Rensselaer Union, Volume 12, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1879 — THE SHOT-GUN POLICY. [ARTICLE]

THE SHOT-GUN POLICY.

Tbe following fa extracts! front a recent speech delivered at Foetoris, Ohio, by General George 4 Sheridan, of Louisiana: .-tjfl Whenever a Republican attempts to discuss the question ofpaStiesiu the South, be is at country with avowing the legitimate issues of the campaign, and seeking to rouse the passions of the North by waring tbe “Moody sbirt." So far as lam eoncernecL I hare no wish to rouse passion in the minds of Northern men. God knows I pray for pence and harmony between the lately warring sections of my counter. To me tbe “bloody shirt” Is aa distasteful aato tbe veriest “Bourbon" in tbe land. I want to see k buried, and shall hall with delight tbe dawn of tbe oar when it is no longer an issue in tbs politics of tbe country. I beg to cab your attention, my Democratic friends, to tbe fact that it is not tbe Republican party that is responsible in this campaign for tbe “bloody shirt." But for the Democratic oppression of men for mere political rotation in tbe Booth within tbe last year, you would hove beard nothing of this garment of terror. Finance, tariff, purely economic questions, would have formed the basis of discussion but for tbe red-handed murder that has stalked abroad in tbe san of noonday in sections of tbe South, striking down without cause or justification citizens of tbe Republic. I am not here to-day, my fellow-eittzena, to arraign the whole Booth for political persecution. Thank God. there are sections in that country where political freedom exists. lam here, though, to say tbs* in fifteen parishes of Louisiana, tbe whole at Mississippi, one-thir<l of Georgia, all of South Carolina, and one-half Of Florida, such a thing as the political liberty you enjoy bore in Ohio is utterly unknown. Here, if a man chooses, he can be a Democrat, a Republican, a Green backer, a National, or an Independent. He can discuss nis political views in every city, town, village, and hamlet in the State: be can vote the ticket of bin choice, and have ale ballot counted just as he oast it. In a word, the citizen of Ohio is really a free man In all respects, exercising and enjoying to tbe fullest extent the rights and privileges of citizenship. both State and National. The Democrat will stand by his political opponent, and, if need be, with bis strong arm, defend that opponent’s right to vote. The Republican is equally at the service of his Democratic friend. If bis right to vote is denied him. This condition of affairs does not prevail in tbe sections of tbe country to which I have alluded. Men cannot exercise tbe right of free speech and free ballot except at peril of life, limb and property. Organised opposition to the Democratic party u not tolerated. Peaceful means failing to prevent the creation of opposition to the regular Democratic party, violence and murder are unhesitatingly summoned to accomplish what reason and argument have failed to secure. We have recently bad an illustration of Democratic methods in Mississippi. It appears that in Yazoo County one Henry M. Dixon, formerly a Democrat, concluded to run as an independent candidate for Sheriff. The regular Democratic organization resolved that there should be no independent candidate In Yazoo, and Mr. Dixon was induced to withdraw from the canvass. Here an American citizen is robbed of two of his dearest and most sacred rights—the right of individual opinion, and of independent action. Let the “ Democratic Flag." now wave over the glorious ojdoonnty of Yazoo. “ uncontaminated and unchallenged, ’ and the “best citizens” of the county, tbe “merchants,” tbe “ planters,” shout themselves hoarse in approval of the monstrous outrage. Since Mr. Dixon was compelled to withdrew from the canvass another chapter has been written hi this shameful history. Dixon was a man of nerve and courage. He placed his wife and little ones in a place of safety, and then returned to Yazoo, announced that he had reconsidered his recent decision, and would run for Bheriff as an “ Independent.v A few days after this declaration Mr. Barksdale, one of his political opponents, hailed him lu the streets, and, as he turned, emptied the contents of a double-barreled shotgun Into his body, killing him then and there. And now the glorious old flag