The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-09-22
THEN AND NOW.

month.
THEN AND NOW.
The lapse of few years, and the more sig
niicant lapse from Republican virtue, has
wrought great changes with Harper's Weekly.
In its issue of Oct. 81, 1876, it has for its
cartoon on its first page the solid South repre-
sented as gaunt wolf from which the mask
of reform, in the shape of a
sheepskin, has slipped while it pounces
upon one of "Uncle Sans" helpless sheep,
IMPLYING the black voter of the South. The
master Of the sheep-fold is repre-
sented as rapidly approaching, gun
in hand, to make speedy dispatch
Of the savage intruder. T his cartoon is by
Mast. On another page is one by A. B. Frost,
illustrative of Southern voting scene. A
negro is in the foreground with a Democratic
ballot in his. fingers, while he is fanked on
either side by representative Southern men,
who all hold revolvers to the black mans
head. The picture is labeled, ''Of course he
The Democratic performer" (the Weekly's
word) is made to say: you're as free as air,
amt youY Say you are, or I'll blow your
black head Off, In one corner of the picture
is tablet reading as follows
"'The negroes of the South are free-free as
air. says the parliamentary Watterson. This
is what the State, a wellknown Democratic
organ of Tennessee, says, in huge capitals,
on the subject: Let it be known before the
election that the farmers have agreed to spot
every leading Radical negro in the county,
and tre@ him as an enemy for all time to
come. The rotten ring must and shall be
broken down at any and all costs. The Dem
ocrats have determined to withdraw all en-
ployment from their enemies. Let this fact
be known"
In a leading editorial. in the same issue, the
Weekly says:
''The Republican party is held responsible
for the Southern situation; but, if no scala
| wag, or hummer had ever entered a Southern
State, if everything had been left to Hampton
and Harris, if Andrew Johnson's policy had
| prevailed, would there have been any change
| in the situation of those States from the old
| time, except that upon the ruins of their
prosperity, peonage, and system of black
| codes would have taken the place of saveryg
This does not seem to us the way of peace, or
of real union. The victorious country would
| have felt that it was cheated of the hardly
won gains of the Now the Democratic
| policy tends exactly to that result. And as
it is result in which, the country will not
| and should not acquiesce, it is to be resolutely
avoided"
We hold before the Harrer's Weekly of to-
day the Harper's Weekly of 1876. The
prophecy of its editor has been verified, and
the country is being cheated out of its hardly
won gains of the war. What has happened
since 1876 to change the views of the editor
Of the WeeklyG What but that the colored
vote has been made 'free as air" only when it
chooses to use Democratic ballot9 Bulldoz-
ing and boycotting have accomplished their
purpose, and since 1876 the South has been
very solid, and generally very quiet, since no
opposition is allowed. The Democratic South
has done exactly what the Weekly declared
that ''the country will not and should not
acquiesce in Yet the Weekly, in common
with all mugwumps too obstinate to acknowl-
edge their error, is impelled to champion
everything Democratic. Beginning by swal
lowing the reform" mask of Democracy, the
attempt is now making to force down
the whole nauseous DOSE and Repub-
licans who have stood by the principles
of 1876 are bullied and blackguarled bv mug
wumps and Democrats in the attempt to deter
them from exposing this outrageous subver-
sion of free ballot in the solid South; and
Senator Sherman, because he dares to speak
against it and to ask free citizens by their
ballots to protest against a solid anything
against free suffrage and honest elections, is
made the object of ridcule and abuse The
few Republicans who have gone into the
service of Democratic intolerance may stav
there if they choose, but they cannot carry
with them the conscience of the people,
-
The North American Review for October
publishes letter of Grant to his father It
uoc r;ffaD ~, Ao,,;l 1000