The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-22
FINE WORDS BUTTER NO PARsNGPs.


Made up largely of mugwumps and grannies,
it lacks the vertebre of decent loyalty and
the manhood to assert it. AT the last meet
ing the question of ''The Solid South was
discussed, and in the absence of General }.
B. Gordon, of Georgia, who was expected to
read paper on that topic, Messrs. Algernon
Sullivan and Abraham Wakeman took it
upon themselves to explain the raison d'etre Of
that anomaly Of American politics In OPEN
ing, Mr.. Sullivan said:
s'Why does the South cast its vote reso-
luteiy upon one sideP 1t was as rebuke to the
Republican politicians that the South became
solid The same spirit filled the minds OF the
Liberal Republicans during the recent cam
paign. believe that the motive which the
South had in becoming solid was that prompted
by wish to do the country the best service in
its power. 1t was an honest protest against
putting 1000, 600 of people under the control
of a centralized political power not resident
with them"
If Mr.. Sullivan knows the alphabet Of cur
rent politics, he knows that his argument is
not only disingenuous but unqualiedly false
in it's logic and deductions. What, in the
name of ordinary common sense, has the Re-
publican party done that the rebellious South
feels called upon to rebuke9 Whence comes
the inspiration and force of the Republican
party but from the ever-loyal North, and
where now is it strongest in the hearts of the
| people but among those who threw all into
1
the balance of war that the country might
live despite the onslaught made by the solid
SOUTH What has been done that Satan must
rebuke SIM Has the Republican party de-
prived it Of local self-government9 Has it
passed any laws that do not apply to the North
as fully and completely as to the SOUTH
! The spectacle of the solid South ''rebuking"
| the Republican party is to make Benedict
Arnold impeach Washington The South
casts its vote resolutely on one side, not as re-
buke to anybody, but as deliberate conspiracy
| by which to eventually regain power through
! the aid of its Northern allies, ex-copperheads
and modern mugwumps, striking reproduc-
ton of tho ante-bellum proslavery men and
Northern doughfaces, than which more con-
this contamination possible to their hope, the
murderous minority in the South has throttled
free elections, shot and beaten the majority
out of existence, and the ''rebuke" is com
plete. Mr.. Algernon Sullivan knows this as
| we'll as he knows there is solid South, and
he insults the intelligence of his hearers when
he ignores these palpable facts.
| But Mr.. Wakeman is even more of lick
spittle than Sullivan, and casts honor and
| loyalty to the dogs. With impudent self-suf
| ficiency, he said:
ri accord to the South the same sincerity
| that we possess It's people were born to be-
| lieve that slavery was of divine origin. They
| therefore ought not to be treated with harsh
ness The South is made up of two elements
white and colored. By the fortunes of war
the latter were elevated from slavery to equal
citizenship. When the right of franchise was
bestowed upon the negro it was supposed that
| he would be permitted to exercise it, The
whites, however, still continued to regard the
| negro as an inferior. The sentiment of re-
bellion still exists among the white population
of the South"
| The South-that portion of it that election
GERS with the shotgun and bull-whp, and that
is the soul of its solidlty-cannot fairly be ac-
corded any sincerity whatever. 1t is treach-
erous, cruel, fraudulent and ungrateful. Bent
on personal ends, the men who have made the
South solid have made it so by methods of
murder and intimidation never heard of In the
North. The Republican party, in all its lease
of power, never passed law that was not
as wholesome for South Carolina as for Ohio
never; and despite Bourbon obstinacy, and
evident hostility, the policy of the Republican
party has done more to develop the South
than ever would have been done under Demo
cratic rule That the South believed in the
ogy for its existence. Exactly the same
argument is employed by the Mormons in
favor of polygamy. Would Mr.. Wakeman
urge the American people to respect the SEN
timent that makes polygamy anything else
than infamous9 What "harshness' has been
employed toward the South at any time, and
of what now can the solid South complaint
The slaves were freed. it is true, and ''ele-
waited from slavery to equal citizenship But
that is ALL The men who believed slavery
divine Institution, and who are
now combined against the ''harshness' of the
Republican party, whipped the right of suf-
frage out of the slave, and is now about to
take charge of the administration by virtue
of title perfected in .-.urder. The South is
too manly even in its lawlessness to under
take to deny that the Republican majority
of the South was strangled because il was