Middletown transcript., 1871-07-08


are totally illiternte. and have not the
slightest desire for education, or for any
thing but corn-brcad. beacon, and whisky.
They bate the negroes with a mortal ha-
tired. looking upon them as rivals. They
are lazy. vicious, quarrelsome. revenge
ful. and capable Of brutal cruelty. The
educated white men form third class,
comparatively small in numbers. but own
ing all the property in the State. To
them the present supremacy Of the negro is
a thing unnatural aud altogether abomina-
BILE. AT first they looked upon rcconstruc-
ton us farce. and believed that Demo-
cratic triumph in 1868 would sweep it all
away Now il is horrible reality.
From the state Of nmnzeincnt with which
they first saw the negroes (whom they al
ways regarded as cat,lc) making laws.
lcvying taxes, holding office, and as jury
mch, they passed into u condition OF Bit
tcrncss and rage, Of which violence and
murder were the natural consequences.
1t would be hard to imagine state Of
society more entirely untitled FOR n RcpYb-
lican form of government than this. The
intelligent people of the State have no
voice in public affairs, and no influence in
the Government. aud are obliged to sub
nit to the rule Of class just released from
! slavery. aud incompetent, without guid-
ancc, to exercise the simplest duties of
| citizenship. This condition Of affairs is go
unwhulcsome and unnatural. aud 80 fruit
iul Of evil that it is clear that il canno, last
! In lSGs the leading white men held aloui
| from conventions and elections. aud the
new Government commenced with little
opposition but In 1870, At the next State
election. they made IN effort to concila,c
the negroes, and attempted to create Re-
form party which should disregard dis.
tinrtions of race. They adopted a plat
form which fully recognized all the rights
the negroes had gained, and professcd no
! desire ever to interfere with them; and
they succeeded in inducing a few negroes
to accept nominations on their tickets
The movement failed The negroes dis.
trusted the sincerity of the white men
aud feared to trust them with power
They went to the Reform meeting. lis
tened atteuiivcly to the pcrsuasilns of
their former masters, aud thea voted in n
body for the "l,adical'' candidates The
white men were greatly cnrngcd at the re-
suits To make matters worse they be-
lievcd that IN all the upper counties where
the races are nearly evenly balanced, gross
frauis had btcu committed in counting
the votes. Cn1jult;ely they had much
reason f,r this belief In the prcyiou.
Winter, the Legislature had passed o new
election law, which, without eAaggerati IN,
is most outrageous No more ingeniou.
measure could be conrivcd 10 facilitate
fraud in the intcrcs, of the dominant par.
IS; ana this was probably the purpose Of
Of its Trainers Under il. provisions the
Governor appoints three Commissioners OF
| Elections in each county. who in turn ap-
point three managers for every poll all
OF these are, Of course. of on. party. Di-
rccily after the polls are closed there is no
counting of the vote. but one of the man
ayers takes the ballot-box aud poll list to
| his house. irhcTc he Is permitted 10 Iccp
them for three d,ys. with nothing whatcv.
cr to hinder him from putting as many
ballots in the box aud fictitious names on
the poll book as he plcascs. BY the end
Of the three days the managers take the
boxes to the Commissioners at the county
seat. The Commissioners may, in iurn.
keep them five days The boxes are then
opened IN p,'icatr, with no one present
but the Commissioners aud their clerk
| The votes are counted aud return made
to the Board of State CanSas>trs. II the
ballot-bnxes have not been sufficiently stuff
| ii. 81.
have every facility given them 10 take n
turn at the business 1t is no wonder that
the Rcformcrs believed they had been
cheated through the workings Of the un.
just law.
Another source of irritation was the or.
gnnzation of negro militia companies all
over the State. aud the refusal OF the Gov
ernors to permit the whites to organize in
similar way. These companies were
powerful MS elec,ionecring agencies. but
entirely weak aud inefficient us military
/ bodies They cxaspcrntea the whites by
marching to the polls. stacking arms and
voting. and then parading the streets with
their guns. Tho rming Of the negroes
as might have been predicted proved to
/
aud murders in the upper counties must
in great part, be attributed 10 this cause
The poor negroes suffered terribly. They
were whipped. tortured and murdered by
scose.. II Estimated that 100 have been
killed sice the election.
After their defeat at the Fall election,
the white men abandoned all attempts at
nersuasiou and declared that MS their ,f
fcrs of Cancellation had been spurned, they
would resar, to fosse. The ku-Kux so.
ciciies became active in all the districts
where the negroes were not largely in the
majority. Their greatest unimosi,y is
now directed against the few white men
who accepted Office from the Republicans.
1t seems to be their settled purpose to
murder thesc men if they refuse to resign
their Offices. As to'the ncgroes.thc reform
crs are satisfied with whipping until they
promise never TO vote another - Radical
| 4..bat