The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-10-22
The Democratic Mouse.

didate, Col. Hambleton, at the county
town, and Saturday night last revealed the
fruits of their effort. Such dismal failure
it has seldom been their lot to mourn. A
band of music had been employed, and a
procession of torch-bearers, with banners
and transparences was on their pro-
gramme. The music arrived early in the
evening and paraded the streets in true
circus style; and the boys followed in
troupes, and the children showed their
bright faces at the windows rs the show
passed After night fall the torches were
lighted and the procession formed, and
started on its serpentine march through
the streets. There were perhaps fifty in
line, all told the boys, of course, having a
majority of the torches. In order to give
the procession length, it moved in what is
called the snake march, the torch-bearers
being about ten feet apart, and sometimes
as many yards. But the boys did the best
they could. CANCELS could do no more"
The porch of the Howard House served
for the speakers stand, which was fixed
up for the occasion. About o'clock the
horns blew, the drums beat, the torches
came into squad with a bunch of about
200 in the street, in front of the Howard
House, and Col. Hambleton was introduced.
The Colonel is a gray-headed man, of full
size, and rather pleasant, prepossessing
appearance. He opened his speech with a
twenty-minutes apology for having to apol-
ogize; the rigorous campaign he had been
making had completely worn out his voice,
battered, demoralized and used him up
generally. Heavy taxation, reckless ex-
travagance, enormous expenditures, OPP
preston, tariff and tyrannical use of the
army to effect the purposes of the base
Republican party, formed the chief topics
of the ColonePs speech, which was about
as long, thin and snaky, as the torch-light
procession. Fabulous sums had been stolen
by collectors the little crowd of listen
ers were not informed that the stealing was
done by Andy Johnson's collectors. The
carpet-baggers and scallawags Of the
Southern States got "Jesse." The old
Democrat argument which we had heard
twenty years ago, and which the facts of
experience have long since exploded, was
produced by boths peakers, and spun out
to a labored length. Every source of reve-
nue. necessary to raise money to pay the
public debt, was condemned, and we
naturally concluded that the policy to be
adopted, as most preferable to the orators,
is reputation. The arguments of both
Mr.. Hambleton and Mr.. Groome clearly
led to this result. The Pacific Railroad was
condemned as the great land robbery of
the Republican party. Public lands
enough to form several States had been
given to the Pacific Railroad Company,
which had risen to ten OF twelve dollars an
acre after the road was built. The Colonel
did not say-though he was aware that an
idiot would know-that the lands through
which the Pacific Railroad passes would
never have been worth one cent an acre to
the Government without the road.
The Constitutional Amendments next
received attention, and were condemned as
fearful encroachments upon the rights of
the people, After more than an hour of
this prosy talk-which was received in
dead silence by the little audience-the
speaker came to the colored question:
This was hard question to handle, and
required vast amount of luffing and fill
ing He rang the charge upon the word
caucasian" and declared the negro ut
terly unfit for the ballot, but told them if
any of them wished to vote the Democrat
ticket they would be perfectly safe in doing
so, that the law would protect them; and
the secret oaths that were administered to
them in their desecrated churches and
club rooms, were utterly valueless and not
binding at all. The Colonel was evidently
anxious and uneasy on this point. He had
5000 majority at his last election, but
nearly II 900 new voters had been added
to his District, and his friends thought it
necessary he should come up here to Cecil
Such a movement was not necessary here
tofore. Altogether, the Colonel seemed to
think the matter of his election looked
rlther bilious, in view of the 1000 col
oced voters, and lie urged the "Cauca-
slams" to band together and vote them
down. He reminded the colored men that
they were being banded together by SCALA
wags to vote against their Democratic en-
ployers-their best friends-all of which
seemed to amuse the darkies very much,
for squad of them who were listening to
the Colonel's speech, showed their ivory
and winkcd at one another knowingly
when the speakers remarks were directed
to them. The speech finally closed with a
fearful and agonizing appeal to the &c eau
casians to prevent Negro Social Equal
ity" by voting for him.
Mr. J. 3. Groome next came forward
He too was about used up in the campaign
against Torbert, but would try to speak;
and he opened with the old exploded Dem
ocratc argument against the tariff. 1t
being after ten o'clock, we did not stay to
hear him through, but understand that
The Wig afforded material for a large
share of the speech, and much the better
portion, as we are informed, which is not
surprising, for having good live subject
the speaker would naturally rise in power
and dignity. The speaker went back to
1867 and quoted the following, which ar-
peared in The Witty at that time;
"The fact is patent to every rejecting
mind, that the colored men are better citi-
zens, and are competent to vote more in
telligently than the great mass of low for
eigners, who land on our shores and fill up
the ranks of the Copperhead party
The foreigners in Cecil county, as far as
we know, being all gentlemen and among
our best and most industrious citizens, we
can't imagine why the above quotation
was produced. If such fellows as broke in
the Supreme Court room door at Philadcl-
phia, last week, and attacked the return
judges; or as hung the negro boys to lamp
posts, and burned colored asylums, in New
York, few years ago, resided in Cecil,
and didn't belong to the Democratic party,
we could understand the object of the
above quotation. But as the case stands,
it only compliments the colored men with