The Portland daily press., 1876-07-21
For War, General (?

Already they have commenced work in Mississippi,
raid on that state to take that from the Democratic
column can only say that if that is done, if the
Republican party dare again to take the course they
have already taken and take the presidential elec-
tion by force of their bayonets, Illegally to wrest
from the Democratic party votes that belong to their
nominees for president and vice president BELIEVE
THERE WILL ARISE SUCH REVOLUTION THROUGH
OUT THE WHOLE LENGTH AND BREADTH OF THIS
COUNTRY AS WE NEVER YET HAVE SEEN, AND II
WILL NOT BE PUT DOWN BY BAYONETS THAT THEY
WILL BE ABLE TO BRING. (Applause) IF THEY
DO BY BAYONETS WHAT THEY ARE MOVING TO DO
THERE WILL BE SUCH FEELING EXCITED
THROUGHOUT THIS COUNTRY THAT NOT ALL THE
BAYoNETs THAT GRANT CAN BRING CAN PLACE
HAYES AND WHEELER IN THE PRESIDENTIAL
CHAIR.-Gen. ARderS0n's Ratification Speech.
The above is an extract from the speech of
Gen. Anderson at the Tilden ratification
meeting Saturday evening of last week as
printed in the Argus 1t is simply threat
of bloody revolution. As such it reminds
one of the threats of Democratic leaders
during the Lincoln campaign and the few
months preceding the firing on Sumter. Gen.
M. c. Butler of Hamburg, S. c., would be
pleased to receive such an endorsement of his
massacre from a leading Maine Democrat.
Gen. Anderson assumes that white men or
rather Democrats in some of the southern
states have been prevented from voting by
the interference of the federal army-by bay
onets, to use Democratic term. Can Gen.
Anderson prove this fact by reliable tes-
timony? Can he show that Democrats have
been driven from the polls or intimidated in
any manner while intent on peacefully exer-
cising the right of suffrage by the bayonets
of the federal army? If, indeed. ne can
find cases supported by the slightest testi-
mony where it is asserted that individuals
have been intimidated by the federal soldiers,
can he show that this has been sufficiently
general to affect the vote of state of so
large an area as Louisiana, Mississippi and
were not federal solliers enough in Louisiana
at the time of the election in 1872 for a de-
tail of two to a voting lplace throughout the
state, even if such course had been deemed
necessary as it was not. That Democratic
voters.were not intimidated by federal bay
onets, is indicated by the fact that in New
Orleans where most of the troops were sta
toned, that party carried the city by a ma
jority nearly as large as the entire Republican
vote. Tested by facts and figures, the declar-
alton of Gen. Anderson respecting the in
timidation of Democratic voters by federal
bayonets, isn't good nonsense.
Gen. Anderson makes another mistake
when he assumes that Mississippi is Dem
ocratic state. In the first place the colored
voters out-number the whites by nearly ten
thousand, the census of 1870 showing that
the colored population exceeds the white by
$4,000 in a total of little less than S2S, 900.
By these figures the state is Republican on a
fair vote since nearly every colored man
votes that ticket and there are twelve or fif-
teen thousand white Republicans in Missis-
sipp. 1t is only Democratic when Winches-
ter rifles in the hands of Gen. Anderson s
friends make it so. That these Democratic
friends did make it so by the aid of this po-
tent instrumentality, Democratic papers in
that state constantly affirm with evident sat-
isfaction and advise the South Carolina De-
mocracy TO adopt..the Mississippi policy.
That Gen. Anderson may see how etfectual
an auxiliary systematic threats and the occa-
sional shooting of negro proved in making
Mississippi a Democratic states we will COM
pare the votes of a few negro ounties for the
years 1872 and 1875, as given by the JV6rld
almanac: