The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-07
THE SOUTHERN sPOnK.

now it is ready to again take its proper part
in the celebration Of the national day. It is not
worth while to deal with the remarkable edi-
toral in detail but one or two sentences will not
be without suggestiveness. For instance, this:
''There was, of course, no Fourth Of July
jubilation in the South during the war which
followed the South's second but futile decla-
ration of the principles announced in the arti-
cles of 1776," 1t is scarcely necessary to an
notate this expression. Like the auctioneers
horse, ''it speaks for itself" However, it
may not be out Of place to say that the
first Fourth Of July declaration was that
all men are born equal and are entitled to life,
liberty and the pursuit Of happiness, while
the second but 'futile' declaration on the part
of the South, as the News and Courier puts it,
was an attempt to found government the
corners stone of which should be human slavery.
That this was the purpose of the Southern
confederate leaders was emphatically and in
terms declared by no less an authority than
Alexander III. Stephens.
But the Charleston paper continues: ''The
Fourth Of July 1865, dawned upon reunited
country but that reunion had been secured
by the sacrifice of the independence of the
Southern States. This was too plainly under
stood and was too strongly felt to admit of
return at once to the observance of
Independence Day as of old" The
article goes on in this same strain, re-
ferring to the annual burlesque" of the day
during postwar years, Gin which the freedmen
were actors and audience" and declaring that
during what is called the carpet bag
period, 'fhe old day and the old flag were re-
garded with aversion The overthrow of the
Republican State governments brought the
whites to the front and there was gradually
increasing regard developed for the Fourth of
July, until 'the election of a Democratic
President last November gave powerful i'm
pulse to the national feeling in the South,
and this feeling will develop rapidly and ex-
tensively during the ensuing four years Of
this administration.
The News and Courier concludes with a
paragraph which we could heartily indorse
and commend to the fullest extent were it
not that the whole tenor and spirit of the
editorial, as has been shown, is to the effect
that the South will regard and honor the
Nations day of jubilee only so long as the
national administration is in the hands of that
party which sympathized with the confederate
attempt to disrupt the government whose
birth is celebrated in the anniversary. The
attempt was futile" but, nevertheless, the
South still regards it as in the line of the
same patriotism and devotion that in
spired the fathers of the Declaration
and Of the Revolution, an attempt only
rendered futile by what Mr.. Kelley calls "a
bloody usurpation Of natural rights" but
which the News and Courier styles 'the sacr-
fee Of the independence Of the Southern
States" The last paragraph in the article is
as follows:
the people Of the South will feel, and do feel
that their right and title to an interest in the
history and honor Of the Union are recognized
at last, and they will not fail to assert their
interest in that history and their claim to q
part of that honor. The Declaration of hide
pendence on the 4th of July, 1776, would
have no significance to-day but for the part
which the Southern colonies filled in the war
which followed its proclamation. and the
SnIfh lniy, fran "a 1C.b4
with its share of the glory which it helped to
win for the American name"
AS the Journal said on the morning of the
Fourth, no section Of the country contributed
more to the glories of che Fourth of July
1776, than did the South; none which has a
better right to a full and proud participation
in its glorious memories and in its benefcent
results in the founding Of free nation; but
that participation cannot be proper, and salu-
tary and patriotic, so long as the South hugs
to its bosom the miserable sinking, shameful
cadaver of the 'lost cause" Why cannot the
men Of the South see the patriotic pro
priety, the absolute necessity, of bury ing
forever in the grave of the past the fostering
corpse of a slavery begotten rebellion and of
uniting Loyalty, and without bitterness, with
all the people in shouting over not only re-
united people; but redeemed Nation? This
is the spirit and desire Of the North; but every
advance in that direction is met with the
''bloody shirt" Of the stars and bars waved in
the skeleton hands of the still gibbering ghost
of the Southern Confederacy. For the sake
Of peace, and honor and common Union, why
will not the men of the South let this spook
rest forever?
AFTER all the ado made over the early clos
-. l. IL !