Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-06-11
Nor A QUESTION OF PARr1sANsH1p.

49, a. SSAAA@SA' Va .
One of the Democratic orators at the
mass meeting Saturday night paid his
respects to the REcoRD-UNIoN and ar
raigned it for waving the bloody shirt"
Shall not all these things of the past be
forgotten, he asked? Has not the war
ended, and has the country had any four
years of greater peace and prosperity than
that now nearly concluded under Demo-
cratic rule? With the perversity of the
partisan stump orator when he takes up
such questions, our friend reads those who
rise superior to mere party considerations
in discussing public questions, blindly.
The REcoRD-USIoN has not consciously
waved the "bloody shirt" nor will it lend
its influence to raking up the well nigh dead
embers Of an unfortunate and cruel past.
Its desire for the unbroken and cordial
fraternity of Americans rises as high as
any scale of patriotism and sincere love
for the indissoluble Union can register.
But 1t does not commit itself to the folly
of forgetting, and never will cease to draw
essons of wisdom from the past for guild
ance in the present and the future. In
common with the men of the nation it for
gives, but trusts never to become insensi-
bic to the memories so inextricably inter-
woven with the history of the most
momentuous peril of the nation. 1t has
no reproaches to heap nor rebukes to adj
minister for follies irreparable. But when
ever any man or body of men solemnly,
and unprovoked, give the lie to recorded
history and allege that they are and always
have been the champions of an indissolu-
bic Union, the RECORD UNION will not
deem it inconsistent with the proprieties,
but duty to truth and the voters born
since the war, to turn back the pages Of
political history and point to the platform
planks that rebuke the assertion, with
their declarations that the war for the
Union was failure, an indefensible con.
test and a useless sacrifice of life and treas.
ure. Let those who made the record moi
uncover it.
If it is waving the bloody shirt to declare
that the election of April II, 1888. in the
State of Louisiana, wherein one party
made gain of $4,000 votes over not dis
tant previous election, and where the to-
tai vote leaped up 10000, in the face of the
notorious fact that the population has suf-
fered in its proportional growth with that
of sister States, by steady exodus to newer
lands; then to the arraignment the plea
of guilty should be entered. The RECORD
UNION despises the partisanship that can
see no higher good than the success of a
party, and that deems all campaign means
to that end justifable. 1t aspires to an
enlightened and Just consideration of all
public questions, and in none now present.
ing for public thought finds more Of
weighty moment, than that which involves
the free and unrestricted exercise of the
right of suffrage, and the sanctity and pro-
lection of the ballot-box in every polling
precinct of the land.
1t is but an incident TO this considera.
ton that the most recent invasion of the
equality of citizens at the polls happened
to be made in Louisiana. That the repre-
sentation in the national legislature i:
upon the basis of citizen population is a
fact; that III one considerable section Of
the country the return of representation
does not reflect the expression of the
voters, is also a fact the cold figures render
undeniable. That this result is due to q
remaining disposition-left over from the
prejudices Of the anti-bellum period
largely made effective to prevent the col
ored citizens from freely voting, by one
means or another, we believe is also indis-
putable, and that it is not crushed out ut
terly, and perfect equality before the law
at the polls secured to the newly -enfran-
chised at the South, we believe to be
fairly and justly chargeable to the policy
and the cowardly subserviency of one of
the great political parties of the day,
which alone makes possible the political
solidity of the South
4 party that is so much concerned about
the accumulation of the surplus and the
need for its reduction, and is properly So
iicitous, if its declarations are to be ac-
eepted as sincere, that all unjust and ex-
traordinary taxation shall be abandoned ;
that went into power with the announced
determination to "reform" abuses, and to
expose the alleged fraudulent national
bookkeeping by its predecessor, must ex-
pect to be criticised by independent men
and journals that value party only so far
as 1t conserves justice and human rights,
Tor Its failure to effect reform in the South,
where the cry has for years gone up for the
right to enjoy the constitutional guaran-
tees OF freedom. Its stump orators, despite
their inability to get up and out of parti-
san grooves and to attain the plane of ra-
tIonal discussion Of such questions, should
be careful to manifest nc sensitiveness con-
SSAhihS tHS otOour shirt, Until the reln0t-
est suspicion is removed from party skirts
that the humblest black-skinned citizen of
the Louisiana lowlands, or the Carolina
rice-ields, is by its act, connivance or
silence cowed into unwilling use of or non
use of his ballot
So far as the peace and prosperity of the
country under the brief rule of the
dominant party is concerned, that is
not so much a matter for congrat-
ulation by the Democracy, when we
reflect that the Republican party was for
twenty-four years engaged in patriotic
work to make such possible domination
harmless when the time should come for it.
CAMPAIGN RALLYING SIGNALS.
We are inclined to think that the at
tempt to make party orifamme out Of
Mr.. Humans mild madness in handker-