The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1878-06-12

4 Il
During the late Presidential campaign IL
was the plan Of the Democracy to have a sol.
id South, and as it was known that in a fair
election at least five or six Southern states
would be carried for the Republicans, it was
resolved to bulldoze and intmidate the color
ed voters in order to accomplish the result
That the colored voters of the South were in
Inundated is matter of evidence that no in
telligent and honest man can deny. Two men
who claim their seats in Congress from South
Carolina at the present session of Congress
put their claim on the fact that the order of
President Grant disbanding the armed Dem
ocratic Clubs prevented their election Could
an admission of the effect of these armed men
be more positive? Here is where the fraud
began, and by this means the Republican par
ty was robbed of the vote of at least three
states.
The following extracts from Southern pa
pers and remarks by correspondent from
Mississippi, viii show with what honesty and
fairness the Democracy carried on and purpose
to carry on the contest in that section;
IL MUST GARRY THEM,
Under this significant caption the following
editorial article appears in the Mississippi
Brookhaven Ledger of May Q, 1873:
Because the people of Mississippi have re-
solved to elect six Representatives to Con
gress this fall, the jackson Times wants to
know if the election is to be conducted on the
bull-dozing plan. Yes, if necessary--on that
or any plan to keep the Radicals out OF pow
- l.. =. Il
ry every district, and the next is 10 do ii. If
Independents and Radicals league together to
defeat a Democratic victory, treat them alike.
Mississippi is Democratic and must remain so.
Let the Times not lose sight of that fact. And
it is we'll enough to state here the walls of the
Times do not amount to anything The peo-
pie pay no attention to them. They know
their duty and will maintain it, and the Times
can shake the bloody shirt from now till
doomsday without effect. Win the Times
wall again
And the Columbus Miss Independent of
May 4th, on the same subject, says :
We repeat, we advocate pitching the can.
vass ON high key. Native sons of Missis-
sippi who hare proUed themselves to be as
base as carpet-baggers and native sons who
mag prone themselves to be equally base by
accepting the support of the element which
pie of the State merit, and must be subjected
to, the same heroic treatment practiced upon
aliens.
In this district Republicans and would be-
Democrats, who have forfeited the respect
and confidence of their party friends, are en-
deayoring to influence some prominent Dem
ocrat to become an Independent candidate for
Congress, promising him the support of their
black cohorts. IL such a one can be found
nnlt 70 vie l,a -
nee must hunt him down as an enemy to the
safety of the community.
We have conquered, aud, having once con-
quered, must hold firmly and forever.
Now, what are some of the facts as to Con.
gressional districts in Mississippi /?
In Republican times the State elected five
Republican Representatives at majorities
ranging from 5000 to 10000, and one Demo.
erat at majority of s, 1000. The districts
We're blocked out of contiguous counties, and
without gerrymandering that could be COM
planned Of When the Democracy came into
power by the shotgun policy of 1875, they
Immediately redistricted the State without
any regard to deeeney or right, and with the
sole view of eleeting nearly solid Democrat
ic delegation. There is public crime con
nected with this unprecedented wrong which
the people of the country should know
by the act of 1876 five Democratic districts
were created, two very close and one Repub-
lican comprising all the counties on the Miss
issipp river from Memphis to New Orleans, a
distance of nearly five hundred miles. 1t is
known as the "Shoe String or "Blaols
Snake " district, being all length with little
breadth. In some places this district is less
than ten miles across, and in no case wider
than a county. 1t embraces the "negro belt .
and by the census of 1870 has $4,000 eolored
majority of qualified electors This dstric,
was labelled Radical y by its creators, and
the most inveterate bull dozer had no idea
then Of its ever being carried by his party
But the political robbers and mnrderers who
could subvert majority of 10000 in the State
by meditated and publicly organized crime
were equal, by the same means, to Is, 900 in a
district. fitting leader was found in Gen
Chalmers, the lieutenant of Forest at Fort
Pillow, and by systematzed intimidation,
bull-dozing, rioting, ballot box stuffing, aud
false counting, Chalmers was returned elected
with majority of $500. Three hundred
pages of testimony before Senator AIorton's
committee tell of the terrible prosecutions
Republicans suffered in this stamping out OF
their political life; thirty or more being hung
to trees or shot to death in single county,
One thousand pages could not record the
atrocities committed in that campaign in this
single district. Chalmers is now in Congress
and is fetod by Bostonians in Faneuil Hall as
representative of Southern good will, honor
and Cancellation.
The Ledger above quoted frankly acknowl-
edges the spirit in which the approaching can
vass is to be conducted and a solid Democrat
ic delegation from Mississippi secured by
whatever means may be required, just as was
done in 1876. Yet good natured Republicans
in the North crednlously wonder if these
things can be SO, and imagine they are made
up tor campaign purposes Let them 90 there
and see.
TIE dav af or tho introdneiion of tbo poi