerous
and equally unjust"
Such talk is foolish and would not be re-
peated if it did not come from so high a
source. II is an effort to stir up hatred and
jealousy between the people of the North
and South, and is in striking contrast with
the kindly expressions contained in the let
ter written by General Grant and kept from
his family until after his death, in which he
says:
GAS / have stated, am thankful for the
proVidential extension of my time to enable
me to continue my work. l am further
thankful, and in much greater degree
thankful, because it has enabled me to see
for myself the happy harmony which so sud-
denly sprung up between those engaged but
few short years ago in deadly conflict"
The Republicans of Iowa, too, in their
platform take up the savage, sectional cry of
hostility to the South as their issue with the
Democratic party. They declare in effect
that the war for the Union cannot be con-
sidered settled until the white people of the
South are ruled by the negroes. They pro-
claim an "inevitabe conflict" between the
Republicans of the North and the "rebel''
soldiers of the South, as it calls the white
men of that section, who are accused of dis.
francl'ising and usurping the rights of the
colored men.
Fortunately the extremists are few who do
not recognize the fact that the war between
the North and South is over. The Republi-
can party must, indeed, he bankrupt in pc.
ltical capital, if it is compelled to return to
so threadbare and worn an appeal to stir up
lis lethargic voters.