The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-09-16
AN ,pIoT,c NOTION.

The idea That the Democracy Would At
tempt to Again Enslave the Colored
Man-It Has Gone with the Bloody
Shirt.
Another Republican State
ton. that of Michigan, has adopted a
platform without any allusion to the
rights of colored men as distinguished
from the rights of white men. Three
such platforms in two days constitute a
most striking acknowledgement of the
success of President Cleveland's
Administration in eliminating the
negro question from politics.
1t would not be far out of
the way to say that the Republican
party has declared ''in thunder tones
chat there is no longer any such issue,
and that the accession of the Dem
ocrats to power has been the cause OF
its disappearance. 1t is certain that
the Republicans never before failed to
make the most of it. 1t is equally GER
tain hat they would not fail now to
''wave the bloody shirt" if there were
any such thing to wave. Moreover,
the Republicans in convention as
sembled are just as keenly alive to the
dangers attending Chinese labor, and
pauper labor, as the Democrats. 1t is
not that they have forgotten any of the
rights or wrongs of the d~owntrodden
and oppressed. They have simply
recognized the fact that the ensan-
guined garment has gone from among
us. Surely, nothing could be more
easily spared.
The admirable disappearance sug-
gests a few reflections on the last ma
tional campaign. We shall not chide
the Republicans for their gloomy
prophesyings about the dreadful fate
of the negro in case MI. Cleveland
were elected President. They mostly
believed what they said. But the truth
must be told that excessive and exclu-
sive attention to one idea almost al
ways produces an unsettling of the
mental balance, and causes the thinker
to lose the sense of perspective. This
is what Senator Hoar said was the
matter with the Mugwumps two years
ago. He said that their intense men,
tai strain concerning the "spot' on
Mr.. Blaine's robe had caused them to
lose all sense of the proportion OF
things. They could not see the i'm
pending fate of the negro in Ease MI.
Cleveland should be elected. They
could only see the Mulligan letters. II
was nothing to them that four millions
of freedmen were about to be handed
over to their former masters bound
hand and foot. This was a trifie to
them compared with a few beggarly
railroad bonds. Such %obliquity Of
vision was simply astounding.
The Mugwumps replied that the
Democratic party would notdare, aver
if they were SO inclined, to Cypress the
colored man, since the first recogniza.
BILE evidence of such intentions would
cause them to be hurled from power
They argued that the sense of response
bility for order and good government
which power confers would lead thi.
wicked party to be extremely careful
in their ways, and that since the wei
fare of the negro, by reason of his geo
graphical situation, was more Deepen
dent upon Democrats than upon Re
publicans any way, he would, perhaps
be even better of when the response
bllity for his good treatment rcstet
wholly upon the ex-rebels. 1t wa
argued, also-and this was perhaps th'
most amazing and impudent pretenc,
of all-that the Democrats were one
half of the American people, and tina
what was good for them in the Ion.
run would be good for the rest of us
This was SO opposed to the prevail
ing Republican conception of things
that no words could be found t,
characterize the pernicious folly. TIL,
conception, shared even by som
bankers and college professors, wa
that the Democrats were not Ameri
a citizens at all, except in form
that they were really a kind of for
eigners reeking with Rum, Romanisn
and Rebellion, striving to gain contro
of the Government in order to over
throw it. The blow that Rev. Mr.
Burchard struck was a severe one il
its effect upon the "Irish contingent.
because it expressed the common Re
publican view of the Democratic party
The Blaine Ir' shmen recognized it
flavor Immediately.
Along with the disappearance of tn
bloody shirt. and largely in conse
quence of it, there will also ~disappea
the fantastic notion that one-half o
the American people ARE bent upol
the destruction of the Government
and the establishment of some indie
scribable pow-wow in its stead. Prob
ably no one who held this belief eve
gave himself the trouble to define i
his own mind what kind of societ
Mr.. Cleveland and his party woul
set up on the ruins of the constitution
if they should once get power. Fol
tunately for all such, they are no.
spared the necessity of doing so.-N
Y. Post.