New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-08-19
NEW ORLEANS, SATURDAY, AUGUST l9, 1876

IST l9, 1876.
1he Latest Democratic Larceny.
The Democratic party is very much in
the habit Of stealing things from the Re
publican party. Most of the principles and
measures that it now pretends to advocate
were originally the property of the Repub-
licans, and the Democrats, after opposing
them eturdily for q number of years. finally
stole them and are now trying to make it
appear that they are their own. But their
latest theft is the most remarkable ct all;
they have actually stolen the "bloody
shirt
The scene of the theft was Congress-, and
the time Thursday last. Perhaps to divert
suspicion from their larceniOus purposes,
or perhaps because there had been failure
to come to an understanding in advance,
Mcdonald was speaking in the Senate,
averring stoutly that there was no "bloody
Shirt" that everything was lovely and har-
monious at the South, except here and there
where those bloodthirsty Republicans were
making trouble! At that very moment Mr..
Scott Lord, prominent Democrat of New
York, introduced in the House resolution
reciting that the right of suffrage prescribed
by the constitutions of the several States is
subject to the fifteenth amendment; that
the exc rcise of said right should be faith
fully intained and observed by the United
States, and that it is asserted that the ex-
ercise of eaid right is 10 some States resisted
and controlled by fraud, intimidation and
violence, go that the object of the fifteenth
amendment ia defeated, and that all citi-
zens, without distinction of race or color,
are entitled to the rights conferred by said
amendment, and declaring that all attempts
by force, fraud, terror, intimidation, or
otherwise to prevent a free exercise of the
right of suffrage should meet with certain
condiQn and etfectual punishment, and that
if any case which has heretofore occurred
or may hereafter occur in which violence
or murder has been or shall be committed
bv one class or race on another, prompt
punishment OF the criminal or criminals is
imperatively demanded, whether the crime
be one punishable by a fine and imprison-
ment or one demanding the punishment OF
death.
Here is the "bloody shirt" in the most
palpable form. The outrages in the South
are recognized in an unmistakable manner,
and there is loud profession OF purpose
to punish the perpetrators even unto death.
Some OF the Democrats hadn't been in
structed about the little game, and their in
dignatiOn at what seemed to be Mr.. Lords
shameful treachery to the party may be
imagined. Of course they would defeat
the vile Republican invention. So when
Mr.. Lord moved the previous question, the
Democrats who were not in the secret re-
Trained from voting, and thus made it ap..
the House was ordered, followed by another
and another, after the usual course of fill
clustering.
In the meantime Mr.. Lord was circulat-
ing busily about the Democratic side of the
House, explaining that he hadn't gone over
to the Republicans; that he was only doing
as Tilden had instructed him; that the
Democrats wanted the "bloody shirt" for
campaign service, and that there was no
he exhibited letter, supposedly from Gov
ernor Tilden. This proved effective, and
the resolution was adopted with only two
dissenting votes. When it came to the
preamble, however. which was the part
containing the dangerous admissions, thir-
ty-one Democrats rebelled against the Til
den behest, and voted in the negative.
The proceeding is zoo transparent to call
for any exposure. Governor Tilden and
come Of the more sagacious Democrats OF
the North saw that the affair at Hamburg
was a stubborn fact. They saw, too, that
the facts concerning "the Mississippi plan
could no longer be kept from the public,
and that the whole system of fraud, terror.
ism and violence in the South was certain
to be laid open to the view of the people
| So they resolved to confess-as sinners often
do when they can no longer conceal their
| guilt-to deplore these occurrences, and to
affect great anxiety to aid in the punish.
ment of the offenders. 1t is nothing more
nor less than an exhibition of the duplicity
and hypocrisy that they resort to when
they profess to be terribly in love with the
| fourteenth and fifteenth amendments.
It isn't to be supposed that any one will
be deceived by such hollow profession. II
| the Democrats are sincerely anxious tC
bring to punishment the men who have in
| timidated and murdered negroes in Missis
They have complete control of the govern
ment of that State; the. men are there
prominent and influential members of thu
community; and as the inv estigation com
mite of the Senate found NO difficulty II
| securing testimony against them, the prose
! cutting officers need not delay q moment or
that account. As matter of fact, OF course
| they do not desire to prosecute them, and
will not. Any man in Mississippi who ha'
| killed q negro, ls in far more danger o.
being sent to Congress than to prison. The
Democrats of Mississippi not only do no,
intend to punish the murderers. but they
| do intend to continue the murders.
| Against Mr.. Lords resolution, inspired by
| an emergency OF the party, and adopted BY
the unwilling Democrats of the House un
der the dictatiOn of Tilden, let US place thu
| expressions of the Democratic press of Mis-
sissippi. We find, for example, such ex
pressions as the following, from the Cantor
Mail:
| "Write it upon your banners, fling it tt
| the breeze, flaunt it in the face of the enc
| my, that we, the honest people of Missis
sippi, having conquered glorious victor,
at the ballot box last November, are deter
mined to hold our vantage ground at every
hazard"
The same paper suggests that if Fedora
troops are sent into the State, the people
will be justified in resisting them. Th'
Aberdeen Examiner pleasantly proposes
that the people shall hang their op
pressors'-meaning the poor, inotfensiv
| negroes-''as food for the buzzards, to tn
boughs of our forest trees"
The Meridian Mercury examines the re
port of the grand jury of the Unite'
States district, which states that tn
"fraud, intimidation and violence perpe
u trated at tho last election is without par
allel in the annals of history" but explain
that it is impossible to find indictment o.
account of the defects in the national cleo
ton law. The Mercury concludes: 9Th
lesson which we draw for our benefit from
this report and action of this packed jur
is, that there is quite q margin for 'intimids
ton between us and the boundaries of tn
law, end we can govern ourselves accOrC
ingly. y."-Milcaukee Sentinel.
How Reeves was Killed.
dispatch from Havana via Key Wet
says: ''The insurgent chief Reeves, alias
In glesito, who was killed on the fourth IL
slant, was an American by birth, aboI