The Portland daily press., 1878-11-30
The D0ughface Again

A striking Illustration of Northern subser-
viency to Southern interests Is to be found in
an article from the Albany argus, "The Ra-
tionale OF Bulldozing," copied into another
column. The article is cringe to the South
from first word to last. The New York pa
per does not attempt to deny that the South
ern States were carried for the Democrats by
intimidation of the colored voters. 1t de-
tends that intimidation as natural and proper.
The strain is the same in vogue years ago
when Democrats praised the system of hu-
man slavery as a benefcent institution, and
boldly declared that the superior race had a
natural right to bold the inferior in bondage.
They now assume that the white minority
has right to govern the black majority oe-
cause that minority is acquainted with the
arts of government and skilful in the use of
arms. The franchise is a mockery. The ne
groes are only to be permitted to vote if they
vote as their white masters dictate.
n-comhatants, those unable to fight, the
Albany paper argues, should be debarred
from suffrage. An application of this rule
would have disfranchised Prescott because he
was blind, or driven Pitt from the House of
Commons because he was so lame he had to
be horne there in chair, or would debar
Governor Connor from citizenship because
he limps about on erutches. Every soldier
disabled in the Rebellion would be disfran-
chised. Every Quaker would be driven from
the polls. That is the monstrous doctrine
advanced bv Northern Democratic defenders
OF Southern bulldozing. 1t is in very spirit
and almost in words the rule of conduct of
Rob Roy, "That they shall take who have the
power and they shall keep who can" the
principle upon which every despotism is
based, every weak nation attacked and robbed
by stronger; it is the excuse of the high
wayman and the murderer. II was pleaded
by Haynau when he scourged the women of
Venice; by Constantine when he harried Po-
land; by the Turkish Beys and Pashas when
they desolated Bulgaria, burned its villages,
murdered its men and dishonored its women.
What wonder that the practical exercise by
the South Of this rule of despots and robbers
and its defense by Northern Democrats have
aroused the Indignation of the North! We
should be base and cowardv if we did not
feel our blood stirring and our cheeks aflame.
Ii murder and oppression can be defended as
the right of the strong over the weak then
that other feature of Southern voting, the
wholesale stuffirg of ballot boxes, may be
as the right of the cunning over the
simple. 1t will be perfectly proper for one
man to cheat another because he is shrewder
than his victim; for one man to pick the
pockets OF another because he is quicker
fingered; for one man to forge the name of
another because he is more expert With the
pen. All this is the logical outcome OF the
doctrine that Southern bulldozers advance
aud Northern doughfaces defend.
No account seems to be taken Of the laws
framed to protect the weak. The fact that
the Union was formed in order to preserve
domestic tranquility and equal rights, is ig-
nored. The constitutional amendments.
that give the suffrage to the weaker race, are
nullified. And this is done OF pretext that
will as we'll justify the disregard of the laws
against stealing, and forgery, and rape, and
murder-the pretext that the stronger and
the more canning have the right to work
their will, and that the weaker and the SIM
pier must submit.