of the Democracy, with an added luster and a serene glory, waves “uncontaminated and unchallenged over the glorious old county of Yazoo.” Tell me, my Democratic friends of Seneca County, you who from the time you became a voter, have voted just aa you pleased, sometimes for your party nominees and sometimes for the Republican candidate, how do the proceedings in Yazoo suit you? Hundreds of Democrats in this county for years puat have voted for Charley Foster for Congress, and hundreds will vote for him for Governor this autumn in preference to the Democratic nominee. Has ever a Democrat in voting for Foster bad any fear that he placed himself In personnl peril by so doing? Do any of you who expect to vote for him next October have the remotest idea that any man will dare lay his hand upon you In violence for exorcising your right of choice as to wtao shall be Governor of Ohio? Does tbe Democratic farmer who votes for Foster fear that his house or barn will be burned, bis trees girdled or his stock maimed, Ik.-cuiisc be votes against the Democratic nominee? Do any of you, my Democratic friends, expected to t»c waited on by a committee or your fcllow-Democrats and told if you vote for Charley Foster you* must leave this eoiiniv and make for yourself a home elsewhere, that they are determined there shall be no opposition to the Democracy in this oounty, and that you vote against your party at the peril of your life and property? Not at all. You do not look in the face of mortal man with fear. You know your own rights, and exercise your own Judgment. The Democratic party in Ohio recognizes your right to vote for wnom- you please. .Woe betide the party that dare In Ohio seek to maintain its organization by such means as are In daily operation <n Mississippi and other sections of the South I have mentioned.

What crime did Henry M. Dixon commit when he announoed himself as an independent candidate for Sheriff of Yazoo County? He did not like the Democratic party or the Republican party; the Green backers, the Nationals, did not suit him. He tried to organize a party of his own. R)r simply exercising an undoubted right he was shot down in cold blood, in the llgbt of the noonday- sun. What has become of the murderer of Dixon? Is be behind the bars of a 1011, awaiting trial for his crime? No, he is to-day walking the streets of Yazoo under a paltry bond for his appearance at some future time for trial. Is Mr. Barksdale looked upon with horror and pointed out as a man whose hands are red with the blood of a fellow-being? Do the people of Yazoo shrink from him as one guilty of a great crime under the ben of God? Not at all. Mr. Barksdale is a hero worthy of honor, a model for the young to follow, a chivalrous gentleman, worthy of all respect, deserving of great consideration. To plain, simple, law-abiding, God-fearing, liberty-loving men and women in the North, Mr. Barksdale appears simply a murderer. What refinement of sentiment, what subtlety of logic, what interpretation ol divine or human law makes him anything else to the people among whom he lives passes the comprehension of those who love law and believe In the justice of the great command that ages ago thundered from amid the smoke and flame of Sinai, “ Thou shalt not kilL” How many Democratic papers in the North have you seen that have condemned the killing of Dixon? Very few indeed. The people oiYasoo Justify Dixon’s murder by saying he himself had, In times past, shot down men for opposing the Democratic party. True, he was guilty of this great crime. Equally true is It, that the very people who now glory in his death crowned him with honor for doing ia 1878 Just what they allege as a Justification for his death in 1879. If in 1875 the law of Mississippi had been enforced as it ought to have been, Mr. Dixon would net hayelived to fall by the hand of Mr. Barksdale In 1879. He would have been tried, condemned, and hung for the crimes of which he was guilty. When Henry M. Dixon shot down Republican- be was committing crime, and ought to have suffered the penalty due it. That he was guilty of murder in 1875 Is no excuse for his death at the hands of a political opponent in 1879. He wss wrong in IKTS, and Mr. Barksdale Is wrong in 1879, and ought to suffer for his crime; but mark my words, my fellow-citi-zens, no hair of his head will be touched for this great crime.

