Year: 1875

3
sonal ambition carried them beyond the
bounds of party discipline and political
consistency. The Democrats were not
slow in availing themselves of the first
appearance Of the disease and gradually
aggravated it until the infected leaders
were rejoiced with 6 comparatively respect
able following in every sectien Of the coun-
try. Horace Greeley, New Englander.
was chosen as their leader for the time be-
ing. Although he was hated by the South
erRers as an old-time Abolitionist,- they
were willing to accept him as Presiden-
tial candidate, because they knew the in
huence Of that acceptance would lay the
foundation for the Gush which is now so
popular. Il turned their stomachs to sup
port him; but they swallowed him as q
sick man takes an emetic to benefit his
system in the future. They shook hands
across the bloody chasm with all the gravity
of earnest converts to the new order of
affairs, and straightwsy began to assert
themselves as the superiors of those who
had filled places Of trust and loyalty on the
opposite side. ..,r; -.


Meanwhile the Southern Republicans,
neglected, ignored aud almost, If not quite,
despised by the very men who originally
encouraged them to build up the party in
their respective States, were allowed to
perish by the score at the hands Of the
hackers of these bloody-chasm-hand-s -shak-
ers. The Ku-Klux Klans appeared and
were followed by White Leagues and sim
liar organizations. Finally, under Demo-
cratic tutelage, it became the popular thing
to deride the "Southern outrage business
as q weak invention for political effect. In
stead of glorifying the Unionists ofthe South
as the victims of reasonable oppression,
and as they deserved to be glorifed; instead
of sanctifying them in a political sense, that
their blood might become the seed of the
political church, and instead of persistently
seeking the punishment of their assassins
and prosecutors, the Northern Republicans,
under this same pernicious influence, began
to make excuses for their belief that the
Southern people were not all law-abiding,
and to pay the homage of towards to the
few Southern Democrats who, while de-
nouncing the turbulence of their section in
meaningless words, did nothing to secure
its repression. In short, such men as Fitz-
hugh Lee, Fort Pillow Forrest and T. NJ.
Logan have been allowed to Gush at every
opportunity and boast of their renewed fra
ternal love, and no one has had the courage
to ask either Of them, especially Forrest
and Logan, why they did not in the dark
days ofKu-Kl terrorism extend the hand
of brotherly aid and protection to the Re-
publicans of South Carolina, Tennessee and
other Ku-Klux. ridden States. So it has
come to pass that while these red-handed
traitors are kept in the foreground by the
sufferance of the Northern people, the pa
triotic and devoted loyalists of the South
have been neglected by their natural allies
and friends.


But the day of reckoning is coming. As
the Southern Democrats will mold the
policy OF the National Democratic conven-
ton, so the Southern Republicans will hold
the balance of power in the next delegated
national gathering of their party. Made
desperate BY neglect, which appears to them
to be studied, and having almost reached
the point from which they are ready to look
dow upon their recreant Northern fellow
partisans with feeling of disgust, it will
not be strange if they assert their power
most vigorously to the destruction of weak
kneed, inconsistent and wavering men.
They know that the struggle OF 1876 is the
last they can expect to make as Republi-
cans unless they win 1t, and that to win it
on platform which does not bear out the
past pledges of the party to protect the
humblest citizen in the exercise of his
rights will be almost as disastrous as de-
feat ITSELF


We sincerely commend these facts to the
consideration of the trimmers of the party,
who have become infected with the Gush
disease. They cannot reasonably expect to
gain anything from the Opposition by fol.
lowing the Gushers any further, and they
may rest assured that unless they turn back
now, before it is too late, they will lose
everything they may have won in the past
in their own party. A word to the wise is
sufficient is an old proverb that is hardly
applicable to them, for if they had been
wise the possibilities now confronting them
would have been avoided. But let them
pay heed to the ords of wisdom spoken
by others. ...