National Republican., 1885-10-30
John sherman TO vIrginians.

Measured by any fair standard the speech
delivered Ivy Senator Sherman at Petersburg
yesterday, and printed entire IN this issue of
the REPUBLICAN,, is great effort. 1t is
great in its complete fitness to the occasion
Ms well as In the terse comprehensveness
with which II meets all possible require
ments. 1t is great in the number and
weight OF the truths which IL contains, not
less than in their pertinencY and the happy
manner Of their presentation. 1t Is mag
niflcent as a vindication OF the Republican
policy, and terrific as an arraignment of the
Democracy. 1t is calm, dignifed, and
statesmanlike, but glitteriug with sharp
points in every paragraph. 1t is impregna-
bly, strong in the unanswerable logic of
iudisputable facts. No such effort has been
made either by the senator himself or by
any other speaker in the campaigns of this
year. 1t stands like mountain OF granite
against which storms Of passion and preju-
dice may hurl their fury without affecting
its serene solidity or iarring single stratum
of its formation.
Reluctantly and with many manifestations
of disapproval the Democratic leaders OF
vasion' of the state by the distinguished
Ohio senator But before he came the
organs of their party had taxed their In
vcntive genius in the manufacture OF Gun
ming falschoOds concerning what he had
said in Ohio and elsewhere in relation to the
south. So far as was possible the public
mind was poisoned by calumny. No effort
was spared to make the people of Virginia
believe that Mr.. Sherman was full of hatred,
malice, and uncharitableness toward them
and their section. He was charged, In the
press and on the stump, with persistent
effort to arouse all the passions of the war
time.
But ''it was the war upon the ballot-box
and not the war Of the rebellion that he
arraigned.n lie said in Ohio, and he re-
peated in Virginia, that in the last presi-
dental election III various states where the
votes of the colored people would affect
the result they were deprived of their
franchise by one device or other and thus
political power apportioned to the colored
population was transferred to and ex-
crcised by white Democrats of the south,
so as to make their political power greater
than other citizens. BY these means, he
said Grover Cleveland became President
uf the United States instead Of James G .
Blaine.
This Is notoriously true, and because 1t Is
true It hurts. Because It cannot be an
swered the inculpated party tries to howl it
down with vile abuse and by shrieking
'bloody Shirt
Mr.. Sherman utters the honest sentiments
of the Republican masses at the north when
lie says that lie and they frankly admit the
sincerity Of the motives which led the
southern people into the contest, and
neither wish to reproach them with nor to
make any reference TO what they did during
the war. All we ask Of them is to join with
us in securing the just results of the wal
expressed in the constitutional amendments
and still more broadly in the parole taken
by Gen. Lee aud his soldiers at the close of
the war.
While Mr.. Sherman and the Republican
speakers have been calmly appealing for
justice and pointing to the future, Gen.
FitZ Lee and his associates have been try,
ing to reproduce the feelings of the wal
era by re-enacting, with theatrical effect
the scenes of those sad years. As Senator
Sherman fairly charges, Gen. Fltz Lee 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 cavalcade
has tried to turn the attention of the people
from the questions of the present time,
from their material development, from pro
tective tariff, to the memories of war in
which Virginians fought braycly while there
was hope, and submit ted honorably to the
arbitrGment Of arms when their cause was
lost.