Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1892-12-08
The Slime Of the Serpent.

The old saying that not every Dem
ocrat is a horsethief, but that every
horsethief is a Democrat conveyed,
under an h~yperbole, a truth that is
illustrated by the dissertation of the
graves of Union soldiers in the state of
Indiana. 1t is true that there are
plenty of Democrats whose blood will
boil as readily as that of Republicans
when they hear of this infamy; but it
is also true that in the Democratic
party only could agents for such a
crime be found. We are apt to forget,
when We hear the patriotic speeches of
Democratic leaders, and acknowledge
the high character of Democrats PROM
inent in public life, many of whom
were formerly Republicans, what the
substratum of the party really is. We
are blamed when we remember it; and
told that, to recall the acts and words
of the vile and shameful men who dur
ing the a was as vindictive in their
hatred OF the Union as they were cow
ardly in their unwillingness to go to
the front and fight, is to wav the
bloody shirt" Yet that element is
there. And it is not in the South.
where men wear their enmities openly
and royalty, and are staunch as friend
or foe, but in the foul and stagnant
pools of the North, where the copper
head breeds, that we find the Demo-
Gratis who trail the slime OF the serpent
over their party, and forbid us to for
get that its fangs are as venomous as
of old.
1t would be impossible of any other
Parry that it should, in an hour of re-
ioicing and victory, go out systemati-
cally and in cold blood to defile the
graves of those who died for their
country. We should like to say that
it would DE impossible in any other
state than Indiana, where the craven
White Cap outrages flourish, and
whereth miasma of the native swamp
still keeps pestilential life in the frame
Of the traitorous order OF war days
known as the Knights of the Golden
Circle. 1t is nearly thirty years since
the war was ended. Brave men on
both sides have forgotten their differ
ences. Results are accepted, and all
that the most now desire is
to let oblivion cover the passions of
the time that tried the nations
strength. But the copperhead will not
have it SO. His slow, cold, poisonous
blood has held the sullen rancoro OF de-
feat. Fooled all hose years ago in his
attempt to strike the nation in the
rear, he still feels darkly and blindly
about him for n victim. And now, as
then, afraid to face the living, he steals
to the churchyard to vent his spleen
upon h unresisting dead. 1t Is the
old legend OF the ghouls come true.
Men who a do this, men who do not
honor the patriot dead, but who find
a hideous satisfaction in defacing their
lowlE and moss-grown monuments are
less and worse than human. These
men are Democrats. They marked
their acts ~distinctively by making 1t
part OF their celebration OF II great
Democratic victory. And the Demo-
cratic party, though as a whole it
would scorn such an act, must bear
the odium of those who have been
faithful to it from the worst estate.
All OF bitter disloyalty that lives upon
American soil belongs with Democracy.
1t is in the hour OF triumph that the
hands which are sullied it'll the black
est deeds are held up for their reward.
st. Paul Pioneer Press.