Sometimes I bear my Democratic friends tell me that-public sentiment to the South does not Justify murder and violence to politics. If public opmJon does not approve of such actions, wgy does It not punish the men guilty of political crimes? A public sentiment that is powerless to hold to check the lawless elements of the community is of no value. If public sentiment did not justify murder in politics in Mississippi murder would soon vanish as an element la politics. Public sentiment, when thoroughly aroused. Is resistless; It sweeps through a community or a Nation with the force and power of the storm; before its consuming fire the wrong withers and its author* perish. When ft is understood in the sections of the South of which I have spoken that murder means death, that the gibbet is the sure doom of him who slays his fellow-man; when honest men stt upon the Juries and fearless Judges are upon the Bench, then, and not till then, will the wrongs of which we complain oeasa. There have keen hundreds of murders committed to the Sooth since reconstruction tor purely politlcar reasons. Tell me, If you can, my Democratic Mends, where a single man has been hung to all the South for taking the life of a political opponent. Cease preaefataffto me that public sentiment does not Justify political viohmoe and murder, until it is punished. Boose public sentiment to the South as it ought to be roused, and law will be ”>lc daughter are onhung, as long as the assaasto of’lHxon goes unpunished; -in long wtH the North laugh iu derision when told “public sentiment * to the South is averse to the murof political opponent*. Bear with mc a nttle while I discuss the state of affairs brought about in the sections of the South I have mentioned by tbe aid of murder and violence. Let me talk to you about the black man in the SouttaT^ The assertion is broadly made by the Democratic party. North and South alike, that tho

’*** --- i tpfgri nun IWl4w-if years since rswtwtnwtkm bt»r out tats mms. merit? I think not. I here affirm that of the million Mack men upon our aoti entitled to vote not half a hundred thousand wtU, if left abeome but attttle, and I think I can show you I whether white or Mack, never from choice place over themselves aa rulers those they are eertafai will, ts clothed with power, use it fat Southern * State, in no part 'of 'anjr'sout born State, have tbe negroes in any lam numbers voted of their own free will the Democratie ticket. Where States have gone solidly Democratic in the South, it has beenettaer because the black man In* net been allowed to vote at all, or because he has been driven to the polls and compelled at the muzzles of shotguns and revolvers to vote against Ids honest oomrtettons and his, as he believed, best interests. Let us look at some of the States in the Booth where it is claimed the negro has voted the Democratic ticket. Alabama cast 76,000 Republican votes in 1308,90,000 in 1813, 88,000 in Iff* and AMO in 1878. Absolute protection to the negro In 1888 and 1878; peace and quiet at the polls; result, a full vote upon his part, and all the votes cast Republican. Partial protection to the negro in 1875, and a fair vote. 1878—Democratic control of the State, no protection to the Marie man; result, but 6A* Republican votes east. Lees than 7,000 of the 90,000 votes to which the Republicans were entitled found their way to the ballot-box. Do you believe thJa was an honest election? _ MISSISSIPPI. Right y-t wo thousand Republican votes cast in 1873; that year protection to the negro. In U 75 but 53,000 Republican votes cast; that year riot and tumult before and during the elections. In 1078, the Democracy in full control of the State, shotguns in the ascendant, free speech crushed out, political opponents murdered or driven from the State; result, 8,066 Republican votes oast; 82,000 Republican votes oast in the quiet autumn days at 1873; 8,000 Republican votes cast in 1878 (only 80,000 leu than six years before). In the first case law and order ruled; in the second law had its fall and order vanished before the fleroe sweep of men who hated the one and abhorred the other.

