The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-08-26
rhe Old Issues.-Who is Responsible 2

Inc Democratlc leaders are dlSgrlSted, en-
ragged and alarmed because the old issues
growing out of the late war are so prom
inent in the present campaign.
In their rage they charge the Republican
party with purposely keeping alive the Sec
tional issues of the past now really dead.
They declare that tie Republican leaders are
deceiving the people by again invoking dead
issues and appealing to the old feeling
of sectional hate. Gentlemen, no political
leaders can deceive the Republican masses.
They are intelligent and reading people
They understand whether Or not issues are
dead or are pending. They know that the
ssues OF the war or those growing out of it
are alive to-day. They know, too, who is
responsible for the overshadowing presence of
the issues growing out cf the war in the
present campaign.
Who, then, is responsible for this resurrec-
tion of dead issues? The answer is plain. 1t
is the Southern Democracy, the Confederate
Congress. and the servility of the Northern
Democratic leaders to their old masters, the
Hamburg riots and the spirit of cruel intoler-
ance which actuate the Southern Democracy.
1t is no trick Of political legerdermain-no
story of politicians. 1t is an indisputable
fact that the Democratic leaders intend
to carry the Southern States for Mr.. Tiden
by intimidation and violence. Does any one
demand proof? Let him read the testimony
of the Senate Committee on the recent cleo
ton in Mississippi. The testimony of sworn
witnesses cover hundreds and hundreds of
pages. We might fill page of our paper
with the evidence of individuals until cleo
tion day. The whole is story of intimida-
tion and violence. Thousands of men
were driven from the polls by armed COM
panies OF white men. Thousands were
warned by these same lawless bands not to
60 to the voting places on the penalty of
death, scores of men were beaten, shot and
driven from their homes. The Mississippi
election was mockery, fraud, and outrage.
In the State of Georgia the colored Republi.
cans are now in state of actual political
disfranchisement. Reliable gentlemen from
these states inform us that with Democratic
election officers elections are fraud. They
let the negroes vote and then count in whom
they desire. The recent election in Alabama
dscloses the same plan of intimidation.
Letters from that State denounce it and as
sert that colored Republicans did not dare to
vote. The same policy has been initiated in
South Carolina. 1t began at Hamburg and
was repeated by the same rebel Gen.
Butler few days since. The Republicans
were holding public meeting, Gen. Butler
and hundred armed friends (all for Tilden
and reform) appeared and drove off the
Republican speakers and substituted those of
their own. II is the same thing which was
done last year in Mississippi.
In short, the policy of the Southern Demo-
cracy is to carry the Republican states of
that section by fraud, intimidation and rio-
lence.
We have already published numerous ex-
tracts from Southern Democratic papers dis
closing the sentiment and purpose of the
leaders in that section:
jackson, Mississippi, Clarion.l
Some particulars of the race troubles at Hamburg,
South Carolina Gust across the river from Augusta
Ga.) will be found in another column. The whole
story is condensed in nutshell 1t has been enacted
thousand times over in the reconstructed States.
[Meridan, Miss Mercury, Aug. 81
We have got the State; we know how we got it;
we know how to keep it, and are going to keep it
without regard to race or numerical majority.
Newton, Miss, Bullstin.l
s bs nsg,d hos ley Os: in and Il
stay at nome ana have nothing to do with it.
(Canton, Miss, NALL
We glory in the name of traitors, and our enemies,
the Republican party, will have their hands full for
all time in their endeavors to fasten the yoke upon
U.S. and it is beyond human power to compute the
requisite number of volumes to hold the stories of
blood and violence yet to be written.
Raleigh, N. c., Sentinel
Evidently 1t needs Democratic administration in
the South to keep the negro in his proper place
And so long as that party insists that the
negro sha without respect to the natural
pacity, these slaughterous outbreaks may be ex-
pected.
We might fill column with extracts SINH
lar to the above, taken from Democratic pa
pers in every Southern State where there is a
large colored Republican vote. The above,
however, are sufficient to indicate the deadly
purpose Of the Democratic leader of the
South.
These are the men who have revived the
bitter recolections and issues of the war.
The Republican party is in honor and duty
bound to stand by the men of the South who
were loyal to its flag in time of war. The
fact that they are ignorant and weak makes
the duty hundred fold more imperative. These
old issues, let it be remembered, will be kept
alive until the political freedom and equality
of the defenseless negro is permanently Sc
cured. The Republican party holds that it is
the first duty of the Gov ernment to secure to
the hnmblest citizen in the Union the free
and untrammelled privilege of voting as he
chooses, equality before the law and security
in the peaceful avocations of lite. From this
purpose the Republican party will notlbe
deferred by the cry of "bayonet rule'', federal
tyranny or any other bug-a-boo of the Dem
ocratic leaders, North or South.
THE Kansas Democrats construe the St.
Louis platform and the letters of acceptance
as meaning rag money, and SO unite with the
greenback party in nominating state officers.