The record-union., 1891-06-25
SINCLAIR'S STATEMENT.
Does He Represent the Sentiments
of the South :?
The Brutal Attack Upon General
Chapman, and What It
Means.

The statement is made that General
Chapman was rejected, as Superintendent
of the Department of Horticulture of the
Columbian Fair, because of the active
opposition of Mr.. Massey of Delaware
and Mr.. Sinclair of West Virginia, of
fetal representatives of their respective
States. The statement is to the effect that
when Chipman's nomination was up for
confirmation, Sinclair said:
Gentlemen, you cannot, must not, name
Chapman. He was one of the men who prose-
Guted the persons charged with aSsaultlng
President Lincoln. If you name Chapman
the South will not send any exhibits TO your
exposition. know the South, and know 1t
VIII not stand that sort of q man.
The conscience of mankind rejected
the theory that the killing of President
Lincoln was an act of war, and con-
demned it as an assassination. If the
South will not stand the sort of man who
believes in prosecuting and Furnishing
assassins, then the South may as well
stay away from the show as be present,
for in either case she will be alone. If
Sinclair tells the truth when he says he
knows the South, he may enjoy his ac-
quaintance without the fear of rival, for
no one else wants to know her.
If Sinclair, and not Lee, Lamar and
Grady, represent the Southern esti-
mate Of Lincoln, then the civilized world
is insulted by an invitation to meet that
section in this international function.
The French republic pursued the MUIR
derers Of Darboy and the hostages and
massacred them in the Church of the
Madeleine. The English monarchy is
just now pronouncing the death sentence
upon Senapatti and Sana for the murder
Of non-combatants in the British Resi-
dency of Manipur.
All governments and all civilized peo-
pie discriminate between war and muir
der. The assassination Of Lincoln reused
the pity and passion Of the North. Let
no one fancy that lapse of time has over
grown the potential anger which was the
virtue of that time.
Had the people of the North been in
capable of that hot feeling then, or of it's
renewal now under the proyocation
offered by Mr.. MaXwell's party at Chi
cagO, they would deserve the contempt
Of mankind.
We are persuaded that the South is
misrepresented by this son of the soil of
the Old Dominion. The South, which he
pretends to know, would be pestilence
against which the nations would quaran-
tine. Its people would be, ofnecessity, un-
feeling to all moral purpose, blind to all
moral obligation, untouched even by the
merely animal feeling of self-preserva-
be common to them is not Illuminated by
even the nobility of revenge. The char
acter he aScribes to them is as lusterless
as a toad's eye. He makes them appear
to plead to the jury of mankind that is to
be in perpetual session through the ages
which patient history must yet record,
that the conSplratOrS TO assasSinate Abra-
ham Lincoln, who accomplished their
crime, were not guilty of murder, and
that the men who prosecuted and pun
ished them are subject to pursuit by hue
and cry when they appear for honorable
preferment.
Does the South accept this office upon
the nomination of Mr.. Sinclair?
II so, let all pretense be put aside. The
North cannot afford to take the part as
signed to her on the programme. The
silence and non-action of her people will
misrepresent her.
1t is one of the first symptoms of lep-
rosy that its victim does not finch when
fire is put to his palm. What worse than
leprosy must atfiict the heart of a people
when it is indifferent to such a scorpion
sting as this on Sinclair's tongue!
That he found it necessary to phrase
such an insult, to take the risk of it, to
defy the concerted sensibilities of the
world, is proof of the desperation of the
purpose to be advanced by his utterance.
The Columbian Fair is designed to BEN
eft the 100000 of people who will in
1888 see its opening morning in this ma
ton founded on the continent which OBJ
structed the path by which Columbu
hoped to reach the Indies. The varied
interests OF civilization look to it as q
mirror in which the refinementS Of hu-
man life, that have been lifted within
reach Of all men by the institutions
wrought by enfranchised man, shall be
reflected. In every American heart has
been the hope Of still greater impulse
from enlightened competition there,
which will carry the fame of this age for
ward TO prompt and spur the energies OF
time that is still below the horizon.
But, while these past expectations are
the lizard is defiling the focus of so much
pride and the scene that centers the high
est aspiration.
The author of this defiance of propriety
must represent an element in the man
Rgement that has purposes unreachable
by means that viii bear the light. He
has unconSciously advertised the inten-
ton to use the jubilee of the greatest
event in human history for the purposes
and the profit of a few who have been
spawned by mischance upon places which
they misuse and detile.
For California's share in the perver-
sion of q high occasion let us meet for hu-
initiation. a beast of burden is never Sc
insensible as not to- seek some rock OF
tree against which to rub its hide in the
effort TO clear itself of vermin. This State
must be excused ifit be caught scratching
in protest against the parasites which
have been its torment since it began
to prepare for an appearance at the Co.
lumbar Fair.
Let the South join US at the fence corner
and by getting rid of her Sinclairs pro.
mote the good feeling which should be
the measure of the success of the Chicago
exhibition.
ILLUMINATION