Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1870-12-15

Thursday, December IS, 1870.
a PROCLAMATION FROM Mr.. BAYARp, JR

A PROCLAMATION FROM Mr.. BAYARD, JR.
Our rather stilted and somewhat erratic young
Senator in Congress-, Mr.. Bayard, Junior, has
published sort of proclamation to the people
Of the State, accompanying letter which he
saws he wrote to President Grant, on the 18th of
October. To the letter the President has
strangely made no reply and the Senator,
desiring some audience, prints it.
: Among other things, Mr.. Bayard told the
President, on the 18th of October, that he had
that day been info med by U. s. Marshal Dunn
that II was his (the Marshals) intention to have
United States troops stationed at the polls in
this State, on the day of the election. Also,
wrote the Senator, " there is not and never has
"been the slightest pretext to anticipate any
interference with the perfect freedom, order
"and legality Of our elections" Further, he
added that I" nowhere in the Union has (sic)
- Justice, propriety, and decorum been more
thoroughly preserved and maintained than by
"the Democratic party in the State of Delaware"
These be brave words. But are they true
ouesp A Senator Of the United States writing
To the President Of the United States, and bla-
zoning to the public the performance, must be
bsld to the seyerest line Of accuracy. When,
therefore, Mr.. Bayard says there was not, in
October, the slightest pretert to anticipate inter-
ference with the November elections, he WAS
misleading the President, and mis-stating the
true condition Of affairs. We only state what is
known and acknowledged fact, in saying, con-
trary to the Haunted assurance of MIR. Bayard,
that in many of the hundreds of this State, and
especially in st. Georges, Appoquinimink, Mis-
pillion. Broad Creek, and Georgetown, the col
ored voters were in fear Of violence against
them. at the polls, and were reasonably and
Justly in fear. The malignancy of the feeling
against them had been expressed in ways that
were plain and unmistakable, and which were
Init the natural results of the appeals of Demo-
cratic speakers and writer's. The colored voters
felt that at many polling places in Delaware,
they could vote, only at the risk of their lives
and limbs, and they very properly looked for
protection, not to the State laws which had
been framed for their injury, but to the broa1pr
system which had restored to them the liberties
Of men, and the franchises of Americans. When
Mr.. Bayard thus wrote to the President, the
Little Election had already passed, and at
more than one poll, they had been angrily and
unlawfully crowded, abused, and
intimidated, by ruffans whose purpose
aud desire was to prevent entirely the
casting of their vote. This was true of the Oc-
tober election in st. Georges Hundred, and SEN
ator Bayard had had ample time, when he wrote
his letter, to learn the fact.
But though these apprehensions were en-
tertained, no soldiers mere brought into The Slate
Suppose MIR. Bayard was right in declaring there
was no pretext for doing so, why should he
parade his letter on the subject, when not a
soldier was asked for or obtained He says
none we're needed. Very we'll none were had.
What, then, has he to complain off, The COM
plaint should come from the colored voters who
sought to exercise the right which the Constitu-
ton has guaranteed them, and who, at Laurel,
Odessa, and Smyrna, were abused, and beaten.
At Odessa, they were still further misused. A
crowd of twenty or more ruflians assaulted
them, with clubs and bludgeons, and drove them
from thepolls. Many went away without voting,
at all, and by this act of outrage st. Georges
Hundred, which Oh a fair free vote would give
two hundred Republican majority, was made to
30 Democratic, and deliver the county into the
hands of that party.
And yet, after these events, Mr.. Bayard prints
the letter in which he aveTed that there was not
the slightest pretext" to anticipate their occur
renee
BY tile 10th Section of the Act to enforce tile
18th Amendment, authority is given the Marshal
of the United States and his deputies, to sum-
mon not only the bystanders, and posse comitdtus
but such portion of the land or naval forces OF
the United States, as may be necessary to aid il
protecting the legal right of citizens to vote
Would not the Marshal have been justified IN
exercising that authority? Did not the occur.
reuces at the election show that such precau
tion would have been only reasonable! The fact
is that the United States officers, after CAREFUL,
considering the whole subject, decided not to ash
for troops. They may have erred in their judg-
ment, but they desired to avoid even the shadow
of an appearance Of menace, and rather t.
run the risk of having an impaired election-at
we had--than to be subject to the charge o
having brought soldiers to guard it. unneces
sarily.
Senator Bayard has apparently intended to al
his greatness before its admirers, and he ha
made only an exhibition OF immature discretion
There was nothing to recommend his lette
when it was written, but to publish it now, whel
its most positive predictions are shown to be un
fulfilled, when the action of others removed al
necessity for its ostensible purpose, ana whe
the President has sentlypigeon-holed its folly,i
to be gentle-an act of absurdity.