The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1876-11-24
The sonth in the Election.


and Alabama can doubt that the
Iilden Electors received a great
popular majority in Louisiana"
In other words, because the shot
gun policy succeeded perfectly in
two or three Southern States
which are as pronounced in their
Republicanism as Iowa and Yer
mont, it is absurd TO suppose that
in other States where the negro
voters were either better protect
ed or were better able to take
care of themselves, the sarle re.
suits did not ensue. We doubt il
even the World BIS impudence
enough to pretend that on a fair
vote Mississippi and Alabama are
not overwhelmingly Republican.
No wider assumption could be
Tade than that any appreciable
proportion of the negroes of Lou
isiana and South Carolina voted
the Democratic ticket. Tie col
ored voters of the South who fail
ed to vote for Hayes Electors did
so because they we're driven from
the polls, or ia some other way
deprived o. the rights conferred
on them by the Constitution. The
fact Is, that over two-thirds of the
South the Shotgun policy" has
t%riumphed to an extent that may
well shake our faith in the efica.
cy of reconstruction. Organized
intimidation has overcome the.
voting power. The main body of
the South is on the side Of the
man who has affirmed the consti
tutional right of secession, and
who had rallied around him con
spicuOus leaders in the rebellion.
struggling to regaia under the
Government the ground they lost
in war.
Of this result there is but one
explanation. 1t cannot be pre-
tended that the immense maiori-
ties which within four years have
declared in favor of the Republi-
cans have been mastered by Or
derby and legal methods. The
change is not the product of dis
cussion, for discussion has been
Systematically stiaed. 1t has moi
been brought about by legitimate
canvassing TO which we of the
North are accustomed, for the
canvasser not bound hand and
foot to the Democracy has open
ed his lips at the peril Of his life.
The organizations which worked
wonders in behalf of secession in
1860 have in this year a GRACE been
reproduced, with. bloody varia-
tons, in the interest of Tilden
and Hendricks, Oppression and
violence have been the argu-
ments most relied upon. The ru-
raj districts of the Republican
South have been patroled as
though the country were in insur-
rection. BY day and by night ri
A. clubs have ridden through col
ored neighborhoods, threatening
and frightening, whipping and
with the specific pur-
pose of oyerawing the voters and
driving away their local leaders.
Meetings have been broken, up,
Republicans have been
warned that they must leave, and
the only systematic work which
has been permitted has been1
that which was subordinate
to the one aim of securing the
for the Democratic Party
These tactics have largely sue,
ceeded. The ballot succumbed
to the bullet in several of the
States, and the great body of the
has sustained Tilden.
In view of these facts; what bit
terirony is in the oft-repeated pre-
tense of the Democrats, that the
Federal Government was "invad-
the South in the interest of
he Republicans! Two or three
thousand soldiers, scattered over
/ vast area, were represented as
IN aggressive army, doing the
bidding of an uncrowned despot
It Washington Its work was. to
reserve order when called upon
D HL|HH .L |
~ responsible officials, and to
maintain peace ct the p~alls-that
vas all. In South Carolina it has
undoubtedly been eficatious; in
he other Southern States its on
stence has been in effect un- {
:nown. Louisiana has been the
Of systematic violence