Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-07-18
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS.

REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS.
From the New York Press.
If the stalwart leaders of the Republic
an party will only keep up vigorously the
agitation for equal rights and continue to
denounce fraud, intimidation, blOodShed
and murder at the polls in the Southern
States, great good will come of it. Not so
long ago the Northern Democracy denied
the existing state of affairs in many of
the States of the Solid South. and tried TO
ridicule Republicans bold enough to tell
the truth by the Outcry of bloody shirt"
The tactics of the Democracy appear to
have undergone change. CuriOusly
enough, the "bloody shirt papers of this
city are now the Herald and the World.
Months ago the Herald, for example,
took up the subject of the murder of Clay
ton in Arkansas, and vigorously denounc-
ed the condition of affairs which led to it,
and the indifference of those who benefit
ed by it in the important matter of dis
covering and Furnishing the cOwardly as
sassins- Following the lead of the esteem
ed Herald, the esteemed World has sud
denly burst forth with veritable broad
sides about the shocking condition of af
fairs existing in the State of Arkansas
Some of the facts published by the World
are rather stale reading to Republicans,
though to Democrats they are fresh and
worth spread" The editorial COM
ment of the World is not less remarkable
than that of the Herald a month or two
ago. Here is a fair sample from the World
of yesterday:
| A man engaged in investigating the theft of a
ballot-bOx was assaSsinated The whole commit
nifty ought at once set about encouraging and help
ing efforts 10 discover the aSSaSSnS. Instead the
people have Shrunk panic-stricken from all inquiry
| They have permitted the guilty men and their
friends to institute silent reign of terror for the
purpose of suppresSing investigation Detectives
| have been driven away. Men going on peaceful
errandsl ntO the region have been dOgged night
and day in manner so threatening that they have
| fed. Everybody, from the Judge on the bench TO
| the village gossip, has been made to understand
that this crime Is not TO be inquired INTO upon pam
| of death.
Such state of things is not civilization. 1t is
lawleSSneSS, barbariSm, the terror OF Sayagery.-
| Nobody SuppOSes that the people of Arkansas de
sire this state of things, but by submitting they
consent to it and make themselves responsible for
it. They permit the will of band OF outlaws to
override lawful government. They are responsible
for what follows. As the citizens of the State they
should WELD the power of the State. II they per
NIT a gang of desperadOes to WELD it instead, they
must answer TO public opinion for what the des-
peradees do.
These are unpleasant things to say, but they are
true.
OF course, they are unpleasant things
for Democratic organ to say, especially
when forced by public opinion here in the
North to openly speak the truth. Had
the above appeared in the Press it would
have been sneered at as the rawlings of
bloody shirt " maniacS anxious to stir up
sectional strife. In Democratic organ,
however, it is truth And so it is truth.
And not only does this condition of affairs
exist in Arkansas but it exists in Louis
lana, in Mississippi, in South Carolina, in
Florida, in Georgia, in Alabama, and in
one form and another throughout the
Southern States. The Press does not de-
sire to arouse sectional strife. 1t favors
a fraternal brotherhood of States, the de-
velopment of national resources, North
as well as South, a strong American pol
icy, and the permanent interment of the
issues of the war.
How can sectional strife be buried when
it is kept alive by such shocking cOndi-
tion of affairs III the Southern States ?
Clearly, the political party in power
in these States is responsible. Inba-
lpacity to govern, indifference of human
life an utter disregard of our civil com
pact of majority rule, the encouragement
of election frauds, refusal to punish crimes
of the most horrible character when COM
mitted to aid the Democratic party, are
but few of the counts in the general in
dictment against the Democratic party
and its leaders in the South. Republican
newspapers, Republican orators, Repub-
lican leaders, nave grown faint and weary
reiterating these truths. 1t is encourag-
ing, therefore, to see public opinion here
in the North forcing the Democratic Or
ganS to speak out
While the Press rejoices at the appar-
ent conversion, it feels bound to caution
good Republicans, especially in the West
ern States, that perhaps this course on the
part of the organs of the Northern Dem
Ocracy is but the carrying out of cOnspir-
acy to help the party in the great North
west, where the progressive sentiment of
the people is opposed to shameless frauds
against the ballOt-box, and to murder as a
weapon in modern politics Let us wait,
therefore, and see if these conversions are
genuine.