The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-12-16
POLITICAL SUICIDE AS A FINE
ART.

The Force bill is being vigorously
pushed by our Republican Senators.
This is a short Sc SSiOn, and it must go
through at n C or q IT at AL.
The prog ANNE theref re is to appear
to give plenty of ii ne to debate, out if the
bill is unduly delayedto appea. to Speaker
Reed for a copy of his gag law for use in
the Senate Chamber.
The House under the rulings of Reed
last spring ceased to be a deli oera i've
body. 1t became a republican machine,
to be swung for party purposes
There is now danger that the Senate
may borrow these ma ;hine methods and
Jam an obnoxious and Infamous measure
down the threats Of the Ameri an people
in spite o: the protest which they made
on November 4th. -
We have indeed fallen up N evil days
when the President n his mess age can
deliberately urge the passage OF a bill IN
tended to ont the control If elections
tt r ughout the South into the hands Of his
Own party bosses thus deprIVlug su IRENE
States of r ghts granted by the constitu
ton, stigmatizing them as dens Of political
scoundre S because they happen to be
situated s)uth of the Potomac River, and
giving republican hee}ers power to count
in heir own candidates whether they are
legally elecQed or not.
The scheme is born of political reckless
ness and is the last resort OF desperation.
1t was conceived by men who still hate
the South with ViruIent malignity, who
reached the limits of The ir public useful
ness when the war ended, and have ever
Cinoo hnon 11ooFIoJ on tho SJ1njaOf nf
Southern disloyalty. They belonged to a
former age, but were left over to vex this
generation because there was no place to
put them in the other world.
The gentlemen who lead in his project
are Edmunds, Frye, Hoar and Chandler
four crooked political sticks. They are
moss covered Old timers, rayed out rem
nants of New England aboiitionism.
Their fell and fateful purposes is to
SEND federal S lpervisors to the South to
take char &c of the next Congressional
election, to discredit every white man as
an incorrigible rogue because he PERSISTS
in being a D mocrat, ard 10 hand tie
several States over to the n groes, pro
vided they agree to vote the Republican
ticket.
In q SOU OLD g they dispense with
the necessity of ooini ms and have moth
ing l4ft except their prejudices. They
are q component part of the old regime
and have no better conception Of the
enormous progress viii; n the American
people have made during the last thirty
years than a stillbOrn infant has of algebra.
Against the men and their Force bill is
the best judgement of the East, the love
of :air play viii h characterIzas the West
5and Northwest and the sense of Justice
zAHdhpF4Eaib in all parts of the country.
T1ey have made a split in their own
party. Opposed to them are men like
Ingalls,, who never yet found a word
long enough or strong enough to give him
spiritual ,tisfaction when denouncing the
democrats, whe belives that every a
who isn't a Republican will freeze to
death in sheol, but who sees that SO gross
an act of injustice as the Force bill will
recoil with furious, if not fatal, energy.
And Quay, in many respects the best
party organizer in the country, a desperate
strategist, who in a hot contest would
steal the silver dollars from the eyes Of
mis- dead mother in-law to buy Republican
votes with-he too, kows that t1e Force
bill will be the epitaph of his party in
1892 and opposes its passage.
Still a determined effort is being made
all along the line to push it through.
Convictions are smothered, good judge
ment is blurred and a partisan Senate
seems ready to sacrifice even the peace of
the countryfor the sake of a measu e which
will keep alive the old hatreds of ante
bellum times.
All right. If the Republican party
insists on CON uniting suicide we shall be
on hand when it swallows the drug.
The Mckinley bill shivered the hopes
of that party and an indignant people at
the polls repudiated it. The Force bill
ought to finish the work and make it
necessary to write an ooituary.-N 7.
Herald.