The Indianapolis journal., 1885-12-11
BLOODY SHIRT" AT THE SOUTH.

has been assiduous in its efforts to promote
free and fair elections, and in this work has
not failed to speak out against the palpable
iniquities and frauds perpetrated in the
South. whereby that part Of the Union has be-
come sectionalized and made solid for partisan
purposes. In doing what it could toward
arousing public sentiment on this most vital
of all political questions that could be brought
before the American people, the Journal has
been maligned without stint; its motives have
been impugned. and its statements denounced
as false. But we have not been swerved for
minute from the purpose to stand up for this
great underlying principle of popular gov
ernment The misleading cry ''bloody shirt"
has deceived few, if any, of it's readers, nor
has this insulting taunt caused the Journal
to lose sight of the great question at issue.
With the best Of reasons for taking the
ground it has, and with endless evidence of
fraud and violence. legalized and upheld by
public opinion in the South, there could be
no turning aside without abandoning every
honorable impulse and every honest convic-
ton. The Democratic press of the North has
resorted to billingsgate in the anger provoked
by the exposures of Democratic infamies in
the States once in rebellion, while the press of
that party in the South has protested as best it
could against the truthfulness of the charges
made. The Charleston News and Courier,
the Atlanta Constitution, and Democratic
papers of that description, have in
sisted that the colored vote in the
South was not suppressed, but that, on the
contrary, very many negroes had acquired
masters that they had turned their backs op
the Republican party and had cordially voted
the Democratic ticket This felicitous state
of affairs was noticeable particularly in South
Carolina and nowhere more than in Charles
ton. The News and Courier with Pharisaical
impudence, had congratulated the colored peo-
pie over their deliverance from their ale
glance to the party that had freed them, and
did not hesitate to denounce and deride the
indianapolis Journals claim that this was not
only not true, but absurdly false and impossi-
ble
In the city of Charleston. the chief city of
South Carolina, where the negroes have been
represented as in the possession of every po-
litical and civil right a mass meeting Of col
ored men was held recently in an African
Methodist Episcopal Church, presided over
by Bishop Shorter. The meeting was ad-
dressed, not by politicians and schemers, but
by five ministers in good standing, and at the
close of the meeting these FIVE preachers were
appointed to draft an address for publication
This was done, and in the News and Courier
of late date it appears occupying four and
half columns. 1t is remarkable, first, for its
moderation, and then for its uniform good
sense and evident sincerity. The character
of its authors cannot be assailed, nor does the
News and Courier attempt to, so that these
utterances must be accepted as the de-
uperato CouFiclioHS OI tueSo men. fto-
markable as it may appear, the
facts recited are so nearly what the Journal
has maintained was true, that the paper might
have been prepared in the Journal Office. 1t
sustains this papers position at every point,
and the only regret is that it cannot be repro
duced entire in these columns.
1t begins by reciting the position occupied
by the recently emancipated and enfranchised
race, and establishes their ability to care for
themselves by showing that, under the great
disadvantages that have beset them, they have
acquired property to the value of not less
than 800, 900, 600, and that they have $l2, 000
600 in Southern savings banks. In the State
of Georgia alone they own $50, 900 acres of
land, and pay taxes on So 100000 worth of
property. There are also many schools for
the education of the negro, and they are gen.
orally attended, but, these clergymen say,
just as the Journal has frequently shown,
'these schools are supported principally by
Northern benevolence."
The report of the committee then proceeds
to state the grievances they would have cor
rected. We quote some, as follows:
''The colored people are deprived of their
rights to the protection of life, liberty and
property. 1t is denied that the colored man
is unsafe but God knows it is true.
If colored man is accused, through malice,
of an Insult to white lady, he is likely to be
hung, or shot down like a dog Until recent
ly, there was no respect for colored women in
the South. Any crime might be perpetratsd
upon their persons, and if the criminals were
white men there was no redress The whole
machinery of the courts is in the hands of
white men. If negro is arrested for stealing
q hog, he has a plain road before him. He
goes from the trial justices Office to the Jail,