Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1886 — “A HEARTLESS KEYNOTE." [ARTICLE]

“A HEARTLESS KEYNOTE."

A Woman’s Cruel Criticism of a Republican Senator’s Demagogical Harangue. [From the Indianapolis Sentinel.] The following are the criticisms of Mrs. Gougar, of Lafayette, after hearing Senator Harrison’s recent effort in the Star City: I listened to the eloquent address of General Ben Harrison last evening with great interest, not more for the high reputation of the man and politician than from tho fact that the speech was to be the “key-note” from which all politicians are hereafter to sound their bugle blast during our campaign. There was much in that address that I would like to ask honest information about, but I will confine myself to only those points that struck mo as being most worthy of attention: First, Mr. Editor, allow me to ask if our war is not over! I look over our country and see it so peaceful and prosperous that I have been hugging the delusion (?) that the pruning hook was occupying the place of the sword. Am I deaf to the beat of the drum, the tread of the soldier, and alive to the arts of peace? We wero told of the terrible sufferings of the Union soldier because of his niggardly pensions ; and all this was laid at the door of the Democratic administration. If the Union soldier is in this condition, will you be good enough to tell me what the Republican party was about for twenty years of its power, just preceding the two years of the present rule, that it did not deal more justly with him? Great fnult was found that Union soldiers wero not holding the postoffices under the present administration. Will you tell me how many editors held the postoffices in this country who nover smelled gunpowder, while Union soldiers hobbled about on crutches, eking out precarious livings, during the last few years of Republican rule ? Could not a Democratic orator put another side to the eloquent gentleman's tear-drawing period on this point? Mr. Editor, our Government has dealt most generously with the soldiers, and if needs be let us haVe homes established, as was advocated last night, for those disabled in tho country’s service; but, sir, I protest against the kind of campaign oratory that tends to keep up sectional strife in our country and rekindle the animosities of the war. Such political claptrap should be spurned by the ex-soldier more earnestly, if possible, than by any other man, for he is the one who has done the mo3t to preserve the oneness of our people. Mr. Cleveland Jwas arraigned most severely for appointing ex-Rebel soldiers to public office ; but, Mr. Editor, who made this possible ? I answer, tne Republican party in power that granted a general amnesty to these men. From that moment a Rebel soldier stood in the eyes of the law on a par with a Union soldier. Mr. Cleveland has availed himself of this fact only, and by tho appointment of these men he has carried out the spirit and the letter of the act of the Republican party; also by these appointments he has healed up much of the bitterness of the past, and bridged the bloody chasm that will enable our people to march together, in a solid phalanx of patriots, to thwart new enemies that threaten us, not in se'etions, but the Union over. Mr. Harrison’s speech struck me as a heartless “keynote” that was sounded to deaden the conscious throbbings of the pulse of the people. It is not the issues of the late war that our people are.thinking about; it is the issues of the war that is upon us with the saloon, tho liquor traffic; out not one word did Mr. Harrison utter on this momentous question. In his attempt to draw tears about the “measles” one could Bee, not faintly, the pale, tear-stained faces of wives of drunken, debauched men, half-starved children, and a long line of misery that calls loudly for redress at the hands of our law makers; but for these poor souls Mr. Harrison had not so much as a thought, Mr. Harrison tried to stir np a feeling of indignation in behalf of the Mississippi politician who had been threatened if he persisted in running for office, but he had not one word of condemnation for that element in politics right here at homo —the saloon-atic rule, that boycotts, defames, bums, and murders to keop itself in money. Has not Mr. Harrison road of the recent murder of a Haddock ? There is much complaint that no interest can Be awakened in the present campaign. Is it any wonder when men with the ability and power of General Harrison go out among the people with such dead issues as he presented to his large and intelligent audience last night? I believe tho time is at hand wlion tho people and the press should step out from under the whip of political partisan xule, and fearlessly criticise such men and measures as retard the unity and progress of the people. The address of Hr. Harrison last night, and all others that follow it on the same note, can do no good to a people who have long since buried the bitterness of war and are moving on the ranks of new enemies that threaten us on all s-ides. Helen M. Gougar.