New-York tribune., 1878-11-26


trusts, and now uttered despairingly by the
poor wretch who chad to do " some petty
crime to keep from starving. Yes, "they had
"to do it.n SO the Tweed gang, when they
bribed Legislatures, had to do it or lose their
hold upon the public purse-strngs anu
the opportunities for plunderlng the TAX
pagers. "Why plunder the taxpayers :" does
anybody ask7 Because they chad to do IL
to raise the money to keep the Democratic ma
chine in operation; to reward their runners;
to satisfy hungry and impOrtunate hangers-oh
whose Influence they needed at elections !;
to maintain themselves in good positions ana
in such ease and comfort that they cOuid
afford TO give their time and talents 10 the
conduct Of political affairs and the government
of this great city. Does this seem an absurd
cxcuscl Perhaps so, now, after the rascaiitieS
of that regime have been exposed, ana some
of the perpetrators disgraced and punished
But eight wears ago Mr.. TWecd's "we had to
"do H." was Just as plausible and forceiul
a plea in extenuaton as they are putting for
ward to-day in South Carolina. eve had
"to do it," they said down there, "or we
q ehould have been beaten" Who beaten y?
Why the Democratic party, to he sure. it
was the same alternative precisely with Mr..
Tweed and his gang. They had to do
cit" for the same reaSOn-or the Demo
cratic party would have been beaten.
And, although it may offend South
Carolina ears, it is simple truth TO
say that the excuse was Just as sound III one
case as in the other. Ii was no worse for
Tweed g. Co. to stuff ballot-hoXeS and commit
the crimes they did, than for Governor Hamp-
toms friends to do what they lately did i'll
South Carolina. The necessity was the same
in both cascs-tO prevent the Democratic party
from being beaten. And the Tweed view of
the matter was just as honest as the Hampton
view.
The history of the Democratic party abOunds
in prccedents for this sort of thing. They
have been doing all manner of mischief for
the past twenty years upon the plea that they
had to do it or the party would be beaten"
1t was the excuse for repeating the Mis-
souri, Compromise that the slave-drving
Democracy required 1t, and the party
would be beaten if 1t did not yield.
So when they attempted to force slavery into
Kansas, and used violence and fraud in the
effort. they chad to do il or be beaten y ; and
they undertook, to break mp the Union in
1861 because they had to do il" or stay in
a Union in which they had been beaten. The
theory was that the South WAS born
to rule that the Government properly be-
longcd to Southern statesmen; and
they began the war of the Rebellion with the
same cOmplacent explanation, Oh, we had
"to do it, or he beaten" As if the bare fact
that the Slaye-duving Democracy was in
cC oh n
sufficient cxcuse for treason and rebel
lion. "Had to do it, They are always
having 10 do something brutal or dishonest
or disgraccful to save themselves from being
beaten. And they talk about it as though
their defeat would be such a calamity
that no measures could be too dis
graceful or dishonest to be taken 10 avoid
it. No doubt Mr.. Manton Marble was so
dclugcd with n belief in the necessity fer MT.
Tilden's election that he excused himself for
engaging in the cipher negotiations in the
same way" had to do it, or be beaten y;
and the dishOnor Of bribery did not seem
to him half so bad as the calamity of
defeat Perhaps this sort OF casustry would
satisfy that noble Relormer, Mr.. TIldcn,
or the crcdul0us Mr.. Lcvcrctt Saitonstall,
both of whom seem much more east down
over the misfortune of defeat than shocked at
the practices by which the coparccncrs at
tcuptcd to avert it. But it will hardly be
accepted by the great mass of voters, who
think 1t of more importance to have a
clean election than TO have even Mr..
Tildcn President by purchase. We do not
doubt the sincerity of the South Carolina
Democrats who assert the necessity for their
Gt.F.
mquestonably believe that the cOlored voters
ought to he deprived of franchise which
they do not appreciate or understand,
and that any means by which this can
be effected are justl!iablc. They would
prefer Of course to have the negroes
surrender voluntarily, but as they are not dis
posed to do that, why thcu the only remain
ing resource is TO put them down by intmi-
dation and fraud. This they do, and more in
explanation than apology say "We had to
" do it OF we should have been beaten"
And.ths is the latest form of South Carolina
notification, not openly of United States law,
but secretly and indirectly by the nullilica-
ton of votes cast under the sanctions
and guarantees of those laws. There's
very strong impression at the
North that this is not good thing
TO encourage or even to cOuntenancc by
silence and inaction. The Southern Democ-
racy, encouraged by the sympathy of the
Northern wing Of the party, made an unpro-
vOked and aggressive war to extend and per-
petuate the system of bondage in which
these cOlored men were held. 1t was one of
the results of that struggle that the
blacks were given first their freedom
and then the ballot with which to defend it.
For two reasons the North cannot regard
with indifference this extinction of the negro
vote by violence and fraud first, because 1t is