The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-24


murders of Kansas their own thirty years ago.
In Indiana the method is even viler than the
Ohio me.hod-viler than the Kansas method of
murder and intimidation, by which it was in
tended to make Kansas solid Democratic
State. By fraudulent and corrupt districting
Of the State for legislative pur-
poses the Democratic party. in a popu-
lar minority of more than five thousand votes
had obtained control of both Houses of the Leg
islature. Not willing to risk another senatorial
election upon the narrow margin of their former
STEAL in the spirit of the hiehwayman who has
you at his mercy, the party proceeded to redis-
trict the State so that of $50 members it should
have los. Carrying an election by repeaters and
by forging returns is genteel compared with this
That is the work of a midnight assassin, this the
fiendish plot of the highwayman who laughs in
your face while robbing you-and universal
Democracy chuckles over the feat. The bare
mention of the aggregate result is enough
yet a glance at the details is interesting
Look at Republican Vermillion tied to Demo
cratic Sullivan, fifty miles away, so as to give
Sullivan two Representatives on vote of only
4,615, while Republican Hendricks with 1922
has but one Representative Hancock, with only
1924, has two Senators and two Representatives
while Marion, with %, 276, has but two Senators
and five Representatives. Jefferson with $685.
has no Senator, while Clarke, with 6,656, has
two. Franklin with only 1855. has two Repre-
sentatives, while Rush, with s, Ill, has but one
and Delaware, with 5.625. has but one. 1t is
needless to 60 further in the details. There
stands the astounding aggregate-the minority
of the voters of Indiana, accidentally in power,
so districting the State that three-fourths of
the Legislature shall be Democratic, and all for
the purpose of stealing Democratic Senator
into Congress-
Those of us who were participants in the strug-
giles with this identical Democratic party thirty
years ago, we'll remember the fendish chuckle
with which they greeted every supposed victory
they achieved. They thought the people were
towards, and would submit to continuation of
their outrages They were mistaken. The de-
Tense that the Democratic party of Ohio is Civ
ing to the Cincinnati methods, and the compla-
cency with which the Indiana Democracy is
marching to the enjoyment of their fraud
makes one feel that he had just walked
from thirty years dream. and he is hearing
the echoes of the border rufians rejoicing over
the brutal massacres that promised to make
Kansas Democratic stronghold The same
men are on top to-day that were then; but the
same spirit of freedom lives that lived then, and
the war will be fought out. by blood if need be-
until every American shall be permitted to vote.
and his vote shall count as much as any other
Americans vote
l have spoken of the Democratic indorse
ment of the outrages which led to
the war; Not Democratic conven-
ton, large or small. ever condemned
the most barbarous measure; yet, when too late
thousands of Democrats, acting on their indi-
vidual responsibility. became the best of soldiers
and did what they could to undo the folly of
their party. Had such men, in such numbers
stood UP for the right of Americans to vote and
have their vote counted, during the decade pre-
ceding the war, Fort Sumter would never have
been fred upon They sowei wind and reaped
the whirlwind. Can this generation SOW wind
and not reap whirlwindl That map is fool
as we'll as knave who dreams of peace when
minority of the voters any State disfranchise the
majority. When or how this will lead to blood
shed no mortal can foresee to-day any more than
mortas could predict the details of that conflict
which resulted in only partially settling the real
question at issue, the equality of citizenship,
the right of every man to vote and have his vote
counted. The Almighty never made an Anglo
American to submit to such robbery as was
planned for by the Democrats at the last Indiana
Legislature, and in the fruits of which Demo
Gratis are revelng to-day as their kindred spirits
reveled twenty eight years ago. when they pro-
claimed the Lecompton Constitution settlement
Of the strife, and the securing of Kansas
forever to the Democracy. Indiana is not
Democratic State, and no band of
assassins by any cords or whips can make it So
There may be temporary triumph. Slavery
shouted with fendish delight when it had Sc
cured its fugitive slave law, and shouted again
when it had forever planted slavery in Kansas"
but its rejoicings were short-lived. It is as true
to-day as it three thousand years ago.
when the workers of iniquity flourish it is that
they shall be destroyed sforever." 1t is not the
temporary disfranchisement of the majority by
Ohio methods, or Mississippi methods, or the
rneaner Indiana methods that is a cause for
alarm, but it is because the party that has OBJ
tanned power by these methods indorse and de-
fcnd alike shotguns in Mississippi tissue ballots
in South Carolina, forgery in Ohio and Illinois,
and the more cowardy method of Indiana, pro-
vi6ing by law that Democratic ballots shall
count two to one of all other kinds when voting
for the Legislature This is the real cause of
alarm. U. L. SEE.
ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS.
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