The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1891-01-29
HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF.


History repeats itself. The political
conditions at present bear, in some re-
spects. a close resemblance to those
which preceded the great civil war.
Then, as now, the Southern Democrats
were arrogant and aggr essive in assert
ing the rights of their section in def
ance of the Constitution and laws. Their
demand then was for constitutional pro-
lection and extension of slavery, and
their alternative was secession. Their
present demand is for the recognition of
their right to suppress the colored vote
and to maintain the rule of minOrities
and fraud. They have not yet formu-
lated their alternative or said what they
will do if this demand is not admitted
and acquiesced in.
are sustained in their demands by those
of the North. The latter are as united
now in opposition to negro suffrage and
fair elections as they were thirty years
ago in favor of the maintenance and ex-
tension of slavery. In short, they stand
ready to indorse, and do indorse in
blank, every demand the Southern lead
ers may make.
Nearly all the Southern Senators and
most of the Southern Representatives
served in the confederate army or under
the confederate government. Senators
Morgan and Pugh of Alabama, Jones
and Berry of Arkansas, Pasco of Flori-
da, Brown and Colquitt of Georgia,
Blackburn of Kentucky, Gibson and
Eustis of Louisiana, George and Wal
thall of Mississippi, Cockrell and Vest
of Missouri, Vance and Ransom of North
Carolina, Hampton and Butler of South
Carolina, Bate and Harris of Tennessee,
Reagan and Coke of Texas, Daniel of
Virginia, and Faulkner of West Vir-
ginia, all served either in the confeder-
ate army or the Confederate Congress,
most of them in the former. Nearly all
the Democratic Representatives from
these States are in the same category.
Thus it appears that the Confederacy is
in the saddle. These men feel that their
day has come and the hour of their tri-
umph ia near at hand. They are in q
position to say that time at last makes
all things even. Just what terms they
will demand or grant in token of this
victory remains to be seen. 1t also re-
mains to be seen whether they will con
tinue to have everything their own
} way as they nov threaten to do. Per-
haps the spirit of the North may be
aroused as it was in 1860. Now, as then,
there is a base, mercenary spirit preva-
lent in the North, a spirit that is hostile
to patriotism, that laughs at the folly of
weighing abstract sentiments against
traffic and trade; that ignores the de-
mands and even the existence of moral
ideas in politics. This spirit would let
the South have its own way in every
thing rather thar object and lnjure bus
mess. 1t refuses to see anything practi-
cal or important in the idea of enforcing
equal suffrage or honest elections. 1t
says the present system is good enough
for us, and let the future take care of
itself. After us the deluge.
Thus the conditions at present closely
resemble those which existed before the
war. The outcome, however, will be
different. There will be no war, at
least not during this generation. One
civil war does not tread so closely on the
heels of another. 1t will take a long
time for the memories and the lessons
of the last wal to be forgotten. But
this is what will happen: There will
either be a great awakening and moral
uprising of the North that viii result in
the establishment and supremacy of the
principles which the war was fought to
vindicate, or there will be a steady
decadence of patriotism and of political
virtue, leading by degrees to a complete
change in our form of government.