Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-09-03
HOW RADICALS ENFoRcE THEIR
4 10 rnvuE AruS. ~


cut where it was not intended. While |
inc bill was pending before Congress, It
was charged that it was gotten up special
y for the benefit of the negroes, but that
its authors did nothave the moral courage
to so word it as to apply only to negroes.
The Radicals could not afford to go be-
fore the country upon an issue of this
character, that they were legislating to
protect negroes only in the right to vote,
and so the bill was apparently made to in
clude white citizens, and in this shape it
became law An opportunity has oc-
CURED to test the matter, and Attorney
General Alderman says white men have no
right and no redress under the law. 1t ap-
pears that number of white persons in
West Virginia, claiming to be qualified to
vote, had applied to the registrars of their
respective counties to be registered, SO they
could vote at the coming election. But as
they are Democrats, the registrars refused
to register them, just as the registrars
used to do in Tennessee. The third sec
ton of the "act to enforce the right OF
citizens of the United States to vote in
the several States of this Union, and for
other purposes" provides that if any
State officer shall interpose any OBJ
struction to registration or the
performance of any other prerequisite
for voting, the person aggrieved may
prosecute such officer, and if convicted
he 'sshall for every such offense forfeit
five hundred dollars to the person ag-
grieved thereby, to be recovered by an
action on the case, with full costs and
such allowance for counsel fees as the
court shall deem just, and shall also for
every such offense be guilty of a mis-
demeanor, and shall, on conviction there
of, be fined not less than five hundred
dollars, or be imprisoned not less than one
month and not more than one year, or
both, at the discretion of the court. ="
Here were cases for which provision had
not been made. The Radical District
Attorney for West Virginia seemed to
understand that this law was intended to
protect only negroes in the right of voting,
and so he telegraphed to Attorney General
Alderman for instructions, and that Off
cisl telegrsphed to his subordinate that it
is not necessary to pay attention to such
prosecutions. He says:
'Dismiss all prosecutions under third
section of the act to enforce the right
of citizens of the United States to vote
in the several States of this Union, where
the offense is not the distinction forbid
den in the second" ..-
The meaning of this answer is, that
only in cases where negroes are refused
to register OF vote need prosecutions be
pressed to conviction. Wherever negro
is, he must be allowed to vote, but as for
white men who vote the Democratic
ticket, they may be deprived of this right
with IMMUNITY. 1t was through the
operations of this Ubiquitous law that
the Radicals hoped to retain control
of the Southern States. We see this
in the way the law is enforced
in West Virginia. There every negro
and white Radical can be registered upon
application to a registrar, but white men
who are suspected of an intention to vote
the Democratic ticket are refused regis
ration upon the merest bubble, and
when they appeal to the law which the
Radicals made for redress, the District
Attorney is instructed to dismiss such
prosecutions. The Radicals in Congress
intended this law to protect only negroes,
AMI Mr.. Akermsn, acting in the spirit of
that intention, protects the Radical regis
trars in West Virginia against its penal
ties, incurred by refusing to register
white men entitled to vote. The word
ing of the law is plain; but the Radicals
did not intend that it should be construed
in that way. 1t was for the benefit of
only one class. Every negro must be
registered and must vote; there must be
no obstacle thrown ia his way the law
is very stringent as touching these RIG hits
for him; but white men may be refused
registration or to vote, and they are de-
MED the redress that is accorded to ne
groes. ..... . -r
To show further the iniquity of this
law, it is simply necessary to state that,
by the twenty first section, it is provided
''that where, by the laws of any State or
Territory, the name of any candidate or
person to be voted for as representative
or delegate in Congress shall be required
to be printed, written, or contained in
any ticket or ballot with other candidates
or persons to be voted for at the same
election for State, territorial, municipal,
or local officers, it shall be sufficient
prima facie evidence, either for the pur-
pose of indicting or convicting any per-
son charged with voting, or attempting or
offering to vote, unlawfully under the
provisions of the preceding sections, or
for committing either of the offenses
thereby created, to prove that the person
so charged or indicted, voted, or attempted
or offered to vote, such ballot or ticket, or
committed either of the offenses named
in the preceding sections with reference to
such ballot" In any prosecutions under
the act the accused must prove that he
did not vote for the congressional candi-
date, instead of the prosecution proving
that he did. In other words, that most
fundamental and time honored maxim
of Anglo-Saxon law, that man is to be
presumed innocent until proven guilty, is
entirely overthrown by this act of a
Radical Congress and Radical Presi-
dent, and the new and Ubiquitous rule set
up that all Radical has to do is to accuse