The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-05

object. When a President gets his place by the
usurpation of a minority we demur. When
the Union soldier has but one vote. and
the rebel soldier has two, we protest. When, by
scheme constituting one of the worst political
crimes in history, it is attempted with ambitious
larceny to get possession of whole State gcv-
eminent at once, and the baffled conspirator is
rewarded with high federal Office. we express
our indignation. Who ever heard before of a
Bourbon seeking to maintain the rights of an OPP
pressed and despised class, taxing himself to the
utmost for other mems welfare9 Who ever heard
of a Bourbon with an education bill In his
pocket2
But our friends tell US the things you complain
of have always been going on, and always will
be in country where large populations govern
themselves as a democracy. You didn't stop it
when you had the government. Let US turn to
practical matters. Why spend your time in
fruitless lamentaticn over the evils Of bygone
day? We will not stop to observe that these
gentlemen do not seem either to have read the
Constitution or the political history of
their country. They forget that since
1874, when these crimes began to take
effect on elections on large scale, the Repub-
licans have held the House of Representatives
but single term. They forget that under the
Constitution that house not only refuse its
assent to any proposition to amend the law, but
by its power over appropriations practically con-
trolls the use of the executive arm for any pur-
pose of constraint, and the Democratic House
has used its full strength to embarrass and
battle every attempt by the executive to protect
elections.
These gentlemen, who desire us to turn aside
from these things and overlook them. are them
selves but repeating the oldest OF human expert
ments and the Oldest of human failures, the
attempt to get along in the government of the
world without a moral law. Youth is not a
question of years, but Of spirit and temper.
Freedom and honor, and justice ever young
Fraud, injustice and tyranny are always old
Josiah Quincy at ninety, John Quincy Adams
at eighty, John G.. Whittier at threescore and
eighteen, are younger than many doughtace,
though he have just marched, little old man,
from the womb. Ostriches, with their heads in
the sand, are none the more to be mistaken for
eagles because they have just Matched.
The men against whom these charges are made
have not grown old in five minutes. They have
like other American citizens, their interest In
the future and the honor of their country. Our
good friends who make the charge have
changed their minds before, some of them
good many times. / tell them with all good ra
ture, hope without arrogance or presumption,
that think they will change them again.
No, fellow-citizens, the BoUrbonism that de-
mands only that the will of the people shall have
its rightful expression; the bigotry that con-
dennis only the men who rob Americans OF their
citizenship; the sectionalism that would tax and
burden itself to tie utmost to bestow education.
freedom, justice manufactures, commerce, pros
perity, honor, on the South-these, and these
alone. are the Bourbonism, the bigotry and the
sectlonalism of Massachusetts Republicanism.
Its life is in the future. When it ceases to ad-
vance it dies. Its steadiness is but the steadi-
ness of march Its discipline is the discipline
of an advancing army. It's constancy is the con-
stancy to an object not yet accomplished,
We stand upon four propositions-two Of fact
and two of principle. We challenge our oppo-
nents to encounter either Of them, otherwise
than by sneering. by shouting "bloody shirt, or
by saying, 1--WE have heard all that before; tell
us something new"
First-In many States of the South enough IN
number to change the result in the election Of
the President, and to change the majority in the
House of Representatives, tho Republican ma
jority has been deprived by the Democratic mi
nOrity of its right to vote and its right of free
discussion. This has been accomplished in the
States where the Republican ,najorities were
largest by violence and crime, until the minori-
ties got control of the officers and machinery of
elections, and thereafter by the method of fraud
in counting and returns. This violence has not
been repeated in every State, in every particular
year. But it has been repeated whenever an
attempt has been made by the majority to reas-
sert its rights, and everywhere often enough to
show that it would be repeated whenever neces-
sary as in the cases of Copiah and Danve.
Second-These facts fully and incontesta-
bly, proved by great mass of public testimony
taken by order of Congress, by abundant adtnis-
sions of the Southern Democratic press and pri-
vate acknowledgements of Southern Democrats,
as we'll by the uniform testimony of Repub-
licans in the States concerned.
Third-This condition of things constitutes
great evil and a still greater danger an evil and
danger more important than any other matter
now demanding public attention.
Fourth-The true remedy for this evil is the
Republican remedy, viz:
Take away the great motives to it by prevent
ing the election of any candidate for the presi-
dency willing to accept Office gained by these
means; have House Of Representatives who Will
allow no man illegally chosen to retain his seat;
refuse political utilization with men who do these
things; treat man who would accept an Office
so gained as unfit to be voted fer, as you would
t.reat man at the North who accepted an Of
gress who will pass effective laws
for the restraint of these things and
who will make appropriations for the enforce
ment of such laws. Have an executive who will
do his best to enforce such laws, who will not
reward criminals against the purity of elections
with high public Office, and who will not inter
pose to prevent such criminals, when convicted,
from receiving their lawful punishment pro-
mote, by every public and private instrumental
ity education all over the country; keep aroused
and alive public sentiment, stronger than laws
or than armes-that public sentiment with
which Daniel Webster threatened to shake the
Gar of Russia from his throne if he dared to
NEEDLE with Kossuth; appeal earnestly and kind
ly to the men of the South themselves to desist
from doing these things, and from training their
young men in these processes-an appeal never
yet heard from Democratic lips. Satisfy the
white men of the South that we are their truest
friends. by emulating their own leaders in the
heartiest support of every interest of theirs ma
terial or moral. Above ALL remember that the
remedy for this evil must be, very largely, with
the negro race itself. verify believe that, in
spite of all discouragements, or, rather, because
Of all discouragements, there is an op-
this country, at this hour, greater
than was ever offered to human being in the
world before Let him cease to be q ward and
take his place among the guardians. Let him
exhibit, by individual example, the qualities of
honesty, of industry, of chaste family life; let
him educate his children and cultivate his land
and the race which has produced Toussaint and
Christophe, and Douglass will yet produce its
own leader. it's own Lincoln or Washington, who
will assert for it its true place the lofty plane
of American citizenship. To a race exhibiting
such qualities the generosity of American man
hood will not long refuse justice