The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-10-19
RecOnciled " Georgia.

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Greeley papers please copy.
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"RecOnciled " Georgia.
from the n. \. Iimes.]
Mr.. Greeley's organ says of the Georgia
negroes: Many of them concluded to wait
for November before voting at ALL" They
certainly have good reasons for waiting,
and our Georgia dispatches, especially
those from Atlanta and Savannah set forth
those reasons very clearly.
There could not be more convincing
proof of the rooted hostility of the Demo
Gratis and their allies, to the equal rights of
the colored race, than the course the party
has taken in Georgia. The Legislature
being strongly Democratic, changed the
time of election from November to Octo-
Der, and required the production of a re-
ceipt for the poll-tax of 1871 as condition
precedent to voting. This provision flaw
was intended to cut off the negro vote in
two ways. First, it was known that the
negroes would be very likely to have lost
the tax receipt of the previous year, and
could only obtain duplicate of it from
Democratic officials; and, second, the cleo
ton was taken out of the operation of the
law for the enforcement of the Fourteenth
Amendment, and the Ku-Klux were left
free from all fear of punishment for terror
ism, except nnder State laws. e., entire
ly free. The way having been thus paved,
the scheme of disfranchisement was boldly
carried out.
The polling places were made few in
number-in Savannah only four were pro-
vided for vote of eight thousand, and
these all in the same building. The polls
were surrounded by armed Democrats, and
the roads were patrolled by Democratic
"Sabre Clubs" to overawe the negroes
The voters were required by the election
officers not only to produce the receipts
required by law, but to swear that they
had paid poll-tax every year since eman-
cipation. In some cases, the day before
election, the bondsmen of the tax collector
surrendered his bond, leaving no one quail
fled to give necessary receipts. Not con-
tent with this, in canvassing the votes,
whole precincts, where the Republican vote
was heavy, were thrown out for trivial
causes, or for no cause at all. In Macon,
rs our readers are already informed, the
colored men were driven away from the
polls by pistol shots and brickbats, two of
their number being murdered outright, and
others severely wounded.
Our observations of the Southern Demo-
cratic method of conducting elections, since
the war, wherever they have had the pow
er to do as they pleased, (see the New York
Tribune for the past five years. prepared
us for these outrages on the negro voters.
But it is to be noted that the first fruit of
the Baltimore coalition is servile apologize
ing for Democratic lawlessness by the So
called "Liberal Republican Press. The
The organ of Mr.. Greeley says there was
"slight rioting," referring to the murder
of the two men at Macon, and the wound
ing of six Others that the negroes were
the "original aggressors, and that these
astute politicians got themselves killed and
MANNED in pursuance of ga preconcerted
plan for setting up claim of intimidation
at the polls" Any time these five years,
the Tribune has held, and justly, that
where negroes were killed and beaten, or
shot in fight in which white Democrats
came off unhurt, the whites were certain to
be the "original aggressors." 1thas also
held, with equal justice, that the stories
about the negroes, or the negroes friends,
having misrepresented affairs for political
effect, were sure to be Democratic inven-
tions. But now, as its part of the Balti-
negroes, and represents the ruffians who
assaulted them as innocent victims of base
designs by the negroes on the good name
of Democracy. A year ago the Tribune
would have pointed out that China is the
only country where a man ruins his foe by
disemboweling himself on the latter's thres-
hold. But now it would have us believe
that the colored voters of Macon, with SIM
liar malicious intent, rushed on the revol-
vers Of the Democrats, and offered their
lives to increase the political capital Of the
Northern Republicans. We believe we
never before heard of such unselfish devo-
ton on the part of voters, or of such eyre
grious stupidity on the part of newspa-
per.
We call the attention of all who believe
that equal rights for all form the only safe
basis Of government in this country, to the
evidence afforded by Georgia as to the in
tent of the modern Democracy on this
point. If unchecked Democratic rule in
Georgia gives rise to arbitrary and violent
disfranchisement of the negroes, as of old,
and this crime is screened by Mr.. Greeley's
organ, what may be expected if Mr.. Gree.
ley and the Democrats should come into
possession of the National Government p
If we have insisted for seven years on a
reconstruction of the Southern States that
should give security to all men, in all their
rights, is it worth while to surrender the
country to party that shows in advance
that it despises and hates ne-half the
Southern voters, and will deprive them of
all their rights when it regains power?
CONCERNING SECESSION.
If the Cotton States shall decide that
they can do better out of the Union than in
it, we insist on letting them go in peace
The right to secede may be a revolutionary
one, but it exists, nevertheless; and we do