The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-05-04
Badly Reconstructed.

Ainobooo AoS oiSouy bOCn ulSSTdCtu Will
scenes of bloodshed between the factions of
two men who claim to be governor of that
State. By the latest accounts it appears as
though these lawless bands would succeed In
overrunrin the State, and breeding con-
dition of lawlessness that will result In over
throwing the rather feeble safeguards 10 lie
and property in that Commonwealth. Like
other communities that have bad no school,
houses, Arkansas has a large class of shiftless
fellows who will not work SO long as they
can steal under the cover of belonging to the
clan of governor. If these two men, Bax-
ter and Brooks, are allowed to go on, no
crops will be made in part of the State, so
that before another year rolls around, the
federal authorities will have to issue ratons
and industrious and frugal people in other
States will be called upon to keep the Arkan-
sas sufferers from starvation. Louisiana has
been suffering from too many governors, has
had its civil war and its Colfax massacre.
Texas has tried the double governor amuse-
ment and so have Florida and Alabama, but
the people, to their credit, took little interest
In it. Indeed, there is such a looseness in
the so-caled reconstructed States about gov
ernors, that, cheap as these magistrates are
reported to be, armies can be raised in the
interest of as many claimants for the Office
as offer-armies somewhat resembling Fal-
STATS except that raw and untaxed whiskey
makes more desperate warrior of the ordi
nary ioot-pad and chicken-thief than lies in
the power of so mild tipple as sack.
Briefly stated, the disgraceful feuds in the
Southern States have grown out of scoun-
drelism in counting votes. The political
leaders in those States, both carpet-baggeI
and native born, both Republican and Dem
ocrat, have no proper conception of the right
Of suffrage; indeed, have no conception Of
any right at all. In Louisiana, the right Of
suffrage has been mockery from the outset,
and the outrage was greater under native
Democratic rule in 1868 than under War
moth and Kellogg In Arkansas where the
registration and canvass of votes are con-
trolled by such INSCRIPTIONS men as Clayton,
voting is mere farce, except where MAORI
ties are so large as to render the fraud of
mscounting too palpable an outrage. In
Georgia under Democratic rule, where all
the election officers are appointed by the
State officials, the same fraud is carried on
most successfully in those sparsely populated
sections of the State where the colored vote
largely predominates. A gentleman from
that State Informed us the other day that in
these sections such thing as counting votes
= lS never known lot oil g.
gressmen under the federal laws, and, even
then, it is but a partial success. Our inform
ant in conversation with a local magistrate
in that State was told that the colored Re-
publicans in that particular district, at re-
cent election, outnumbered the Democrats
almost four to one; but, nevertheless, the
Democratic candidates were declared elected
and took their seats and held them. Indeed,
the magistrate, who was mayor of a small
city, said that he did not receive majority
of the votes, but was counted in because the
candidate who was really elected was not
considered fit for the Office by the canvassers.
The most discoEraging feature about. the
business is th At there is no hope for perma-
nent remedy so long as the people remain in
their present ignorant condition. condition
which promises to exist some time, as the
men who hold force by fraud are TOO shrewd
to plant school houses and vote school appro-
priations. They will doubtless make loud
professions, but tricksters and svillains well
know that their chances for the penitentiary
become more like certainties as school houses
multiply.
We cannot see, in view of this fact, how
thoughtful men can escape the conclusion
that it is the duty of the general govern
ment to see that the people are not allowed
to grow up in ignorance, to become the tools
of bad men and endanger the permanency OF
the government. We are aware that the
jealous advocates of State rights grow angry
over the proposition OF Mr.. G. F. Hoar liz the
last Congress, but the constant recurrence
Of such disgraceful proceedings as are now
going on in Arkansas, will bring the question
sharply before the intelligence of the nation,
if it is not one of the powers and duties of
the general government to take measures to
educate the people in the several States, as
the surest means to guarantee" to them a
government Republican in FORM"