LOUISIANA. 1873—73,000 Republican votes cast. Peace and order, men voting without fear. 1870— 75,000 Republican votes oast. Peace and protection to the voter, save in a few localities. 1078—38,000 Republican votes cast. Democrats in full control of the State; “ bulldozing" the pastime of the party; murder for political reasons so common as to scarce excite comment. SOUTH CAROLINA. Sixty-two thousand Republican votes oast in 1806, 72,000 in 1872, 91,000 In 1870, and 46,000 in 1878. Protection to all men in 1868,1872 and 1878. Reign of the “ Rifle Club” and lawlessness in 1878. Look now for a moment at some of the Southern States, where, slnoe reconstruction, there has been, aa a rule, peaoefui elections; where, uin the North, speakereof ail political parties traversed the State freely and expressed their views from the public platform; where the press has been unmuzzled and freedom of opinion tolerated. We shall find that not only has the negro voted, but that he has without exception voted for the candidates of the Republican party. North Carolina, with but 79,000 colored voters, polled in 1876 110,000 Republican ballots. Kentucky, with 44,000 colored voters, gave us In the same year 97,000 Republican votes. Missouri, with but 24,000 black voters, gave Hayes 145,000 votes. West Virginia, having only 4,000 colored voters in 1876, oast 42,000 Republican votes. Tennessee, with her 64,000 colored voters, gave Hayes 90,000 ballots. Maryland, with 40,000 black voters, polled 72,000 Republican ballots in 1876. Arkansas, having but 27,000 negroes entitled to vote In 1876, still cast 30,000 Republican ballots. North Carolina polled 14,000, Kentucky 8,000, Tennessee 4,000, Missouri 38,000, West Virginia 10,000, Maryland 6,000, and Virginia 2,000 more Republican votes in the Presidential election of 1876 than they did In 1872. What do these facts prove? They prove, first, what I have already alleged, that the negro, left to himself, or subjected to only the usual methods of politics, votes almost to a man the Republican ticket. These facts prove another thing, as certainly as they prove the black man votes the Republican ticket, viz.: wherever there is peace and order in the South, where men are protected in the right of free speech and free ballot, Republicanism Increases with strong, vigorous, healthful growth. True, the Republican party did not enrry any of the States I have mentioned in 1876. Or this we do not complain. We had in the main a fair chance. We did our best. We failed to bring tbe people to our way of thinking. Wc could not convince them that it was best for the country to continue our party in the control of the Government. In the exercise of their unquestioned right they went peaceably to the ballot-box and voted against us. At the same time they did not prevent men from voting for us. This is all we can or do ask. These States won their victory legitimately, and were entitled to ft. Have I not established these facts: First —That the negroes are to a man Republican In politics, and that wherever peace and order reign in the South they vote that ticket. Second—That it Is only In those States and parts of Stntcs where violence rules that the black man falls to poll his full vote for the Republican party. Third—That in States where there is a fair ebance for argument and fair play at the ballot-box, the Republican party increases steadily in strength and power.

The negro 4s not, as you and I understand the term, educated, but there is one thing he does know—one subject he has studied fully and comprehends thoroughly—that is the attitude of the Democratic party toward him. He knows that this party never willingly conceded him a single right; knows Just as well as you and I do that Democracy plunged this Nation into the horrors of civil war that tliej might found an Empire whose chief corner* stone should be his bondage, whose glory should be his shame, whose pride shorn d be his humiliation, whose prosperity should spring from his adversity. From the throb of the first gun at Fort Sumter down to the hour when the last gun of the Confederacy thundered Its sullen protest against human liberty at Appomattox, the mack man watched the contest with anxious heart, never doubting if the North came out victorious he would find under its war-worn banners the liberty through which for generations his people had cried to God, never doubting if the South triumphed he must yet for generations bow his neck and wear the voke of his oppressors. When at last the North burst from the clouds of war with victory blazing on its banners, the negro, with faitn like that of the child in the mother upon whose bosom its baby head is pillowed, looked to the Republican party to see to it that the liberty that had come to him on the wings of battle was not wrested from him. My feUow-cltisens the negro knows the Democratic party even better than you and I do. He has felt the awful dutch for two hundred years upon his throat. Ask him what the Democratic party was to him before the war, and he will answer: “ Btripos and shame, humiliation and poverty; toll from daylight to darkness; whips and manacles; wives odd from their husbands, husbands from their wives; children torn from the breasts of their mothers; belplees maidens debauched to minister to the lust of their taskmasters; education denied: Christ quoted to prove bondage righteous; holy temples desecrated to forge chains upon his soul, days without sunMjfdit, nights without stare, years without hope, graves without headstones, woe, sorrow ana desolation.” Ask him what he has found Democracy to mean for him In broad sections of the South since the war, mid he answers, “ Persistent opposition to his freedom, unwearied effort to defeat Ills enfranchisement, education still denied him, courts organized to cheat him of Justice, Juries packed to convict him of offenses, bands of masked men riding over the oountry at