Speech #470057368

It is within the bounds of my own personal knowledge that there are business men in Mississippi. native and to the manner bern. who vote regularly with the Bourbon party while secretly despising it. and who are led to do so only because the proscriptive and intolerant spirit of that "ruleorruin"1 party will not recognize the right of opposition. and because also that party teaches its adherents to obstruct in every possible way business transactions with a Republican. One of the oldest and most respectable of that class. socially and financially. hasonly very recently whispered in my own ear. as if afraid it might be heard outside. that the political practices of that bulldozing party in Mississippi were simply beyond the pale of all Christian and honorable precedent. and it can be easily and philosophically accounted for. It is a matter of public record th at the editorinchief of a leading Bourbon newspaper in the great southwestern Mississippi Valley. an organ of that party in Mississippi. has editorially urged that "smallpox should be written over the doors" of business men and mer chants. and has actually succeeded. by this diabolical policy. in literally breaking up and driving out of the reach of his pernicious influence reputable and respectable gentlemen. for no other reason than that they were earnest and conscientious Republicans. and yet in the same paper this editor has emptied gallons of ink in turgid appeals for new immigrants to come into his section only to receive upon their arrival the same treatment in case they happened to bring with them their opinions and their manhood. If. therefore. the oldest and most conspicuous editor of this proscriptive party in that section has found profit in publishing such views. is it any wonder if the smaller provincial papers. taking their cue from this demoniac leader. shall fiflminate from day to day their seditious imitations Listen to the utterances of various Mississippi newspapers in the interest of the Bourbons The Lexington Advertiser said: Rub up your red shirts. patch up your artillery. and got up a full supply of onthusiasm" for the campaign this fall. There will be no Fedoral count at the end of this election.