The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1885-12-17
BLOODY-SHIRT PAPERS!
NUMBER TX.

A great evil, sweeping over the coun-
try, must leave in its wake some signs OF
desolation, some actual misery and suf-
fering. 1t matters not that in its incep-
tion it seems destined to strike one class,
or one section, more particularly than an
other, the sorrow is the same for actual
sufferers. 1t has been written and talked
that the War of the Rebellion was the
result, the summing up, the elimination,
of a gigantic conspiracy. This idea,
while bitterly denied by many of those
who have professed to have inside knowl-
edge upon the subject, yet it seems fair
to assume that Davis and his fellow
traitors were the eriginators of con-
spiracy to break up the existing National
Government, and establish themselves as
the ruling spirits of the New South; that
in furtherance of this conspiracy, they
planned to get possession of the Govern
ment armament as far as possible, before
the beginning of actual hostilities. In
this view of the case, the defeat of Lin
coin in 1860 would only have postponed
for time, the elimination of the con-
spiracy. The election of Lincoln fur
nished an excellent pretext for springing
the desperate work of the plot.
That great portion of the people of
the South were deceived and misled by
the political leaders of that section can
not be denied. So persistently and We
hemently had these leaders taught and
harangued the people, that a sense of
great injustice prevailed at the South,
and a bitter sense of resentment and
hatred toward the North. The people
followed their leaders blindly, and
in full faith that they were discharg
ing their full measure of duty. While
this applied to the masses of the Southern |
people, there were many who were pos
Sessed of sufficient discernment to see
that it would in all human probability |
be an almost hopeless battle against the |
great North. This class "went with their
States" and endured like martyrs, the
evil results of the desperate work of their
political leaders.
The sad evidences of the horrors of
war that came to Northern homes have
oeen spoken of heretofore. The suffering
was not all at the North, however. The
Southern mother turned her eyes toward
he battlefield with as great feeling of
Tread and danger as did the mother at
he North. Life or death to her loved
mes depended upon the issue. What for ?
Was it because the Southern home had
,een attacked, or even threatened? I'M
possible. Was it because any conceiva-
10 nj, of |
National Administration? Equally i'm
possible. The noise and smoke and hor-
or of battle drifts and rolls and crashes
oward her home; they envelop her very
household and door-yard. With her first
'orn stretched in death before the door
which his infant feet had trodden so
ften, she cries in the agony, "Oh, why
his sorrow, and ruin, and death ?" The
nswer comes, as to her sister at the
North, "That the schemes of politicians
nd traitors may succeed" 1t does not
ccur to her at the time that all this {
is the result of the bad char
cter and work of the Democratic party,
be leading spirits of which plunged the
ountry into a horrible, desperate, de-
tructive war, rather than abide the re- t
ult of fair election under the Consti- t
ution and laws of the land. Yet such is
be awful fact. :
Let the Union soldier put aside all OBJ :
ervations of the sorrow and horror of
rar, as affecting his own side of the t
reat struggle, and consider the case from 9
ne standpoint of humanity alone, and
le picture of humanity was none the
SIS horrible. The leaders of the Demo- :
ratio party would rather bury their fol s
,wers upon a hundred battle-felds. than
, honorably acquiescence in the result of $
lawful election. This, as viewed in the :
ght of the experiences of the war.
Yell, you say, we have outlived all O
hose horrible mistakes. Have we, 2
point of fact? Is the Democrat
-ho refuses to abide the result of an cleo
on to-day, any better than he who re- !
lsed the same thing in 1860? Is the t
politician who raises the fig c
res upon an Ohio election return in
,S5, any better than the Democratic poll i
clan who led charge at Bull Run in $
361? Is the politician who conspires to
lake elections farce, in these days, any
etter than the politician who attempted !
shoot the Government to death in the a
ays of the war? In short, is the Demo- 7
ratio party getting any better? !
l.,