The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-07-05

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and use. They could not take what did
not exist. But the American carpet-bag-
ger has an invention unknown TO those
Old.fashioned robbers, which increases
his stealing power as much as the steam
engine adds to the mechanical force of
mere natural muscle. He makes negoti-
able bonds of the State, signs and seals
them according to the forms Of law"
sells them, converts the proceeds to his
own use, and then defes justice ito go
behind the returns" By this device his
felonious fingers are made long enough to
reach into the pockets of posterity; he
lays his lien on property yet uncreated
be anticipates the labor of coming ages,
and appropriates the fruits of it in ad-
vance; he coins the industry offuture ge
nerations into cash, and snatches the in
heritance from children whose fathers
are unborn. Projecting his cheat for
ward by this Contrivance, and operating
laterally at the same time, he gathers an
amount OF plunder which no country in
the world would have yielded to the
Goth or the Vandal.
The Reign Of Anarchy.
Security of life can never be counted on
where property is not protected. When
the public authorities wink upon theft,
the people are driven by stress of sheer
necessity to defend themselves the best
way they can, and that defense is apt to
be aggressively violent. Justice, infuri-
ated by popular passion, often comes to
its victims in a fearful shape. Disorders,
therefore, there must have been, and
bloodshed and violence, and loss of life,
though tLey are not enumerated, or clear
ly described in the reports, 1t is known
that bands of regulators" traversed
many parts of the State, and the fact is
established that seven of the storehouses
used as places of receiving stolen goods
were burnt to the ground in one night.
The officers ofthe carpet-b bag government
cared for none of these things" They
saw the struggle between larceny and
Lynch law with as much indifference as
Gallo looked upon the controversy be-
tween the Jewish synagogue and the
Christian church at Ephesus. This hor-
rible condition ofsociety was caused sole
ly by the want of an honest government
But this is not nearly the worst of it, if
carpet-baggers themselves and their spe.
cial friends are worthy of any credence
at all. They testify to numerous other
murders, wanton, unprovoked, and atroci'
GUS, committed with impunity under the
very eyes of their Government. Cen
erai Sheridan says he collected list of
1000 assassinations perpetrated within
three years. Senator Sherman and his
associates ofthe visiting committee swell
this number greatly, and add that, half
the State was overrun with violence" No
effort was made to repress these disorders
or punish the criminals. Nobody was
hung nobody tried, nobody arrested.
The murders ran at large; the victims fell
at the awful average of about four every
day, and the public officers quietly assent
ed to let 'the rife, the knife, the pistol a.,
and rope do their horrid work" without
interruption. Are such men fit to govern
a free State eft to govern No, not to
i've"
The Genesis Of the Returning Board.
The wretched system of carpet bag gov
ernment could not possibly last. From
the first it had no real support The ma
tive people and the honest immigrants,
who went there for purposes oflegitimate
business, held it in adherence, and the
negroes we're not long in finding out that
it was sham and snare. AS early as
| 1870. and before that, the handwriting
was seen on the wall which announced
that large and decisive majority OF all
the votes, black and white, had determin-
ed to break up this den of thieves. They
must therefore prepare for flight or pun
ishment, unles they could contrlVe way
of defeating the popular will whenever
and however it should be expressed.
Then the Returning Board was invented.
This was a machine entirely new, with
powers never before given to any tribunal
in any State. Its object was not to return
but to suppress, the votes ofthe qualified
electors, or change them to suit the occa-
sion. By the terms of the law it can ex.
clude, suppress annihilate all the votes of
a parish for violence, intimidation, or
fraud, which it finds to have been commit
ted and adiudged to have materially in
fluenced the result of the poll. This is
judicial authority 80 broad that no court
would consent to exercise it-lnhlctlng
the fearful penalty of disfranchment upon
thousands at once, without a hearing and
without legal evidence, not for any of.
fence of their own, but for the supposed
sin of other over whoms they confessedly
have no control Of course it is in direct
conflict with the StateC Constitution, which
declares that all judicial power shall be
vested in certain ordained and estab-
lished courts, and forbids it to be used
even by them, except upon trial before
a,iury, and conviction on the testimony
of credible witnesses confronted by the
accused and crpss-examination by counsel.
tis, besides, a most insolent attront. to
the fundamental principles of all elective
government, for it makes the poll of the
people mere mockery, which decides
nothing except what the Returning Board
is pleased to approve, and elects nobody
whom the Returning Board does not gra'
Ciously favor. Its power to veto popular
| vote extends to all elections, for every
class of officers, judicial, legislative, min
isterial, and executive, including cleo
tors of President and Vice President.
How IL did It's Work.
The board consist I'd of five persons.
They were originally appointed by car
pet.bag Senate, without end of their ten
ure and withpower to fill vacancies, which
made them close corporation and gave
them perpetual succession. To put on
some show of fairness, the law required
that all parties should be represented.
This was at first thought to be metby the
appointment of one Democrat, but when
a deed of more than common baseness
was to be done, the Democrat was got rid
of, and the other four desiring to work in
secret, refused to fill his place.
This suppressing board did its work
thoroughly from the start. 1t was never
known to falter. Since its first organiza-
ton in 1870 the majority of the whole
people has been decided against the car
pet-baggers at every election. But the
board always intercepted the returns, and
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