The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-02-27
The Alarmed COnspiratOrs.

And why2
For nearly century, in times of peace
and war, orators and editors have ap.
pealed to arms with impunity, and amid
much applause. Why is it that any re-
erence to armed resistance resives a
statute that it took the paternsl Taft four
hours to find-a disused and dead statute,
not a. all applicable to our case, that
makes an appeal 10 arms against the
government penitentiary otfeRse?
The reason is the same that caused the
President, tor the first time IN the his
tory OF the republic, to concentrate
troops at the national capital to enforce
an IL auguratiOn of candidate not elect
ed by the people. Pennsylvania avenue
is 10 be lined with a mercenary soldiery,
while the terraces OF the Capitol are TO
bristle like breastworks with double
sbotted artillery.
A spark cannot explode magazine
unless there Is magazine to explode. A
word Canno. fire the popular heart
unless there is keen sense OF wrong
smouldering in its depths. Therefore
one sentence spoken on the floor of the
House, that SAID the people would resist
to the last these usurpatiOns, created q
sensation as II an earthquake had
touched the foundations OF the
Capital, and Henry Wattersons
call !or hundred lhousaLd Demo.
Gratis brought forth a cry OF horror
Therefore ills that the President not
only concentrates his troops, but attempts
the concentration in secrecy and under
ialsehoods, lest the people hear their
measured tramp and awaken 10 an arm
cd resistance.
The tact is, that 1t is 10 ordinary con-
test between two political parties for the
presidency. AS between Samuel j. Til
den and Rutherford b Hayes, between
Republican and Democratic parties, look
cd a. in the light OF past eectlon, there
is not enough to create An interest, let
alone cause an alarm. But the truth
comes home TO US that it is the last effort
in behalf OF free choice and any cleo
tion whatever.
The history of down-troddeI and op-
pressed humanity teaches us that popu-
lar rig hts are ever gained through vlo-
lence 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 en-
croach upon The sea- Were not the iron
hand of despotism gloved IN velvet II
would be .eared and resisted. 1t is, alas,
often courtcd; 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 lnta-
nous outrages that have marked this
administration, through IFS eight years
! of power, would have aroused the people
To such violence That the perpetrators
would have been forced to flee our
shores, to escape with their lives the
popular Indignation. What would have
been the fate of PresiCe ent previous TO
the late war who would have
dared disperse the Legislature
of a sovereign State with mercenary
| soldiers, or attempt to manipulate cor
rupt returning b board, hedged 10 by bayo
nets, until no secured tho "lsotoral ~%t"
| of "A slate? What would have been the
fate OF chief magistrate, in the purer
days of the republic, to whose door frauds
were tracked, uLtii they radiate over the
land IKE the spokes ot wheel?
In the !mpunity with which these
outrnges have been perpetrated, AS well
~ the dead apathy OF the people with
which they have been received, we find
the most alarm. But willie fraud is ST.
lent, insidious and apologize, violence is
insultit and defiant, and arouses the
man GOOD OF the people. And herein lies
| the secret of this terror AT the talk OF
arucd resistance.
We are urged to submit for the pres
ent and bide our time for m appeal TO
the polls. But to what are we to sp.
peal? The ballot is no longer free, and
the people who came up TO the Capitol
with ha 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 it, own graci-
Gus permission, to freely express
our will? They who build on such hope
know little oil human nature. That
which now holds its own through fraud,
dreading violeIce, will then laugh at
popular indignation and cety resistance.
| The tear that now ,estralns the executive
hand IN South Carolina and louisiana,
and leaves Packard ard Chamberlain in
doubt ms 10 whether the lamp post or the
Governors chair is To be their tate, will
not then restrain or Influence.
We have seen States held by the mill
tary, 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 or
| ders of their master, IN plundering the
| Treasury. We have seen Cabinet 9TH
GERS escaping Indictment, and the lndict.
ed escaping conviction, through politicai
influence. These, and more crimes than
We can catalogue, we have seen; but the
srectscle remains Of man repudlsted
Al the p, lis insugurated President OF the
United States. II this can be done and
nobody hurt, We gravely mistake the
temper OF the American people.
THE WORK ACCOMPLISHED.
The wicked scheme of counting in a
defeated candidate for the Presidency,
on the vote of Madison Wells returning
board and Eliza Pinkston's testimony,
was accomplished upon last Friday
The party in place remsin in power
scsinst the will of the people solemnIy
expressed through the ballot box, and
the off cial sgsnts under the Constitution
have become our masters in the ruin oi
the Constitution.
European monarcbs sit frmer on their
thrones, writes Conway from London,
for our Centen isl sees the shameful end
of sef-government. The ulen tainted
with fraud and covered with MANY, re-
pud,aied al the polls, Sre cur masters al
the capital. They mock al the people
ard, in the elegant isrgGsge ot one o'
the high commission, We are told TO grin
ord hasr n