Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1885 — BLOODY-SHIRT POLITICS. [ARTICLE]

BLOODY-SHIRT POLITICS.

Virginia Democratic Utterances Contrasted with the Remarks of Sherman. [Washington special] It most require a goo 4 deal of hardi-' hood on the part of Democrats in the North, or even those in the South, to remark on the course Senator Sherman is pursuing in his canvass in Ohio, so far as it relates to calling attention to the atrocities in the Bourbon districts, in the manner of waving the “bloody shirt.” The Bourbons in Virginia are now, and have been for several weeks, going to extremes. It is well known in Washington that at the Bourbon meetings in Virginia the banners are inscribed with language intended to arouse the old Confederate hatred of the negro and the North. The bent of the Bourbon speeches is to fire the whites against the blacks. This mode of campaigning, however, has long been conducted by these people. It was left to a few days ago to cap the climax in this direction. Gen. Robert E. Lee’s son,in his enthusiasm, brought forth his father’s war saddle, bridle, and accouterments, and slinging them across the back of his cousin’s horse, bade him proceed on his journey, must arouse the Confederate patriotism of every true Virginian. ” It is related that Gen. Fitzhugh Lejp that day rode twenty miles across the country, and that he was received with “great feeling.” It comes straight here, too, that the small-fry Bourbon stump-speakers are drawing pictures, at white heat, of Gen. Robert E. Lee and his followers, and painting the gory battle-fields of Virginia blood-red. If this does not discount anything in the line of “bloody shirt” that has ever been perpetrated in the North, there is nothing in truth. It is very probable that the cry about sectional feeling alleged to have been engendered in Ohio is made for the purpose of diverting attention from the work going on in Virginia at this time, iSo bitter is the feeling in portions of the latter State that Wise, the Republican candidate for Governor, has refrained from speaking at certain places because his life has been threatened if fie appears there. The Bourbons call this “satisfactory progress in the campaign.” • . ;<