The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-07-03

~NO" 4OIh SOHNeuUiOu are ueterm tneQ TO IN
sert in the platform declaration that there
must be Stair election" or the Radical can
didate "will not be allowed to assume the du-
ties of the Presidential office" They propose
to notify "all whom it may concern" before
hand, so as to shield themselves from blame in
case anybody gets hurt If there is ''fair
election they anticipate that the Democrats
viii carry every Southern State. "Texas prom
lses twenty thousand majority for the Demo-
cratic nominee, and more if Gen. Hancock is
nominated"
1t becomes very important to the persons
upon whom this formal notice is to be served
to know the meaning which attaches to The
words "a fair election" IN the Democratic vo-
cabulary. If there is no party technioality in
the phrase and it is to be construed according
to the ordinary methods it is a matter for pro-
found joy and thanksgiving to Heaven, that
the men who for SO long perio1 have stuffed
ballot boxes colonized voters, and made cleo
tors out of freshly arrived emigrants, at length
propose to adopt more creditabe methods of
procedure. But in Africa the word God"
means a smoothly turned stick with whistle
at one end, attached to a string; and from this
circumstance we see what latitude of meaning
is sometimes acquired by the most common
words. 1t is always proper to interpret doubt
tul words and phrases in the light OF contem-
porary history and the presumed meaning at
tached to them by the persons who make use
OF them, for which canon the elementary
law writers, pdssina. Actuated by a sincere de-
sire to know just what the solemn warning of
the Democratic Convention means, since they
denounce by plain implication the penalty of
civil war for non-observance, we have looked
little into the history of the delegates and of
their constituencies.
Registration laws have been held by many
respectable authorities to be very efficient
means OF securing the purity of the ballot-box.
In our researches we do not find that the
Democratic party has at anytime or anywhere
favored the enactment OF such laws. On the
contrary itappears that it always resists with
the warmest zeal anything OF the kind; so that
"a fair election" from the Democratic stand
point, plainly has no reference to keeping ille-
gal votes out OF the ballot-box
The forging of naturalization papers being a
branch of Democratic industry that has great
prominence and is in constant operation, it
|
anything to do with keeping foreigners from
the polls.
But specific instances of Democratic mali
agement will be of more wei hit in determin-
ing the question than any mere general.za-
tion How is it in New England? For the
>ake of perfect fairness we will take the ex-
ample of two State elections the very last
spring. In Connecticut, as appears from re-
cent investigations, large number of fraud
ult mt votes were thrown in all the large cities
In New London alone over one hundred such
votes were thrown in favor of Governor Eng
lish. Passing to New Hampshire, we find
that the majority of Governor Hartman was
reduced nearly one half by fraudulent votes.
For this statement we have the authority of
the Concord Monitor, supported by irrefraga-
bic proof. In New England, then, "a fair cleo
ton" means polling bogus votes by the whole
sale for Democratic candidates.
Perhaps the rule is different in other States.
In Pennsylvania at the last election the Dem
ocratic State Senator from the twenty first
district was elected by colonizing the EN-.
ployees of a railroad in Center and several
other countries. Naturalization papers were
~o~oSN " AunNA0No' AhO PlOpHOnOtdTy seal
was stolen and his signature forged for the
proper authorization of the papers whilo the
appearance of age was given to those docu-
ments by stepping them IN a coffee pot GA fair
election" in the keystone State, we conclude
means robbery, forgery and illegal voting.
But it is in the Southern States that the ef-
feet of the new method is expected to be most
suspicious for the Democracy. The elections
have so recently occurred there that we are
fortunately able to decide exactly how the
phrase, "a fair election" is understood by the
Rebels who take the cognate name of "Demo-
Gratis" in that region. In each of these
States the negroes were threatened with loss
of employment if they voted the Radical ticket.
After the election was over they did lose their
places as the penalty of voting as they wished
This was only one of a thousand appliance,
used both before and after elections to intim-
idate and control the freedmen. Their su-
perstitions were played upon. They were
frightened by Kuklux Klans and threatened
with legal prosecutions and even personal
violence. Nothing but the power of the Uni
ted States government enabled the legal vot-
ers to control the elections
Taking the whole country together we pre-.
sent as brief summary OF the elements that
enter into the Democratic idea o" "a fair cleo
ton," fraudulent voting, forgery, theft, and
the restraining of legal voters from the exet-
else of their rights. Let the coffee pot be adopt
ed as the outward and visible emblem of this
striking concentration of Conservative IDEAS
Are we mistaken in all this, and have we
msrepresented the views of the delegates and
their associates? Let us see The election of
Abraham Lincoln in 1860, as no one denies
was legal one, but not at all ga fair one" ac-
cording to the opinions of the leading Demo
Gratis throughout the country. That they did
not so regard it is proved by the circumstance
that they Immediately repudiated it, and tried
to break up the Union. The following named
delegates to the New York Convention espec-
tally had no idea of submitting to a choice of
President that was only "fair" in the ordinary
acceptation of.the term: N. B. Forrest, the
Fort Pillow butcher, B. HI. Hill, John B. Cor
don, Thomas L. Price, 2. B. Vance, Wade
Hampton, all Rebel generals, j. G. Barrett,
Rebel spy, and Robert Ould, the Confederate
agent for the exchange of prisoners