The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-14
THE DEMOCRATIC RAKEs PROGRESS.

views Of the political situation to keep at all
advised of the state of affairs. Since the
day Stephen Grover Cleveland was elected
some things have become popular and others
have fallen into what that gentleman has
been pleased to call 'fnnocuous desuetude."
1t required desperate effort to get the DEM
ocratic House of Congress to place the dying
leader Of the armies Of the Republic on the
deathbed, from which he never rose that it
was done. 1t had become unpopular to honor
any but partisan soldiers, and it was with bad
grace that this simplest of duties was per-
formed The world came near seeing the
American people deliberately refuse to restore
this greatest Of American soldiers to his
rightful place on the musterrolls Of the army,
shame such as the civilized world never
knew, while man who ought to have been
shot was eagerly put upon the retired list. with
all possible honor, so far as the Democratic
House could do it.
Another change has come over the policy of
the country. The pledge Of civil-service re-
form, so eagerly assumed before the country
before election, has been allowed to fall into
something more than ''innocuous desue-
tude." It has been killed and dishonored in
ocratic party will ever try to set it up on the
high ground it was beginning to occupy un-
der the control of the Republican party, when
there was no apparent reason to believe that
there would be change in the politics of the
administration. The manner in which this
promised reform has been dishonored is a
scandal upon the people Of all parties. The
best men in the public service have been dis
missed for no other reason than that they were
Republicans deliberately killing the spirit Of
the civil-service law. Worse STILL their places,
in many instances, have been filled with the
very worst men that could be found, it being
done to reward party bummers and ward
fxers. Thieves and ex- convicts have been
thus honored over the heads Of honest and
efficient officials. The whole idea of reform
in the public service has been trailed in the
dust. No man not fanatic has any hope of
the Democratic party ever raising it up again.
The country has seen the spectacle Of a
State campaign made since the election Of
Mr.. Cleveland on the issues of the Rebellion,
the Democratic candidate appealing for the
support of his fellow-soldiers in the war
against the Union by advertising the fact that
he was riding through the country on the
saddle used by his uncle, Robert E. Lee, in
his campaign against the Union Army of the
Potomac. In other words, he deliberately
made a ''bloody shirt campaign and won on
it, the result being accepted as the vindica-
ton of the honor of the cause 70. which
Robert E. Lee fought.
In the same line, the country has witnessed
the resurrection of the leader of the Rebel
lion, who has made triumphant tour of the
South, being received everywhere by the por
l,lace and welcomed with speeches apotheo.
sizing the '1ost cause" which he himself
took occasion to declare was not dead but
sleeping, to be awakened some day to the re-
alization Of the dream Of the men who so
desperately fought to divide the Union. Such
thing would not have occurred but for the
fact that there had been Democratic tri-
umph, which was accepted as an evidence of a
desire on the part Of the people to honor other
than the cause Of the Union. The deduction
has been, and not unnaturally, that the. day
for the glorifcation of the cause of State SOW
ereignty had returned, and the people of the
South have acted accordingly. Such DEM
onstration as greeted Jeff Davis, the exponent
and martyr" Of the lost cause, has seldom
been seen in this or any other country. Not
content with encouraging the dormant spirit
of rebellion, it has been the policy of the
Democratic party and it's willing abettors to
malign and cry down such as have dared to
enter protest against the idea Of honoring
the cause Of the Rebellion at the expense of
the soldiers of the Union. The men and the
papers that have presumed to express regret
that the South should seek to perpetuate the
folly of State sovereignty have been black
guarded not only by the men who believe in
that pestilent doctrine, but by those who
profess to abhor the idea. The same truck
ling spirit is shown by them that emboldened
the South to go into the rash experiment of
war in 1861.
In the same line, and only little in add
vance of these things, is the proposition to
assume the confederate debt. 1t may be that
this will never be done, and it certainly will
not be done very soon. for the people are
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