Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-11-03
FOURTH EDITION.
Baltimore Crime !!


A POLITICAL SUCCESS BY FRAUD AND VIOLENCE
sHAMEFUL oUTRAaEB BY THE RINd-BALTIMoRE
DEIIvERF d TO THE OUTLAWS FOR THE DAY.
BALTIMORE, November 8.
The following is the Americans leading edi-
torial article, this morning
HOW THE RING TRIUMpHED.
The second day OF November. 1875, will long
be remembered al dark and bloody day in the
history Of Baltimore. Justice vacated her seat
the law was thrown aside, and for twelve hours
ruf1ianism ruled the city, the legally constituted
authorities making no resistance. In many Of
the wards police officers encouraged and assisted
the thieves, bummers and murderers whom the
Ring had commissioned to do its work. Such
SHAMELESS PROSTITUTION OF OFFICIAL POSITION,
such utter disregard of the rights Of the citizen,
such absence OF the commonest impulses OF hn,
manity never were paralleled in any civilized
land. II the city had been captured by hos
tile army there would have more regard for the
lives Of our people than was shown yesterday by
those who, through appointment of the Ring,
claim to be conservatora of the peace In order
TO afford the
MURDERoUs sooUNDRELs WHOM THE RING
has enlisted in its service pretext for intimidat
ing and assaulting the colored voters who ven
tured to approach the polls, it was given out in
advance that the city was filled with colored
repeaters" who had been brought here to vote
tho Reform ticket. Every decent man in Balti-
more knew that the story WAS malicious lie in
vented by the Ring, and that it was put in clrcu-
lation on Monday for the purpose of giving the
boodthirsty scoundrels, who had bargained with
the Ring managers to give their candidate for
Governor twenty thousand ma ority IN the city,
an excuse for beginning an
ONSLAUGHT ON THE coLoRED PEOPLE
on the evening before the election, 80 as to in
timidate them and prevent them from coming to
the polls. In point of fact no effort had peen
made even to bring home such absent colored
citizens as were clearly entitled to vote they
had been entirely neglected in the new registra-
tion, and thousands of those who had been en-
rolled in former years were wrongfully stricken
from the lists by the
CORRUPT TOOLS OF THE RING
who acted as Registers. The colored vote was
at it's minimum: the Reformers had scarcely ta-
ken it into account in estimating their strength,
and during the whole campaign the colored cit-
izens had taken no active part Neyerthelese the
Ring masters concluded that five thousand coll
ored voters must be prevented from iyoting or
they would lose the city and the State IN spite OF
all that they could do in the way of
s'REpEATINa" AND BALLoT-Box sTUFFTNo.
This work was entrusted to the Ring ruffians
OF the several wards and with the assistance OF
the police they executed 1t thoroughly.
On Monday night every colored man that was
seen ON the streets was called repeater, and
was assaulted and brutaly beaten. On Tuesday
morning the ruffians appeared at the voting pre-
cncts to which they had been assigned,an with
the old cry of repeater" knocked down any coll
ored voter that dared approach the polls. These
brutal and
MURDERous ASSAULTS WERE KEPT UP
during the whole day in some of the wards. the
police either remaining entirely inactive OF as
sisting the rowdies. Whenever any .considerar
BILE body of colored men got into line and at
tempted to reach the polling window in turn they
were assaied with pistols, clubs and stones, and,
as matter of course, they ran away, some OF
them seriously wounded, and all of them terri
blv frightened. In the afternoon the colored
people having ceased to attempt to vote,
THE RuFFIANs ORGANIZED INTO GANGS,
and marched from ward to ward trying to incitee
| riots, and beating all the negroes they chanoeo
| to meet.
But the hired rufiians of the Ring did not ex-
pend all their malice on the colored voters.
Hundreds OF white Reformers who dared to pro-
test against the frauds which were unblushingy
perpetrated by the minions of the Ring were
knocked down and beaten, the police encourag-
ing rather than preventing the assaults. In the
lower wards of the city the
REFoRMERs ABANDONED THE CONTEST
early in the day, and the rufians were left to
count the votes and fix the majority to suit
| themselves. At some of the precincts they re-
turned twice as many votes as were actually
made the majorities five times as large without
encountering the least opposition. Reformers
were afraid to be seen standing about the polls,
and they prudently went home.
In our local columns will be found truthful
account OF such of the disgraceful incidents OF
| the day as came under the personal notice OF
the reporters of The American.
THE HISTORICAL "PLUa UdLIEs"
never were guilty of more brutal outrages Of
colossal frauds than we're yesterday perpetrated
by the roughs of the Ring. No doubt there are
men in the city claiming to be gentlemen who
will exult over the bloody exploits of these un-
tanned tigers, but every honorable man will
hang his head in shame at the very mention OF
| CAROLS victory" The thrilling narrative
furnished by our reporters shows how the "yic,
| tory was won, and the returns from the seyera
wards contain in themselves conclusive evidence
of tile ballot-box stufing and cumulative
counting" by which population of 5000 was
made to cast vote Of 10000.