Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1898-10-24

any
carefully watched. Mr. Mckinley has
a great ambition in this line. ln 1875
he got of the well-known phrase that
it was more important to open the
mills than the minis" He thought
that he had finished the argument in
that sentence. 1t did not occur to him
that without opening the minis to the
coinage of both metals it might be i'm
possible to create that general prosper
ity which alone could enable people to
buy from the mills. To open the mills
is n thing. To sell their products to
IMPOVERISHED customers is just one OF
those things that phrase.making can
never accomplish. In his late election
eering trip the President has gone
again into the phrase-making business
and, like Mr.. Joseph Surface, he favors
us With many %virtuous sentiments.
The phrases and the sentiments may
provoke the admiration of placemen
and courtiers, but they are a sorry dish
to set before a suffering people. He
asserts that the people are standing to-
gether for couatry and for civilization
What does he mean by country Does
he he mean the corrupt and predatory
classes who put him in power by fraud
aud intimidation. or would he include
the plundered masses who are to bear
the burdens of debt, tariffs, taxes and
monopolies? And what does he mean
by civilization? Does he mean the
arts of industry and production-of the
farmer, the mechanic and the %toiler, or
the arts of chicane, political knavery,
and building up:colossal fortunes with
out work? Does he mean the science
which blesses mankind by useful
inventions, or the cunning which en-
ploys the agencies Of government 10 or
der to strip plain people OF their SUBJ
stance? Again, Mr.. Mckinley gives US
some important intelligence. Heinforms
US that 1.-The war has made Us a united
people," Indeed! But what q confes-
sion for a republican President to make
that our people are united for the
first time in fifty years" The war Of
1861, the subj ugation of the South, and
the slaughter Of her noblest citizens,
with all its attendant horrors, accord
ing to President Mckinley did not
unite the people. He thus coufesses
that mere vulgar conquest does not
unite" q people, but rather, acts OF
love, charity and good will. Why then
did not Mr.. Mckinley and his party
pursue in the hour OF victory q policy
of moderation, Cancellation and kind
ness to the South? How unwise, if
MI. Mckinley be right now, TO inhic;
then on the Southern people bayonet
rule, negro suffrage and supremacy, car
pet-bag robberies, and all the cruelty,
rapine and insult of reconstruction.
We can almost fancy that we hear
Mr.. z cKinley pleading with his party
in Ohio against the overthrow of
State governments, wholesale d%isfran-
chisemeots and the whole policy of
hate and persecution. But no. This
is only a pleasing dream. We cannot
forget his bad eminenco in all this
work of hate. But now, according to
his own confession, the entire policy of
himself and his party from 1865 to
1898 was an ~egregious failure. 1t fail
ed to make US q united people," bu,
what the republicans failed to ac-
complish by laying on the lash
is at last achieved by a
war with a poor, bankrupt, third
rate power in which three hundred
Americans were killed by the Spau-
iards. One is tempted to ask why the
republicans spent some thirty years
cropping about in a wilderness of folly
and hate before they discovered this
grand method of closing the bloody
chasm. Mr.. McKinley's suggestion
will deceive nobody. The part played
by him and his party since 1863 in keep
ing the two sections apart will never
be forgotten. 10 spite of the deviltry
of the republicans and their annual
TRADES of passion and denunciation, in
spite of force bills and multiplied
wrongs, there have been strong couu-
teracting agencies of union and recon
Citation which have surely and steadi-
ly forced their way. Among these are
conspicuous the patriotic ..%efforts s.of
Northern democrats and the admirable
temper, fortitude and self-control OF
the South. These have served to re-
store a union which but for the repub.
lican party need never have been sew.
cred. We meal a union of fraternal
feeling. So far as loyalty and obedi-
ence to the government are concerned.
the payment of unjust and excessive
taxation, the readiness to support the
executive in foreign war: and above all.
the desire to plant the government on
the firm basis of justice which best en-.
sures strength and p~ermanency, the