The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-11-01
Mr. RedfieId Tells All that He knows
About south Carolina.-A he tier
Worth Reading.
orrespondence Cincinnati COMMERCIAL

| worth Ae&OlnX.
rCorrespondence Cincinnati Commercially
HANBuRG. s. c., October %, 1875.
without troons there can be no fair cleo
ton in several of the southern States, and
the use of troops is supposed to be Illegal.
There YOU have 1t. The problem Is before
YOU. Either troops must be employed at
every election, or the minority must be al
lowed to overcome the majority, as IN the
case Of Mississippi. II itAiEttt..'' ~
NO FAIR ELECTION WITHOUT TROOPS.
II NAV he illegal to send troops to this
State to protect the majority against Inc
minority. Doubtless the trainers OF the
Government never thought OF such thing.
II is contrary to the spirit OF our lnstitu-
tions that troops should take any part in a
| political campaign, one way or the other.
The precedent once established, therewill
be no end to it, and whichever party is in
power will use the troops to sustain itself.
The dangers OF the policy will suggest
themselves to every intelligent and candid
mind. 1t is not only step towards the
Mexican way OF doing things, it is long
tourney in that direction, and route, once
taken, that is hard to retrace.
/ While all this is true, yet by what other.
means can the majority in South Carolina
be protected in their rights If, for instance,
the minority-that is, the whites-choose TO
carry the election? Here we have two races
and two parties, with all Of one race in one
party. and all Of the other race in the other
party, with such trifing exceptions as not
to be worth mentioning. All the blacks are
Republicans and all the whites are Demo
Gratis, owing to causes which reach back
into history. and which are not necessary to
discuss. But the blacks are no match for
the whites. The whites can, il they take a
notion, turn the $4,000 Republican majority
into 5000 Democratic mai ority. They did
il in Mississippi, and the task was very easy.
II did not require 'ballot-boX stufhng or
false returns. 1t was even easier than that
All the minority had to do to overcome the
majority was to organize "rifle clubs"
"sabre companies" and the like, put on
much military apparel, parade around at
night, run off or kill an influential black
man or two in each county, shoot into the
air great many times and into the bodies
OF the enemy occasionally, and the thing is
ACCOMPLISHED; the majority is overcome,
the minority triumph. Demonstrations and
aDDearances that would amount to nothing
in Ohio, and not make vote either way,
are powerful in the Cotton States, where so
! large a part OF the population were but re-
Gently slaves, and are no match for the
whites in any particular. ai -
! At Jackson, Miss, the night before the
remarkable election last November, the
Democrats kept an old cannon going all
night long. 1t was calculated that each shot
: kent at least twelve darkies from the polls,
and as the powder cost only about as many
cents load, it was making votes cheap:
The shooting kept me awake, and / in
1ured of some Of the leading Democrats
why it was done, although knew well
enough the object. "Oh," they replied,
"thc boys are firing national salute, one
gun for each State" ''But there are more
guns than States" said. "Well, yes but
they arc also firing one gun for each county
in the State" -
could imagine what effect these mid
night guns would have on the timid blacks
in their lonely cabins upon the adjacent
plantations. With all their fears excited by
the forming OF rifle clubs and hostile atti-
tudc OF the whites, is it any wonder that
thousands Of them either remained away
from the polls or voted the Democratic
ticket? Thus, and by all such means, was
the thirty thousand black majority over
come and thirty thousand Democratic ma
jority substituted.
For effect upon the plantation hands in
Rankin county, Miss, lot OF young men
dressed themselves IN blue, got cannon
marked ssU. ST." and dragged itabout from
plantation to plantation, telling the negroes
that they were Federal soldiers, and that
Grant had sent them down to instruct the
blacks to vote the Democratic ticket, as he
did not like Anes, and wanted him out OF
the way. Ill. ..s. Fl
Indeed, could fill columns with the
tricky devices which the whites used with
1,cf r. oh L,.Dl
Mississippi.
| Now, what would all this amount to in
Ohio: Suppose the Democrats should keep
everybody awake in Cincinnati by firing off
old cannon the night before the election,
would they make vote by it? Not one,
but they would stand good chance to lose
several. Yet this kind of thing frlghtens
| the timid blacks in the more SparseIy settled
districts OF the South, and we therefore find
condition Of things here which il without
parallel in the North, and which a great
many northern people cannot understand.
There is no denying but what the whites
have set out to carry this State according to
the Mississippi plan. 1t is as plain to man
upon the ground as the light OF the sun.
| They have determined to carry the election,
and nothing but the presence OF the Federal
troops will keep them from doing 1t, and
lllCJ Illily w LII way J. Sldll nOb DC sur
prised whichever way this South Carolina
election goes. -
| While it is true that troops are necessary
10 secure every black man the right to vote
as he pleases, it is not true that they Gin
| timidate" the Democrats, or keep single
white man from exercising his right to vote.
Not one. 1t is great mistake to
suppose such thing. When I, lind
IN "intimidatcd" white Democrat I
will let you know. Notwithstanding all
the troops in this State-and more are COM
ing every day and going into every county
you will find that the largest white vote
ever polled will be cast one week from next
Tuesday. And without troops, Just as
! surely as the day rolled around the Demo-
Gratis would have carried the State by ma
iority OF from twenty to forty thousand.
Indeed there would be no limit to their ma
jority except that OF population. Let Pre-
sident Grant have said "Hands off," as he
did in Mississippi, and they would have
voted the blacks with all the ease that
they did in Mississippi. Result, immense
Democratic gains (; a perfect tidal wave, in
fact. =. ..~l#',' ~ ts..m q
Well, says the northern Democrat, Ii the
Republicans OF South Carolina have a large
majority, what do they, want with troops :?
What would be the sense in sending troops
to Kentucky to protect the Democrats Of
that State in their rights? SEE god 80 =,
Not a bit, because the Democrats OF KEN
lucky have nothing to fear and cannot be
lntimidated by the Republicans Of that