night to terrify him on the eve of elections, brutal ruffians lying in wait to drive him from the polls as tie sough* to depotathi*. hallo*, aohoelhouses laid in ashes, churches and homes deed down like a criminal, shot like a dog. Christian burial denied, his bones left to whiten in the sunlight. Insecurity as to property, uncertainty as to life, death’s Awful shadow always across Us threshold.” No, my feliow-citizen*, the black wnan does not vote the Democratic party into place and power of his own free will. Let me give you one further illustration of the effect of murder and Intimidation in the South, and I will then pass toothsr and perhaps more Interesting topics. Mr. Chalmers at this time represents, or rather misrepresents, a District In Congress from the State of Mississippi. The district he oomes from has a little over 28.000 voters—PLOW) colored and a little over AOOOwhite voters. Mr. Chalmers was elected by a little over 8,000 votes and by little more than 8.000 majority. A district entitled to cast 26,(60 votes caws •nly 8,000, and all of these for one man. Do you believe there was a fair election iu that district, my Democratic friends? What became °L. the a0 ’ 000 voU * “<* cast at that MeoWhy were they not polled? Simply because 1875 to 1878 had taught the negroes of waiting at the Slot-box to blast with hlsfoy breath the man who dared approach to cast a Republican ballot. A Republican vote ia the hands of a black man in tne election of 1878 In Mississippi was simply a death-warrant, en--01 ***** Bt * te *° «iFT°l^ , Sv^T^FssJ r S!L. nu,)r w t **t all lam talking about does not oonoem you. It is occurring in remote States. You are misSmji u&ss'szjz uSioSrx a*iT>g Mates, Pfovided only their seats by virtue of fair, impartial eleo. tlons. But Ido abject to any man f®* 4 * n CougSessTefoShed win power to iegisj*te m c, whoee certificate of is written in the blood of innocent men—men whoee only crime urns that they dared to assert their manhood. But for the fact that Repub{•c*?* vote in many sections ofthe South in 1878 the Democratic party would not

bain power toAay tn either Hotase of Gnorreas. The Democratic party Is In powwtoday only because vkrieooe, murder and fraud have destroyed liberty of opinion, and made a fair ejection tzapoazttdeta a broad section of North the black and white RrouMtoufvoter in the South is looking fior letter and protection. The North ran* settle this question. Toucanwrong, jiisuur aunwnaß m irumpci wnw ax you that you gird up your kotos and meet the iasuc made by the Democratic party. You cannot compromise with a wrong. Justice will never ckieed in slumber; Its forehead knows not the shadow of weartnew; at its oonunand are weapons fashioned and tempered in the armories of the Sternal. The right may go down; woe, sorrow, devastation may spread all over the land; but at last. Justice, with flaming sword, will mareh over att its enemies; . the majesty of God’s great taws Will be vindioated; the right will triumph, and the wrong will perish. Of all the Nations of the earth, we ought to be the last to seek to oomprotnJae with wrong. We tried for nearly a hundred years to compromise with the crime of human slavery upon this continent. In our hearts we knew its infamy. Our consciences refused to bow to the „ accursed wrong, yet in spite of heart and conscience we sought to uphold and sustain, strengthen and protect it. At the demands of its advocates we struck the brightest jewel from the Declaration of Independence; we allowed the importation of slaves till 1808; we passed the Missouri Com promise; we enacted the Fugitive Slave law; we placed the Courts, the Bar. the presa. the pulpit and the social life of tnisgreatNstion at the feet of the slave power; we outraged truth; we scornedjustice: we exulted in our infamy; we defied God, and set at naught the reason and instinct with which He haa crowned us. The cry of God’s poor fell unheeded upon our earn, until at last all over this land the cloud of God’s displeasure gathered, and out from its awful boaom the bolted lightning of His wrath fell, crushing and destroying. Near half a million graves, lifting themselves to the quiet sides today, bear silent but mighty witness to us of the awful punishment a just God sends upon those who forget the right in blind devotion to the wrong. Bee to it, men of Ohio, that this great question of right and justice is not set aside upon any plea of expediency. Do the right thing, and do it now. Say by your votes in October next that there must be free speech and an untrammeled ballot all over this land. It is the duty of the North to see to it that all tbe citizens of this great country enjoy equal rights. If the laws of Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi, G6orgia and Florida are powerless to secure a free ballot for their citizens, and powerless to punish the men who murder their political opponents, we will invoke the majesty of this groat Nation; we will bid it tear from the limpand nerveless band of these States the criminals who defy their power and deride their laws, and with an iron hand mete out to them the punishment their crime deserves. If the flag of the Stntes is powerless to protect their humblest citizen, then to that flag within whose swelling folds the banners of ail the states are gathered we will look for help: If the sovereign State cannot do justice to its citizens, then we will appeal to the sovereign of sovereigns upon this continent, the Nation. My fellow-citizens, I bold no enmity toward the people of the South. I only demand of them that the same freedom of opinion shall be found there that prevails here. I pray that the time may come, and that quickly, when the passions and prejudices developed by our Civil War shall be heard of no more forever, when all who live beneath our flag shall point proudly to it as the symbol of the grandest and tbe freest Nation the sun shines down upon.

