Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-12-05
/" Had 10 Do IT,

AllOuuC.
"EIad 10 Do 1t.''
although it was little crooked" said the
young man from Kershaw County when de-
scribing the manner in which Wade Hamp-
tons followers carried South Carolina with
the tissue paper ballots, as narrated by our
correspondent, "we had to do it." And that
of course is the only excuse The young
man did rot think how old end threadbare it
was; how it has done service in extenuation
of crimes of every sort since sin came into the
world; how injustice, oppression, and wrong
in all ages have put it forward, and how to-
day it flies back and forth like a shuttle in all
our courts where criminals stand up to plead;
now on the lips of the betrayer of great finan-
cial trusts, and now uttered despairingly by
the poor wretch who 'had to do' some petty
crime to keep from starving Yes, they chad
to do it." So the Tweed gang, when they
bribed Legislatures, had to do it or lose their
hold upon the public purse-strings and the op-
portunities for plundering the taxpayers.
"Why plunder the taxpayers ?" does anybody
ask? Because they ''had to do it" to raise
the money to keep the Democratic machine
in operation; to reward their runners to salts
fy hungry and importunate hangers-on whose
''inf1uence" they needed a; elections; to main.
tain themselves in good pr lions and in such
ease and comfort that they could afford to
give their time and talents To- he conduct Of
political affairs and the government of this
great city. Does this seem an 1, i,aSurd excuse?
Perhaps so, now, after the rasc,.lities of that
regime have been exposed, and some of the
perpetrators disgraced and punished. But
eight years ago Mr.. Tweed's 1--WE had to do
1t, was just as plausible and forceful plea in
extenuation as they are putting forward to-
day in South Carolina. "We had to do it.
they said down there, ''or We should have
been beaten" Who "beaten?" Why the
Democratic party, to be sure. 1t was the
same alternative precisely with MIR. Tweed
and his gang. They chad to do it" for the
same reason-or the Democratic party would
have been beaten. And, although it may of
fend South Carolina ears, il is simple truth to
0NJ SANS eiN NANOoS was JuoL d. oOuuU Ill Ouc
case as in the other. 1t was no worse for
Tweed & Co., to stuff ballot-boxes and COM
NIT the crimes they did, than for Governor
Hampton's friends to do what they lately did
in South Carolina. The necessity was the
same in both cases-to prevent the Demo.
cratic 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 precedents for this sort of thing. They |
thave Leen doing all manner of mischief for |
he 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 Missouri |
that the slave-driving Democra-
cy required it; and the party would be beaten
if it did not yield. So when they attempted |
to force slavery into Kansas, and used vio-
lence and fraud in the effort, they chad to do |
it or be beaten;" and they undertook to break |
up the Union in 1861 because they 'shad to
do it'' or stay in Union in which they had /
been beaten. The theory was that the South |
was born to rule; that the Government prop
erly belonged to Southern statesmen; and |
they began the war of the Rebellion with the
same complacent explanation, ooh, We had
to do it, or be beaten" AS if the bare fact
that the Slave-driving Democracy was in
danger of losing absolute control was a suffi-
cient excuse for treason and rebellion. "Iad
to do it," They are always having to do
brutal or dishonest or disgraceful
to save themselves from being beaten. And
they talk about it as though their defeat
would be such calamity that no measures
could be too disgraceful OF dishonest to be
taken to avoid it. No doubt Mr.. Manton
Marble was so deluged with belief in the
for Mr.. Tilden's election that he
excused himself for engaging in the cipher
negotiations in the same way-''had to do it,
or be beaten" and the dishonor of bribery did
not seem to him half so bad as the calamity of
defeat. Perhaps this sort of casuistry would
satisfy that noble Reformer, Mr. Tilden, or
the credulous MIR. Leverett Saltonstall, both
of whom seem much more cast down over the
of defeat than shocked at the prac-
tices by which the coparceners attempted to
avert it. But it will hardly be accepted by
the great mass of voters, who think it of more
Importance to have a clean election than to
have even Mr.. Tilden President by purchase.
We do not doubt the sincerity of the South
Carolina Democrats who assert the necessity
for their having absolute control of the State.
They unqucstionably believe that the colored
voters ought to be deprived of franchise
which they do not appreciate or understand,
and that any means by which this can be ef-
fected are justifable. They would prefer of
course To have the negroes surrender volun-
.arily, but as they are not disposed to do that,
why then the only remaining resource is to
put them down by intimidation and fraud. !