Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-10-03
WHY HE CHANGED.

Tor Cleveland and the entire Democrat
ic ticket. He received many letters
from his old comrades asking his rea-
son for the change. Mr.. Peacock wrote
the following letter in reply:
WI LESTER, ESQ, kNIGHTsTOwN,
lND.-DEAR CoNRADE:-Yourle letter of
Aug. %, III which you kindly request
me 10 state my reason for having de-
clared my intention of voting for Cleve-
land and the entire Democratic ticket
III November, is received. very much
regret that the latter part of your letter
III which you not only insinuate, but
openly charge, the party with which l
am now associated, with gross dIsloy-
atty to the soldiers of the rebellion,
shakes my confidence in your sincerity
i'll desiring to become acquainted with
the reasons which have led me to make
this change in my political affiliations.
As neither L nor anyone else care any
thing about the threadwOrn stories that
during and Immediately after the war,
were useful in keeping up hostile feel
lngs between the North and South, and
keeping i'll line IN the Republican party
men whose passions are more easily
aroused than their judgments con-
! trolled, l deem ii waste of time to re-
fer to such subterfuge. As TO with
whom the responsibility of the war
rests, the question has been long ago
settled. do know, however, that such
men as Alderman, who was appointed
Attorney-General in his Cabinet by
Gen. Grant; Gen. Key, who was ap
pointed Postmaster by Hayes; James
). LOngtreet, appointed L. 5. Marshal
for Georgia by President Grant; John
). Mosby, the guerilla Confederate
General, who was appointed to a for
eign mission; Malone, the Republican
Senator from Virginia; James l.. Orr,
who was appointed minister to Russia;
Thomas Settle, who was appointed
minister to Peru and to life judgship,
and who was president of the national
Chicago Republican convention in ~
that nominated Gen. Grant-aU were
more responsible for the war and its
bloodshed and cruelties than either
Grover Cleveland, Allen Ct. Thurman.
Col. MatsOn, Capt. w. II. Myers. or
John &. Black. And | know that the
active and cruel rebels above referred
to were the real cause of the 800 orphans
To whom you so pathetically refer.
Notwithstanding our oft-repeated as
sertiOns, my dear cOmrade, that the Re-
publicans alone fought the war to a
successful end, yet you and l and every
one knows that side by side with us
stood and fought and tled and died on
those battle-fields an equal number of
Democrats and Republicans. When
the war was over and those of us that
were spared returned to our homes,
the welcome we received was as hearty
and sympathetic from our Democratic
as our Republican neighbors; and since
that time up to the present we have
been as kindly and helpfully treated by
the one as the other. The war is long
past, my friend. The issues upon which
1t was waged are settled, and a peace
of % years has taught me, if it has not
taught you, that the loyalty of the
American people to their country and
flag is not divided by county lines and
party names. On the Both of each Nav
the mothers. wives and daughters of
our deceased comrades meet and with
mutual hands deposit on the mounds of
the sleeping heroes their floral tributes
to their memory and services without
inquiring whether they were Demo.
Gratis or Republicans. 4 new genera
ZION is here, and in their young hearts
there is but little bouTbonism. We are
now dealing with present issues. We
now we want TO see our people at peace
With each other in all sections of or
grand republic. We want to see our
nation start upon the march of healthy
| prosperity-a prosperity shared alike
by the rich and poor, the laborer as
well as the capitalist, the farmer and
mechanic as well as the manufacturer
and banker. We want to see our pub
lie lands reserved for the uses of the
real tillers of the soil. rather than be-
slowed as subsidies upon oyer-wealthy
\ corporation or bartered to syndicates,
| the members of which are too often not
even citizens of our country. We want
public offices to be public trusts" and
not used for personal ACKNOWLEDGMENT
and correct profits.
We want rigid economy in the adj
minisrtatiop Of the government. and
we want to see that employment IN the
| factories, mines, railroads, and all
J branches of our business shall be given
| to the native and adopted citizens.
rather than to the pauper labor of Asia
| and Europe. We want to see the poor
girls CT Chicago and New York, many
of whom ate the destitute children of
our comrades, receive more than 81 cts
per dozen for making shirts, while the
Chinese laundrymen receive S1.20 per
dozen for washing the same. We want
J to see the taxes of the Federal Govern
ment reduced to a basis that will be
! CIu0t W NflC g tEilNLO vi lilC SONtIu-
ment and no more, ana We want those
taxes To- fall on the luxuries OF life snd
not on the necessaries. We want equal
| justice in the race of liTe-nO pamper6d
class. no more special legislation for
the already over-Opulent, but fair and
J inst distribution of the burdens as well
| blessings for our republic. Therefore,
| believing tnat Mr.. Cleveland. during
| the few years he has served, has studi-
ously exerted every effort in his power
| to shane the affairs of his adminiStra-
! tiOn so that this equality should be eS-
tablished, and believing that bis notable
assistant. John G. Black, has dealt faIr-
| ly and literally with the pensioners of
! the land, and that he has taken from
| the dusty pigeon-hOles OF his depart
ment thousands of claims placed there
by the pretending Dudley and others,
and having br0shsf the cobwebs from
the papers, re-examinea shem and
granted all worthy claimants their Just
pension without parade. and believing
that our country is safer in the hands
| of such men than In the care of a man
| who advocated the unrestricted immi-
| grafton of Chinese paupe4 LABOR with
| our own sons of toii-aman who had no
more sympathy foI the laborers Of his
own State than 90 fhCgpt a war steed
and lead a host of armedlmiiitis against
railroad strikers. whose cnlv offense
was TO demand living wages from cor
poration for which this gallant General
was well-pald attorney, viii support
| Cleveland and Thurman.
Now. nv dear cOmrade. Won have
some Of my reasons why i have deter
mined to cast nv vote for Cleveland
and the entire Democratic ticket. Res
pectfully. DAVID l.. PEACOCK.
Late Private Co. c., 3ith Ind. Vol.
Seymour, Ind, Sept.S.