Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-08-10
FOOLS OR KNAYEX.

OdTOllIld EtepuDllCdIlS. fOilClcIanS OF DOM
parties in various parts of the country have
deemed it necessary, to accomplish their
purposes, to occasionally indulge in prevari-
cation and Misrepresentation of the princi-
pies and aims of their opponents, but they
have generally done it with some slight re-
gard for decency-have had some slight
foundation of truth upon which to base
their charges. But the Republicans of South
Carolina, who are at best an insignificant
and disreputable lot of political bummers,
have capped the climax by adopting series
of resolutions Astounding in invective and
abuse of the Democratic party of both the
State and the nation, and containing mass
of base and baseless ISLANDERS and accusa-
ship among liars and traducers.
The pretense that the principles of equal
civil and political rights can only be en-
forced by the Republican party is too alb
surd for comment, when We consider that
that party is the only one that has ever at
tempted to abridge those rights and by
force of arms and under color of law-the
enforcement attempt to prevent the
free expression of the will of the people. OF
a piece with it is the expressed adherence of
Republicans of violence, intimidation, or
fraud in elections. When we look over the
record of the party in South 9 ,rolina,
Florida and Louisiana, and see
such overwhelming proofs of the at
tod
the people of those States, we ale led to the
belief that the Republicans of South Caro-
lima are either most ignorant fools, or daring
and accomplished liars. The charge that
the Democrats of the State have been un-
faithful to their pledges made in 1876 is
sufficiently answered by the fact that never,
since the first organization of South Caro-
lima as State, have there been as few crimes
against life and property within its borders,
and never has crime been so surely detected
and as uniformly punished as since the
Democrats obtained control of it's affairs.
Gov. Hampton pledged himself to repress
violence and enforce the laws. He has done
so, and has received the hearty cooperation
to be wondered at that those who are so
often within the clutches of the law should
have no good opinion of it or of its agents.
But perhaps the most amusing and NEIL
dacious part of the platform is the plank in
which these conscience stricken wretches de-
clare:
We deem 1T inexpedient to nominate can
dldate for Governor and other State officers
because, owing to the condition of affairs in
this State, occasioned by rifle club rule and
two years of Democratic supremacy, it is i'm
possible for Republican voters in many coun-
ties, without mourning great personal danger,
to organize for the campaign or to vote at the
election when held.
OF course it is possible that the human
mind can become so diseased as to be able
to "call up spirits from the vastly deep,' and
invest them with all the attributes of reality
And it is also possible that the Republicans
of South Carolina in fact see
the ghosts of their own misdeeds
arising to mock and accuse them. We would
not be astonished if, in their minds, they
saw visions
"Of clanking fetters-low, mysterious groans-
DicCo-ciuSteu ostSSefS anu uncO11lneQ bones
Pale gliding ghosts, with fingers dripping gore
And blue flames dancing round a dungeon
door,
and fancied that these horrors were designed
to prevent them from voting the Republican
ticket. But these ghosts are merely crea-
lures of diseased imagination-have no
existence in fact. Rifle clubs and Democrat
ic rule have only terrors to the vicious and
criminal classes. They are not designed to
prevent the expressions of the will of the
people, and it is either piece of downright
insanity or deliberate falsehood to charge
that there is any purpose in the present gov
ernment of South Carolina to deprive even
the humblest citizen, except he be crimi-
nal, of the privilege of expressing his hon
est convictions at the ballot boz.