The National tribune., 1894-10-04
THE HARD LESSON WE HAVE LEARNED.

whole people have had to pay bitter
price for sad mistake. The only con-
ISOLATION to be gained from it is that it
has burned deeply, and we trust ineface-
ably, into everyone's mind the awful
danger of permitting the Solid South to
return to power. 1t has shown con-
clusively, even to the dullest mind, that
nothing can be more disastrous to the
country than to allow the element which
precipitated the rebellion to regain the
ascendency in politics. No matter what
specious cloaks it may don, no matter
how it may disguise its designs with
catching phrases and fair pretenses, it is
intensely, irreconcilably and irredeem-
ably hostile to the best interests of the
country, and its rule cannot be made to
mean anything else than ruin.
Two years of its return to power have
cost the country more in actual dollars
and cents than the four years Of the war
Of the rebellion. No calamity can be so
great as continuance of its supremacy.
Badly as the whole people have been
made to suffer, the Union veterans have
been hurt much worse. They have
been the special objects of its malevo-
lence. It maintained a bitter wordy
warfare against them from the day they
compelled it to lay down its arms at
Appomattox. No method by which
they could be injured, in purse or repu-
tation, has been left untried. By means
of its Copperhead allies it succeeded in
arraying large portion Of the press Of
the country against them, and the his
tory of the Nation has nothing more
shameful than the long years of the
crusade of defamation of the men who
saved the country from its enemies-in-
arms.
1t came into power with promise of
great injury to the veterans, and this
has been absolutely the only promise it
has carried out.
No veteran can Low be blind to the
fact that he can expect nothing but the
direst hatred and injury from this ele-
ment and its allies. He may have
friends among the latter, but they are
utterly powerless to help him. They
cannot even stay or soften the ferocious
assaults upon him. There are several
good comrades in the dominant party in
the present House and Senate, but they
are as powerless to effect any results as
the conscripted Union men In Pickett's
column at Gettysburg.
The only place for friends of the
veterans is in the ranks of the opposi-
ton to the Solid South, as the only place
for Union man during the war was in
the ranks of the Union army. No
matter how devoted a patriot he might
be, he was aiding and abetting the
rebellion if he carried musket in Lees
or Johnston's armies.
If any comrade has failed to let this
sink deeply into his mind, he should
stop at once and think upon it until it
does.
The coming elections are of the most
vital Importance to us all. They actu-
ally mean life or death to very many
LEOuSdHQS OF our cOLnTdueS. IL the
Solid South is allowed to continue in
control Of Congress it will be taken
everywhere to mean, and should be
taken to mean, an approval Of the policy
Of hatred and injustice toward veterans,
and that policy will be made sevenfold
more bitter and injurious. Thousands
Of our comrades who have been lineer-
ing in hope will simply despair and die,
as they may as we'll, since hope will de-
part from all breasts.
We simply must soi,a thts fight, or send
ont a flag Of truce and surrender uncon-
ditionalIy. The issue of the engagement
at the ballot-box means much to the
country-at-large, but everything to us
veterans. We can afford to make no
mistake. Let us make none. Let us
see that not only our own vote, but every
vote that we can influence, is cast solidly