Des Arc weekly citizen., 1868-09-15
From the Albany (N. Y.) Argus.l The March of Desp0tism--A
 Damnlmg Record.

The March of Desp0tIsm--A
 Damning Record.
 Congress voted to make it penal offence, punishable with fine and i'm prisonment for any person to vote in Virginia, Texas and Mississippi at the Presidential election.
 Congress also proposed to arm the Southern negroes, and thus precipitate war of races, and create some excuse for the further military occupation of the South.
 They fear defeat, They see the peo-s pie marshalling in force against them. Every movement made now that looks like the employment of force, is an ac- knowledgment that they dare not sub init their cause to tho free and fair dis cussion of the ballot box.
 And thus we sec the progress made in the onward march of despotism:
 No election in Virginia.
 No election in Mississippi.
 No election in Florida.
 In Georgia, the popular vote not being publicly declared to be for Sey- mour and Blair, the Radical caucus re- solves to ssbag" the electoral vote through the Legislature.
 In North Carolina and Tennessee. army bills have passed, to give the gress-manufactured Governors the entire control of the elections.
 But the people mean to vote-in all of the States above enumerated. N
 And there must be no attempt at military elections.
 The National Intclligencer, which never indulges in vapid menaces, speaks out the deep feeling and purpose which is in every honest mans heart when it says:
 ssCounting upon the forbearance of q people who have submitted to be taxed without reason or justice, and to be plundered besides, they now expect that this attempt to seizepower by the strong hand, and to trample under foot the great right which underlies our Republican system, may pass without resistance. They deceived by that in- fatuation which ever betrays crime, even when it feels most secure. Let them be warned that this usurpation, this daring design to force President upon the nation by packed negro Leg islatures, against the will of the people constitutionally expressed, will never be borne in abiect submission. The result concerns millions of taxpayers and freemen at the North, who have had to bear the brunt and burden of Radiealism during and since the war. They demand q change, as the last hope of redeeming the country from mis- rule, and of averting threatened ii nancial and commercial explosion. They intend to have that change to pnrify Congress, to revive the old na- tional spirit. to see that the government is administered honestly, and to restore peace to and prosperity to the Union. More than this, they intend to inaugu- rate the choice of the people, fairly and regularly elected. If sham electors chosen by negro caucusses and carpet bag knaves, representing nobody but venal partizans, seek to obtrude them selves, and prevent a peaceful and legal eonsummation of the popular will, then let the responsibility rest upon the heads of those who may thus ven ture to invoke violence as tho last re- source of disappointed ambition"
 Even the New York Herald takes alarm at the probable exclusion of Vir- ginia, Texas and Mississippi. It says:
 "The President in his veto message to the Electoral College bill referred to, holds that all the States, though some may not be represented in Con- gress, have the Constitutional right to vote for President and Vice-President, and, of course, this includes virginis, Mississippi and Texas. The Demo- cratic party will probably insist upon this right. We can imagine, then, what terrible conflict may occur should the votes or the exclusion of the votes of those three States decide the election one way or tho other. This is not fancied danger, nor an improbable one. There is a fearful prospect of it. The only way to avert it is for the people of the Northern States to cast such an overwhelming vote for one or the other of the tickets, that the election may not be left to a few of the Southern States, or to the contingent action of Congress in any case"