Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-11-23
What is the Remedy.

lsiana, Florida, and South Carolina Shall
honestly declared, every decent citizen of t
ther party will Insist. Indeed, he will go fu
ther, and insist that mere legal technicaltit
!. shall not be employed to defeat the will of IL
lawful voters. But he is not decent an
!, law-abiding citizen who does not sustain a
enforcement of law that is necessary TO Civ
: effect to the will of the people, and to prever
the success of either party by fraud, intimids
} ton, or violence
THUS far, we are bound to say, The presumI
tion is in favor of the officials in those States
They have urged that eminent citizens of bot
parties, in whom the country has the utmos
confidence, should be present to witness til
counting of the votes. In not a single speci
ic act, thus far, is it alleged by Democrat
that these officials have departed from thei
sworn duty. 1t is wildly asserted that Cows
Chamberlain, Steens, and Kellogg, and the re
turning b)ards, ileend to commit frauds ant
gross outrages, but thus far it is not prenten
that they have done anything in disregard o
law.
sAs much cannot be claimed in behalf of tb,
Democrats. On Saturday four leaders of tha
party were brought from Columbia county
Florida, to Tallahassee, by the United State:
Marshal, who arrested them for acts of v:o
lence by which colored men had been prevent
ed from voting. In jackson, a county in
that State lying upon the Georgia border, the
polls wete assaulted and the boxes DESTROYED
in four large Republican precincts. In con-
/ sequence, the pretended Democratic majority
is 1O6; but in 1867 that county registered GA
white and 1,169 colored voters; in 1868 it
cast 562 Democratic and 1,34O Republican
votes; in 1870, in spite of the general distur-
bance, it gave small Republican majority; in
1872 it gave 92O Democratic and 1, ,1O9 Repub-
llcan votes, and in 1874 it gave S97 Democrat
ic and !, ,256 Republican votes By violence
at certain polls an actual Republican majority
OF 359 has been changed to pretended Dem
ocratic majority Cf 106. Is there no remedy?
Again, in Louisiana armed men destroyed the
ballot boxes in Madison Parish, hoping there
by to destroy over ., 100 Republican majority
honestly given. In five parishes violence was
so effective that in place of Republican ma
jority of 1854 in 1874 and 4,949 in 1878 and
2, 455 even in 1870. these parishes now give a
pretended Democratic majority of a, ,416. Pos
sibly the change of 5000 in these parishes
may overcome the real will of the people OF
Louisiana, and, as a consequence, elect a
President by aw-breaking, violence, and as
sassnation. Is there no remedy?
The laws of theee States provide only an
imperfect remedy. They require that the
canvassers shall first cast up the returns from
parishes or counties in which the election was
legal and peaceful; that they shall next take
up the returns as to which formal complaint
has been made by the United States or State
officials of illeglity or violence, and shall in
vestigate the facts; that, if there appears pri-
ma Jdcte ground for douLting the legality of
the election, they shall investigate further,
with opportunity for both sides to be heard;
and that they shall include or count return
if, upon investigation, they find that the cleo
ton was so far illegal, fraudulent, or controll
ed by violence as seriously to affect the result
and defeat the will of the people. Such are,
rot the privileges, but the duties of canvass
ers, as prescribed in the most specific manner
by State laws. The object was to affordsome
protection against the infamous brutality
which, beginning with the massacre of Re-
publican State Convention, had eliminated in
a so-called ''election" in 1868, at which only
LIS Republican votes were cast in New Or
leans for Grant, and in fifteen other parishes
only ten Republican votes in all, against over
$4,000 Democratic votes. In these same fif-
teen parishes about $4,000 Republican votes
were poiled at the next Presidential election,
and in Orleans Parish over $4,000. Out of
$4,000 actual Republican voters only 1,1SS
votes were permitted to be cast The remedy
devised is obviously inadequate. If violence
drives 1900 Republicans from the polls, and
1000 Democrats return 1 200 Democratic ma
jority, the mere exclusion of that return still
permits the will of the people to be defeated
by the virtual disfranchsement of 1000 Re.
publicans But we have no business to ask
whether the law is the best or the worst in
so, in substance, of Florida and South Caroli-
ma. Now the question IS whether the law
shall be enforced
Grant that such law would not be enacted
in Northern State. Fortunately, Northern
States have not had to deal with armed bands
of men, ruling whole districts by violence
They are responsible for the existence of such
law who have perpetrated or excused the
violence which made it necessary. Grant that
it gives dangerous power; it cannot be as dam
gerous as the mastery of elections by rifle
clubs. If that dangerous power should be
abused, as it was in 1874, and employed, not
to give effect to the will of the people, but to
defeat that will, tlien THE TRIBUNE will again
condemn the abuse and usurpation. But it is
in the last degree important to understand
that this dangerous trust is imposed by law.
To say that it must not be abused is one
thing. To say that it shall not be exercised,
laws shall not be obeyed and enforced 1t is
law of the State, as binding and as much en-
titled to respect as any other. The official
who refuses to enforce it properly would de-
serve impeachment; the citizen who would
resist it would deserve imprisonment 1t is
alaw of the land. The Constitution provides
that the electors shall be chosen in such man.
ner as each State may decide, and imposes upon
each State the duty of preventing de-
feat of the will of the people by
fraud or force. The laws of Louisiana, for
that purpose, are sacred as any laws of the
Uuited United States. They are enacted for
the protection of the whole people people. If
they are imperfect or bad, it is right to call
for change. If they are abused, it is right
to dpnnunca the Oufranp But thou nr., I,,t