Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-10-21
ATLANTA tGa.) constitutional

suit in Ohio gives to John Sherman as
possible Republican candidate for
| President. This fact, however, is Of
| littleimportsnce to our readers compared
with the real significance Of the Ohio
election. That election emphasizes, as
no other event could do, the fact that
what is called the southern ques-
ton " is still very live issue in the
politics of the North.
We have heard good deal recently
about the desire for harmony and unity
and fraternity that is supposed to sni-
mate the bosoms Of the people Of the
North, but the probability is that only
the people OF the sentimental South
have any real longing for fraternity and
harmony. While all of US on this side
the line are ready and anxious to lay
aside prejudice and animosity, our
friends on the other side Of the line
show an indecent haste to rally around
the bloody shirt.
There is small element in the Repub-
lican party that has done its utmost to
discredit and discountenance the en-
ployment Of the bloody shirt as a po-
litical argument, but this element is
without either influence or following,
for the very reasons that entitle it to
the gratitude OF the South give it
over to the contempt of the great
mass Of Republican voters at the
North. In the eyes Of these voters
the people Of the South are not
only rebels and secessionists, but
bulldozers and assassins; and this
particular issue is thought to be so i'm
portant that not only was it employed
in Ohio, with success, as we have seen,)
but in Pennsylvania, State which the
Republicans have entirely under their
control, Chairman Cooper, of the Re-
publican Committee, deems it necessary
to send out campaign slips of manipu-
lated figures going to show that the
negro vote in the South is absolutely
blotted out by Democratic methods.
There is but one reason why the bloody
shirt argument should be employed in
Pennsylvania-namely, that the Re-
publican voters may be taught to hate
the South.
For ourselves, we are heartily in
favor of fraternity and sectional har-
mony, but there is no reason why we
should run over the earth in search Of
it. The result in Ohio, and the revival
of the bloody shirt in every campaign
that is now going on in the North,
ought to be warning to the South. In
an old play-song that used to
be sung by little children, the
burden is, II went to the well
to wash my toe. and when came back
my chicken wasg gone" The South has
been going to the well to wash her toe,
and if she keeps on making such jour
news she will find her chicken gone.
he people of this section may as well
reconcile themselves to the inevitable
and take care ofDumber one. In order
to do this the South will have to remain
solid-solidly Democratic. Herein lies
safety.
4 desperate attempt is to be made in
Virginia, and also 1--WE may as well
make up our minds to it, in Georgia, to
destroy the Democratic party. Fra
ternity is fine thing, but the North
cares nothing for fraternity that is not
Republican. The southern States must
take care of themselves. We can an
swer for Georgia.
Washington Post.l
The triumph in Ohio, by over seven
teen thousand plurality, Of the party
for which Halstead writes and Sher-
man and Foraker speak. is evidence
overwhelming that the Democrats Of
the Union alone stand between the peo-
pie Of the southern States and that
greatest Of all political curses, alien
and corrupt government.
Having lost presidential election,
the South being solid against them,
though such complete union was not
necessary to their defeat, the Republic
cans, not alone in Ohio, but throughout
the country, have come TO the delibe-
rate conclusion that they can make
votes at the North by a policy Of sys-
tematic lying about the South, and that,
should their efforts succeed, they can
rule the States on the lower side Of the
Potomac from Washington, and restore
the Infamous system of Government
which was finally wiped ont in South
Carolina and Louisiana in 1876.
This is an issue not of the South's
seeking. The people of that section
would much prefer to be allowed to en-
joy the privileges exercised by the peo-
pie Of the North-to govern themselves
in their own fashion and differ on those
national issues which are common to
both sections and all States, and upon
which voters in every election district
find ii impossible to be in accord.
But, as the Richmond Dispatch well
puts it, $50 long as the people of this
section are vilified, libelled, and SLAM
dered by the northern leaders of the
Republican party, so long will they be
compelled to subordinate all other
questions to the one all-important
question of self-protection.' This is
as true as Holy Writ, and nobody re-
grets it more than good Democrats,
both North and South.
So long as Republicans succeed in
keeping the sectional issue to the front.
just so long will the South be solid, and
just so long will the Republican party
bend all their energies in the one direc-
ton Of making the North solid. The
is entirely with them.
Any party controlling nearly half the
votes Of the country can shape political
issues as the Republicans are doing in
accordance with the tenets of Blaine's
Augusta speech just after the election.
And what a responsibility, and how
is it being used! In wicked attempt
TO array two sections, ore against the
other, with determination and bitter
ness not exceeded in the conditions OF
actual war, and for the purpose only |
Of securing the Offices of the Govern