The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-01-12
"THE BLOODY SHIRT"

MR.. EDITOR:-In searching through
records Of the past to ascertain the
reasons why the people have placed
upon themselves the present condition
OF financial depression, and what is it's
never failing cOncOmitant-that Of a
nation OF milliOnaires and paupers-
there is no more just cOncluCiOn than
That the American people were ignO-
rant of their own foolish actions. Not
that the average citizen of our country
IS not as intelligent as the average of
any other country. But their minds
have e adrOitly turned from the in
terests which have affected them most.
Caesar poured the gold of plundered
| gaul into the laps of his favOrite bench
men, and kept his country amused and
lulled into the sleep Of perfect security
by his wonderful achievements and
splendid exploits amid the mOrasses of
Germany. And so the tyrant's maxim:
If you would rule the world quietly,
you must keep it amused has been
practical in our own od-favored land.
Not that the clash of arms from dis
tant fields has been borne to the ears
of an applauding people; not that swift
footed messengers have come to tell Of
wonderful victories or splendid achieve
mentS by some national hero on a
foreign field; not that the destiny of
America has been left to any individual
or set OF individuals on the field of bat
tie; but over a more farcial matter has
she been amused, and for causes far
more unreasonable has she been lulled
into the sleep of vain security. For
while ruinCus internal diesentiOns fOr
the most part, the quarrels of an in
terested class yet racked our nation,
the ~plutOCrats and their kind aCcOmp-
Ices plotted their pile and planned to
rob American industry. And when the
smoke of battle had cleared from off a
land stained in the blood of civil war,
the paid ~assassins Of an honest public
sentiment have brought a creduIous
people to fight anew these heartless
battles. At every election these scenes
of carnage have been reviewed. GettyS-
burg and Malvern Hill have been pic
tured. The whole lift of battles of the
war from Big Bethel to AppOmatox has
been held up as one grand panorama to
be viewed by the nation, and the
merest sentiment of our people-that
Of sectional prejudice-has been ap-
pealed to. Orators have Wed with
orators in seeing who could pronounce
the grandest panegyrics of those who
fought for the COnfederacy, and in
| Cursing in terms of the most bitter
execration those who fought for the
Union; or, on the other hand, in ours
ing the South and praising the North:
thus keeping divided sections that
should be united and harmonious,
The most strange thing of all this
matter is that for these efforts against
their country men have been elevated
to the giddy heights of power, and
provided with the Hesh-potsof office by
an unthOughtful people. But we may
ask:
= = us there not some chosen course,
Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven,
| Who owes his greatness to his cOuntry'S ruin?'
Why not make them all politica
back numbers, - and statesmen with
out a iob?' Think of the result of their
efforts! The shackles of bondage are
almost irredeemably riveted about the
limbs of an unsuspecting people; and a
slavery more abject and grinding than
the African slavery abolished fOr
without the care of the labOrer') has
been inaugurated. Men struggle for a
| pittanCe, and women and children are
harnessed to the tread mill of life to exc
out a miserable existence; and from
their starvation wages an unseen hand
demands and takes it's regular tithes
every time a purchase is made of things
to eat and things to wear.
In view of the fact that the blessed
boon of freedom has cursed it's way
from less favored lands and followed
the sunset till it has come to it's last
hope of an abiding place upon the soil
of America. we may ask, with true
alarm, will this condition continue to
exist? Senator VOORHEES, may have
ans wered this question when he said !:
1.-The servile castles of the East Indias,
with a blind and Ignorant faith, worship
the ~juggernaut, and feel no resentment
when crushed and mangled by their
hideOus deity. It is not so, nor will it
ever be with the American people.
heartIess shrine; they will rather teach
their children and their children's chill
dren to ~execrate the authors of their
misfortune"
The American peoplen need only know,
as they are beginning to know, the
true eason of their calamities, and
then the cry of "nigger in the wood
pile" or rebel brigadier rule" will
lose its power. They need only to
find out. as they are finding out, that
the tariff has been used as a hoax; that
the great national parties, with hypO-
critical promises. have keptthe country
divided, and for a whole century spent
their time in useless debate upon a sub
ject they neither intendednor wished to
solve. The people need only know and
feel as they are beginning to know and
feel, that the cause of their distress is
due to the ignoble crime perpetrated
against our country in the financial
legislation of the past, which is now