The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1877-03-08
His FrauduIency.

from Don flatts paper-lhe ounuhy
Capital. It is a strong article and
will make the cOnspirators vince:
A spark cannot explode a maya
zine unless there is a magazine to
explode. A word cannot fire the pop
ular heart unless there is a Keen
sense Of wrong smouldering in its
depths. Therefore one sentence spo-
ken on the floor Of tho House, that
said the people would resist to the
last these usurpations, created a sem
sation as if an earthquake had touch
ed the foundations of the Capital, and
Henry Watterson'sca call for a hundred
thousand Democrats brought forth
cry Of horror.
Therefore it is, that the President
not only concentrates his troops, but
attempts the concentration in secre-
cy and under falsehoods, lest the peo-
Pile hear their measured tramp and
awaken to an armed resistance.
The fact is, that it is no ordinary
contest between two political parties
for the Presidency. As betweenS. j.
Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes, be-
tween Republican and Democratic
parties, looked at in the light Of the
past election, there is not enough to
create an interest, let alone causes an
alarm. But the truth comes home
to us that it is the last effort in be-
half of a free choice and any election
whatever.
The history of down.trodden and
oppressed humanity teaches US that
popular rights are ever gained
through violence and are ever lost
through fraud. The waves dash in
violence upon the shores only to be
broken and dispersed, while the sands
silently and steadily encroach upon
the sea. Were not the iron hand Of
despotism gloved in velvet it would
be heard and resisted. 1t is, alas,
often courted; and the people who
have given their lives to secure their
rights too frequently welcome the
usurpations that rob them Of their
freedom.
Time was when any one of the in
famous outrages that have marked
this administration, through its eight
years Of power, would have aroused
the people to such violence that the
perpetrators would have been forced
to flee ourshores, to escape with their
lives the popularindignation. What
would have been the fate of the Pres
ident previous to the late war who
would have dared dispense the lcgis.
lature of n sovereign State with mer-
cenary soldiers, or attempt manip.
ulate corrupt returning board, hedg-
ed in by bayonets, until he secured
the electoral vote of a State? What
would have been the fate of u chief
magistrate, in the purer days of the
republic to whose door frauds were
tracked until they radiate over the
land like the spokes of a wheel?
In the IMMUNITY with which these
outragcs have been perpetrated, as
well as the dead apathy Of the poo
pie with which they have been re-
ceived, we find the most alarm. But
while fraud is silent, insidious and
apologize, violence is insulting and
defiant, and arouses the manhood Of
the people. And herein lies the Sc
cret Of this terror at the talk Of arm
ed resistance.
We are urged to submit for the
present and bide our time for an APP
peal to the polls. But to what are
we to appeal? The ballot is no long,
err free, and the people who came up
to the Capitol with half million
majority, indicating their choice,
find the defeated candidate elected.
What hope is there that in the next
four years some miracle will loosen
the hand of power, and allow us,
through its own gracious PERMISSION,
to freely express our will? They
who build on such hope know little
Of human nature. That which now
holds its own through fraud, dread
ing violence, will then laugh at pop
ular indignation and defy resist
ance. The fear that now restraints
the executive hand in South Carroll
ma and Louisiana, and leaves Pack
ard and Chamberlain in doubt as to
whether the lamp post or the Gov
ernor's chair is to be their fate, will
not then restrain or influence.
We have seen States held by the
military, plundered by official
thieves, We have seen Senators and
members of the house returned to
Congress with no other constituency
than that found about the Executive
Mansion, employing their spare time,
from obeying the brutal orders of a
master, in plundering the Treasury.
We have seen Cabinet officers cscap.
ing indictment, and the indicted
escaping conviction, through politi-
cal influence. These, and more
crimes than we can catalogue, we
have seen; but the spectacle remains
of man repudiated at the polls in
augurated President of tho United
States. If this can be done and no
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