The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-10-29
GENERAL GRANT AND THE BLOODY


The Democratic papers are making q
great flourish of statement made by
General Grant during his dying mo-
ments and reported by his son as fol-
lows:
feel that we are on the eve Of new era.
when there Is to be- great harmony between
the Federals and the Confederates. l cannot
stay 70 be living witness TO the correctness
OF the prophecy, but feel it within me that
1t Is to be so. The universally kind feeling
expressed for me At a time when 1t was sup
posed that each day would prove my last
seems to me the beginning Of the answer TO
LET us have peace"
Assuming that Col. Fred Grant has
reported his fathers words correctly, it
is not remarkable that Gen. Grant
should have uttered them at Q time
when the affairs Of this world had no
further interest for him and he was
anxious to be at peace himself and to
leave the earth with some kindly mes
sage of farewell. Under such circum-
stances we may well imagine that what
seems q prophecy was only wish, and
that had Gen. Grant been aware, as he
was when he was well, of the condition
Of things in the South, his lips would
either have remained silent or he would
have uttered indignant protest. When
he was IN robust health and in the
prime of his physical and mental pow
ers he expressed himself on political
subjects as follows:
There Is not precinct in this vast Nation
where a Democrat cannot cast his ballot and
have IL counted as cast, no matter what the
predominance OF the opposite party. He can
proclaim his political opinions, even II he Is
only one among a thousand, without fear
and without prescription on account of his
opinions. There are eight States, and locali-
ties In some others, where Republicans have
not this privilege.
In one Of his messages to Congress
he described as follows the objects of the
South Carolina Bourbon Democracy:
To deprive colored citizens of the right to
free ballot; to suppress schools
In which colored children are taught, and
akin to slavery. TO effect these OBJ
jects many murders and crimes of minor
degree have been perpetrated and have been
left unpublished.
As the situation has not changed
since Gen. Grant uttered these en-
phatic protests against Southern injus-
tice and intolerance and the suppress
sion of the Republican vote in that Sec
ton, it is absurd to suppose that his
opinions had changed, or that because
he hoped for change in these respects
and was magnanimous in his expressions
towards ex-rebel soldiers he thereby
gave his consent to outrages at the
polls and to the terrorism of colored
voters, as it is to deny that these out
RACES are committed because Gen.
Grant gave utterance to hope for
reconciliation in his dying moments.
Suppose that Gen. Grant were living
now and were fully cognizant of what
is going on in Virginia, what would he
be likely to say? Surprising that he
should visit Virginia and travel about
the State, what would he behold? He
would see the Bourbons gather together
at their meetings to be addressed by
Fitzhugh Lee. He would see Fitzhugh
Lee, mounted upon his uncle's war sad
die and the horse he rode arrayed with
Lees old rebel war trappipgs, riding
over the public highways, escorted to
his meetings by troop Of rebel cav
airy carrying their old rebel gatherings
and banners inscribed with notices in
tended to recall the lost cause. He
would hear the rebel yells and the
Southern war songs sung at these
Democratic meetings. He would hear
speakers who had been officers in the
rebel army appealing to their hearers
with arguments based upon the memo
ries of the shareholders secession re-
bellion and the good times of the chiv-
airy in the days of slavery. and trying
ing in the most incendiary man
ner to infame them with a hatred
of colored Republicans and their
white friends, and to intensity their
hatred of the National Union North.
All about him would be Haunted the
rebel bloody shirt. He would witness
fierce and malicious rebel bloody
shirt campaign, and see the rebel
bloody shirt exhibited at all Fitzhugh
Lees meetings and wherever a meeting
of Democrats was held. He would see
more intense bloody shirtism at one
Virginia Bourbon meeting than at all
the Republican meetings addressed by
John Sherman in Ohio during this
campaign put together.
If he should go to Mississippi
strong Republican State-he would see
campaign without Republican ticket
in the field at all, because the colored
Republicans are prevented by the shot
gun and ballot-box suffer from voting.
And when Gen. Grant had seen these
things, is there any doubt what his
utterances would have been? Does
any one doubt that he would have famed
out with honest indignation, and that
some of the severest and sharpest COM
ments that have ever been spoken by
him would have characterized his opin-
ion of these outrages? If to protest
against them is to wave the bloody
shirt, would he not have waved it?
indicating the Southern Issue.
The returns of the Ohio election
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