National Republican., 1876-11-13
THERE'S RICHNESS"


A dispatch from Petersburg, Va, dated
the night of the day of election, which we
find in the Democratic papers of that State,
affords an insight into the advantages &C
cruing from the presence of the military in
such communities as Petersburg. The dis
patch IN question sets out with the state
ment that "the Federal soldiers kept
"close to-day In their quarters, and Judge
"Hughes also prudently abstained from
"any active interference in the election.
"The mere presence Of these officials un
"doubtedly had, however, q great effect
ION the election" There can be no doubt
about the truthfulness of this part Of the
dispatch, as the sequel proved, for we are
further informed that r"the Conservative
majority in the city is 219 as against over
1900 six months ago |" The election ''six
months ago" was held In the absence Of mil
itary, when unofending Republicans were
shot, driven from the polls or intimidated
to that extent that they were afraid to de-
posit their ballots. The same arrangements
had been made for shotgun election last
Tuesday, and would doubtless have been
carried out but for the presence of hand
full of United States soldiers, (26 In num-
ber,) who had been wisely sent there to
preserve the peace and prevent intimida-
ton. That there was ballot box stuffing
on that day, as there always is in Peters
burg, admits of no doubt otherwise the
Democracy would not have obtained
even the 219 majority claimed by them,
for Petersburg has registered Republican
majority of about 400; but this was thing
the military could not well prevent and
as the ballot boxes were in the hands solely
Of Democrats, they, and they. alone, are
responsible fol that species of iniquity.
But the "Boys in Blue" could aud did
prevent intimidation and violence, and the
result of the election exhibits curtailment
of 700 in the usual Democratic majority.
The dispatch to which we have referred
contains the following lugubrious lament I:
The people are sore over the result, and
:" consider themselves as robbed Of their
" "rightful majority by the action Of the
" Government in interfering with peace
/" ful election" AS the immortal Squeers
was wont to say, "here's richness" If
" the troops kept close in their quarters"
as this correspondent alleges, there could
not have been any intimidation on their
part hence the Intimidation" consisted
in the fact that troops were on hand to
quell violence at the polls by the Democ-
racy, and thus "they consider themselves
robbed Of their rightful o majority" A
similar distribution Of troops all over Vir-
ginia in the interests of peaceful election
devoid of intimidation would have resulted
in giving the State to the Republicans as
surely as that 1t will now be counted for
Tilden by thousands. No wonder, then,
that Governor Kemper bumped" his
back 30 terribly about the introduction of
peacemakers among the lamblike denizens
of what was once known as Petersburg,
now Hintonville. Above and beyond
all other considerations, however, is the
lesson taught by the election in the psrticu-
lar place under consideration, and 1t should
not be lost sight of in the future. Hereto
fore, when troops have been called for by
Republicans in the South topre-
serve the peace and guarantee fair aad
free election, howl has gone up from the
Democracy about the military invasion of
their States, and in this protest they have
not unfrequently been Joined by too credu-
Ious Republicans, who from their more dis
tant locations could by no possibility know
the status of affairs in the South. Here,
then,is fair illustration to be derived from
what the Democracy are pleased to term
military interference" The troops sent
to Petersburg, according to this Democratic
kept close to their quarters
al day, yet within call if violence on the
part of the Democracy should demand their
and as result of thus having
a peaceful election guaranteed to them-an
event that has not occurred in Petersburg
for several years-the fraudulent Demo
cratic majority has been cut down TOO
votes. Let the people make note Of this
significant event.