Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1887 — Sherman Hoist by His Own Petard. [ARTICLE]

Sherman Hoist by His Own Petard.

In 1876 David M. Key, an ex-Oonfeder-ate soldier and a Democrat, sat in the Senate of the United States from Tennessee. During the session of 1876-7 Colonel Key, from his place in the Senate, vigorously denounced as dishonest and fraudulent every step taken by the Republican leaders to put R. B. Hayes into the office of President. When Hayes was inaugurated this “Confederate” Da*vid M. Key was appointed Postmaster General by the advice of John Sherman. Mr. Sherman was then glad to have associated with him in the Cabinet one of the Southern “Confederates.” Now this same Sherman, in shameless disregard of this leaf from political history, seeks to excite sectional animosity by denouncing President Cleveland for appointing Southern men to high and responsible office. Sherman wanted to have “one of these Confederates” in the Cabinet in the hope thereby to soften the indignation and wrath of the Southern people over a great political crime. He advised Hayes to put David M. Key into the Cabinet while the denunciation of the crime by this Confederate was still ringing in his ears. In appointing Southern men to office the present administration submits to no such humiliition as that which John Sherman advised poor Hayes to undergo in order to quiet a fraudulent title to the Presidential office. There are now no Confederates. “Northern” and “Southern” have no longer any real political signification, but are mere geographical expressions. The country is more thoroughly united than at any former period in its history, and all the demagogues of the Sherman stripe in the land cannot disturb the political harmony. But when John Sherman shall be again tempted to appeal to sectionalism by denouncing a Democratic administration for appointing Southern men to Cabinet offices let him think of David M. Key and the motives for putting that Confederate and Democrat into a Republican Cabinet.— Philadelphia Record.