While I hope for all this, and trust to see It some before those of us gathered here to-day shall have passed away, I would not, to bring it about, bury In oblivion the memory of the men whose valor saved the Nation in its time of peril, and whose wisdom embodied in our organic law the results of their triumph. I sometimes think we do not value enmirii the great sendee the soldiers of the Republic, living and dead, rendered humanity. Some people, mistaking sentimentalism for patriotism,' an* seeking to reunite the oountry by a halfsurrender <jf the very ideas for whose supremacy this Nation toiled and sweat in the moody agony of battle. lam one of those who believe the Nation was right when it took up arms to presen*e its existence. I believe the men who sought to destroy the Union, circumscribe freedom, and extend the area of human bondage, were wrong. I pray for peace, unity and concord between the lately warring sections of my country. but I hold it can come only when from one end of this continent to tne other the principles for which near half a million men laid down their lives are recognized in their broadest sense, made the basis of all Our laws, and enforced with even and unvarying hand. We are sometimes told that now the war is over we should seek to forget it. This is simply Impossible. We are told that we who saved the Nation are not the only mourners in the land; that grief as profound and sorrow as deep as shadows our households cast their gloom over the dwellings of the South; that as we mourn for our dean, so, too, they mourn for theire. God knows I would not Invade the sanctity of grief. That those who lost sons and fathers seeking to destroy this Government should weep for the dead is but natural; that they should cherish their memories kindly, place headstones to mark their resting places, and beautify their graves with flowers, is human. No one in this land objects to such tributes from the living to the dead. Such manifestations of private sorrow do honor to those from whom they oome. While I would raise no hand to check all and any expressions of grief that seeks only private channels for its expression, It does seem to me that it is an insult to this Nation, a shameful reflection upon its soldiers, living and dead, that all over the Southern section of the oountry the virtues and the heroism of the armies that sought to destroy the Government are the theme of every tongue, and that oostly monuments are raised In public places and dedicated with imposing ceremonies to the dead soldiers of rebellion While, as I have said, I would not seek to check any private manifestations of grief the people of the South choose to indulge in, I still say that It does seem wrong that public shafts rise skyward from the soil of this Continent to oommemorate the deeds and hand down the names of men who fell battling to destroy my oountry. I know the men who fell in battle before the armies of the Republic displayed splendid valor and heroic courage, but I know, too, they were all exerted in the wrong direction. I have not yet reached that state of mind where valor and oourage, however constant the one or heroic the other, can blind me to the fact that treason inspired both. Ido not wish In my dty to see the men who died trying to destroy the Republic exalted above those whose life was given in an effort to save It. I do not wish to see devotion to a lost cause, North or Bputh, given as a reason why men should be placed in high position, made the rulers of the land and entrusted with the shaping of its Ed destiny. In a word, lam of the opinBherished by men of all parties who love oountry, that the Republic is more Ukely *° be zealously watched and guarded, advanced aoa glorified, by the men whose love and volor saved It than it is by the men whose strength was wasted in the vain effort for its destruction. I believe the right that has triumphed should not go down before the wrong that was slain. I desire the work of freedom begun by the fathers, illustrated and established by their descendants, to stand forever as a memorial of the wisdom that founded the country, and the valor that saved it when Rebellion leveled its lance to destroy it.