The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-02-20
Southern Sentiment.

by gentleman of this county from /
friend at Petersburg, Va, shortly az
ter the election last fall, and as 1
clearly shows the patriotic spirit Of
southern democrats, and contradict,
the allegations of the opposition, W,
give it place here. The writer says
although my health is grown sc
wretched that | cannot even attend &c
the various matters that pressingly
claim my attention, l must take q lit
tie time and make little effort to ex
change Fluctuations with you upon thf
recent great victory, which our "grand
old party" after years of strenuous
though aborlive exertions, and, after
many glorious battles, though result
ing in disastrous defeats, have at last,
achieved. We have ''smitten the Phillis.
tines, hip and thigh we have "beaten
the enemy down to the ground" never
to stand again upon their legs, trust.
We have rescued the Government from
the piratical plunderers, which were in
an evil hour, permitted to seize upon
1t, only to advance the private inter
ests of its various officers, and have re-
stored it to the party to which it can
only properly and safely be confided,
the party which comprehehds its the
ory, which respects its constitutional
limitations throughout and will drive it
back into and keep it confined within
them; which does not ally itself with
monopolists in their struggle with the
masses, or sympathize with capital in
its oppression of labor which will not
pamper particular industries at the ex-
pense of Others by taxing the many
for the enhanced prosperity of the
comparatively few which does not
consider that the states have forfeited
all of their reserved rights, because a
minority recently attempted to assert
by force of arms the exercise of one,
which was questioned even by those
who strove to make it good; which ig-
nores geographical distinctions, and
recognizes the co-equality of sister
States; which in word, favors the ad-
ministration of national affairs upon
the Jeffersonian rather than the Ham
iltonian principles; upon the sound old
democratic ante-bellum methods, which
advanced the country in all of its di-
versified interests, to that high degree
of prosperity which it was enjoying
when the deplorable war broke out,
war undertaken most unwisely and
wickedly to avert danger imagined
to be menaced by the possession of the
Government by strictly sectional
party. There is no reason to apprehend
that our party, in the long lapse of
time during which it has been exclud-
ed from power has abjured any of its
doctrines, or unlearnt any of its les
sons. The great sages who have H.
lustrated its history and exemplified
its benefcent principles have left their
memories to their followers, and we
still have our Randalls, our Bayards,
our Tildens, our Seymours, our Tuck
ers, our Lamars, and host of kin
dred spirits, to follow in the path
which they glorifed with their patri-
otto footsteps, and to carry on the
great work to which they devoted
lifetime of noble endeavors.
There need be no dread that the
South will embarass the party in the
administration of the Government by
any Incorporate department. We full
ly understand and adequately apprec-
ate the delicacy and responsibility of
our position. We are aware that we
are watched by the defeated conspira-
tors, with lynx eyed eagerness, in
the forlorn hope that by our foolish
misconducts we may damage our par
ty and give them little capital for
another campaign for at present they
are utterly bankrupt of available is
sues, and nothing but howls of ''rebel
insolence," ''rebel yells," ''rebel de-
signs" and such sickening stuff, of
which the country has had much more
than enough can help them. We shall
not seek to control the Government, or
take any active part, even in conduct
ing its operations. We feel the impru-
dence as well as the indecorum of our
assuming such part when we remem-
Der how comparatively brief period
has transpired since our desperate and
frantic attempt to subvert it, and the
trouble and tribulations, which we oc-
casioned our political allies at the
North. We are contrite, modes, 10y
al (not to the radical party, no ever
and patriotic. We are satisfied to
know that our matters are now in the
of party who have some
regard for the rights, the inte, ests, the
sensibililies of the real Southern peo-
pie and do nat view our section as the
mere habitation of a vast horde of ig-
norant black, partially reclaimed bar
barlans, who can be driven by Federal
office-holders to vote the "radical tick
et' Let us rejoice over the cnange I"