Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-11-04

A~1 IN iOtoNiou W tuo oO-Soiicd tiON~
ton, just closed in Virginia, the Illinois
State Register has the following forcible
comments and prediction, which we
believe but the indication Of asirongly
existing and growing public sentiment
in that quarter. Such scenes have set
all patriots and honest men 10 thinking
Of their inevitable results:
The result of the recent election in
Virginia is claimed as Radical triumph.
At last accounts, the negroes hadn't all
voted but the polls we're being kept open
to enable them all to get in. Never
before in the history of this country were
the polls kept open after the hour fixed
by law for closing the election. White
men never claimed or got the privi-
lege of voting after the polls we're
legally closed and the election
was over. But in this case, the
polls are ordered 10 be reopened for
three days, by military necessity" TO
enable the negroes TO vote The Vir-
ginia election has been called farce
by some OF our Democratic cotempora-
ries. Farce is no name for it. IL is a
most internal, damnable outrage. Z 1t is
not an election farce 1t is simply no
election at all. General Schofeld might
as well have elected his men himself in
advance, as to issue military order that
the polls should be kept open until ne
groes enough could vote to elect the men
that he had determined in advance must
and should be elected. Does the
reconstruction law authorize this
proceeding? or is the law disre.
garded for the purpose of showing
the Democrats how the Radicals propose
to elect the next President. No matter.
Mark what we tell youl On the Tues
day after the first Monday of November,
1868, the Democratic candidate for
President will receive an overwhelming
majority of the votes of the white men of
the United States, and he tciH be the
neat President The polls will not then
be re opened for three days, or ten days,
or thirty days, TO let the niggers vote.
The white people of this country will
elect the President, and the white people
will see that he takes his seat on the fol-
lowing 4th of March, Radicals and mig
gers to the contrary notwithstanding.
The Cleveland (0hio) Herald, Radi.
cal paper, thus comments on the same
subject, evidently mortified, sickened
and dsgusted
If the telegraph accounts of the elec-
ton in Richmond are correct, and no
satisfactory explanation is given why
the polls were, in some instances, kept
open beyond the prescribed time, the
Radical victory is one of which the Re-
publican party has little reason to be
proud. 1t were better for the Conven-
ton movement to be defeated, and the
State kept under military rule for an
other twelve months, than that it should
be carried by means savoring of artifice
or force.
The election to the Convention of such
extremists as Hunnicutt and his con-
freres of itself bodies no good, for they
will be apt to put forward measures so
violent and proscriptive as to be often
sive to the great mass Of the Republi-
cans themselves. The infammatory ha.
rangues of Hunnicutt to the negroes du-
ring the past few months, and his
reported violence in the election, seri-
ously damaged the Republican cause in
Virginia, and stamped him demagogue
of the worst and most dangerous stripe,
The disorderly conduct Of the negroes at
the polls was a natural result of such
appeals, and went far to justify the solid
opposition of the whites to measure that
looked to subjecting the State to negro
rule.
There may be another side to the
story, which is not yet told, but on the
present showing it would be better-if
the Virginia Convention has been carried
by bare majority, obtained by such
practices as are alleged in Rchmosd-
that the Convention be declared defeated,
or the entire election proceedings, in
Richmond, at least, be set aside as ille-
gal. Congress, which sends commit
tees to investigate the election proceed
ings in Kentucky, and to ascertain
whether Maryland has fairly devised
Constitution, can scarcely accept
Constitution for Virginia about the
origin of which clings even a taint Of
dishonesty or q suspicion of violence.