Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1875-11-18
The Misslssippi Election.


1t is well known that Mississippi,
heretofore a Republican State, was
earned by the Democrats at the re-
cent election. Howit was done-the
means and appliances used to secure
a Democratic victory-are daily be-
ing made manifest. A correspondent
of the Cincinnati Gazette, writing
from jackson, the State capital, gives
MS some startling facts in this direc-
tion. We condense.
The Democrats adopted the s'rule
or ruin" policy. They determined
early in the action that the State
must be carried for their ticket at
any cost. They were not serupulous
as to the means used, just SO the
State was carried. They meant rev.
olution: "peaceable, if possible, forci-
Bile if necessary" To deprive man
of his rights, or to take his life if
need be, to carry out their scheme,
was regarded as very trivial mat
ter.
A full, honest, free vote was sure
Republican victory. This must be
prevented. So the democrats set to
work to do it. BY military organl-
cation, by intimidation, by threats of
violence, by working up a complete
reign of terror in Republican coun-
ties, voters were kept from the polls,
or driven away when assembled, and
the end, democratic victory was ac-
complished. The Monroe County
Republican tells how it was done in
that county, and it is fair specimen
of what occurred all over the State.
The Republican says:
On Tuesday morning as soon as the
polls were opened at the Courthouse,
where some 200 voters had assembled,
arT0Cu lUcu COucluCl
placed themselves i'm front of the en-
trance to the ballot-boxes, and an
nounced that no man could enter to
vote unless he voted the Democratic tick
ct: soon after the cannon was brought
up supported by an infantry force armed
with needle guns, and unlimbered and
placed in position bearing at first on the
jail, but soon after bearing on the crowd
in front of the west entrance of the
Courthouse; in the meantime the in
fantry and armed mounted men drove
the colored men from the Courthouse
square and from the nearest streets,
threatening to shoot them down if they
did not go. The order was once or twice
given to fire; the colored men left town
and went home, fearing that they would
be killed if they did not.
1t was not to be wondered at, that
Monroe, heretofore Republican by
from 1000 to 5000, went democratic
by an equally large majority. How
could it go otherwise?
A victory thus won becomes
crime against Republican institu
tions. We have no objection to DEM
ocratic rule in Mississippi, SO it be
the voiceof the people, but when it
is obtained by sitting that voice, by
DENYING to it its free and just ex-
preston, then it is time for every
lover of government of the people,
for the people, ITO enter his protestant
hold the actors therein as enemies of
American institutions. Mississippi
may have been corruptly ruled, but
that is no excuse for the employment
of such extraordinary means as the
Democrats used to change that rule.
Corruption can never be eradicated
from our political system by appli-
ances so abominable and vicious as
those employed by the Democrats of
Mississippi, and our free institutions
are not safe in the hands of a party
which will resort to such appliances
to secure mere political triumph.