The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-11-28
ALL rs NOT LOST.

Dental election contracts have been closed for
the erection OF two or more furnaces and two
big rolling-mills at Birmingham. This means
an expenditure of So. 900, 900. and an addition
of at least IL, 900 to our population. AS l re-
marked before, All is not lost Atlanta
Constitution.
The gentleman from Birmingham who said
this showed that he, at least, had not lost his
head, and the Constitution puts it in a way
that indicates its own approval of the senti-
ment. We should change the form Of ex-
preston. Instead of saying "All is not lost
in the South by the result of the presidential
election, we should say "All is gained"
The South is not yet ema ncipated from the
rale of the ideas and the leaders that domi-
mated it before the war and led it into thatsad
experience. Under their leadership the South
ern States marched out of the Union as to a
picnic, with bands playing and colors flying.
1t was to be a grand march to political indie
pendence. 1t did not prove so. 1t did bring
great blessings to the South, but not in the
way its Democratic leaders expected. When
in the progress of the war they found that
slavery was destroyed past all hope of resusci-
t%ation, these Bourbon leaders said all was
lost, and there was nothing left for the
South but to fight and die in the last ditch.
When Appomattox came. and the men who
had fought till they could hold out no longer
were forced to surrender, these Bourbon lead
ers again assured the people that all was lost.
When the bastard government at Richmond
was dispersed and the Confederacy went up in
a puff of smoke, all was lost again. When
the authority of the government was restored
and laws passed by Congress for the rehabil'
itation of the States as integral parts of the
Union, all was lost again. When the consti-
~tutional amendments were adopted and the
negroes clothed with the suffrage and civil
rights, then, indeed, all was lost. And so at
each successive stage and step in reconstruc-
ton, at the election of each Republican Pres
ident, at the enactment Of every law looking
to the enforcement of equal rights and fair
elections, the Bourbon leaders assured the
people that all was lost.
The Southern people ought to have learned
by this time that these Bourbons are false
leaders and false ~oracles, propets of evil and
blind leaders of the blind. Every event or
occurrence that has induced them to exclaim
that all was lost has proved a blessing to the
South. The abolition of slavery, the sup
preston of the rebellion, the overthrow of the
Confederacy. the continuance of the Repub-
lican party in power, have all proved great
blessings. Even negro suffrage would have
proved a great blessing to the Southern peo-
pie if they had accepted it in good faith, and
allowed the colored people to assume their
proper place and functions in the body-poli-
tic. The idea of negro domination is a buga-
boo, a myth, a false p~retense. fostered by the
Bourbons for political purposes. The negroes
would not be half as dangerous with the ballot
as without it. If they did not deserve the
right of suffrage when it was given them they
have fairly earned it since by twenty odd
years of patient, faithful service, in which
they nave done a great deal more to restore
the shattered fortunes of the South and re-
build its waste places than the whites nave.
History furnishes no parallel to their good
conduct since the war, nor to the diabolical
malice with which tho Bourbon leaders have
still assured the people that unless the negroes
were deprived of their rights all would be
lost.
Every blessing that has come to the South
since the beginning of the war has been forced
lican party is no exception. The South only
| progresses in spite of the Democratic party.
The same old Bourbon leaders, who 'squat
like q toad" have been croakipg disaster in
their ears for twenty years past. assured them
again that all would be lost if General
Harrison were elected President; and so,
under this suicidal leadership, this
regime Of political hari-kari, they strained
every nerve to prevent the Republican party
from comforting on them the greatest possible
benefit and blessing in the continuance of a
policy which is as necessary to the material
development of the South as of the North,
and in the election of a President who will
represent this policy with malice towards
none and with charity for all.
At the present stage of Southern develop
ment no greater disaster could have happened
to the South than the triumph of the Demo.
cratic party on a free-trade platform. 1t
would have intimidated capital. discouraged
investors and paralyzed enterprise. Under
protection the South has made great progress
in material development, and is destined to
make still greater. The success of the Re-
publican party gives assurance that the
policy will be continued, and furnishes pre-
cisely the incentive to Southern enterprise
and progress that was needed. Manu-
f~acturers and capitalists will now feel that
they can continue their investments in
the South as we'll as in the North, with an as
surance that they will not be suddenly sub
jected to the ruinous competition of foreign
manufacturers and cheap labor. Every new