New-York tribune., 1878-11-25
SOLID SOUTH CIROLINA.


Our correspondent IN South Carolina con-
tnues in this mornings TRIBUNE his account
of the process by which the Republican party
was eliminated from that happy land the
other day, and full stop was put to the IN
convenient practice which seems to have for
merly prevailed with the cOlOred citizens
there of voting according to their convictions
and inclnatiOns His clear, straightforward
and very moderate letters will be generally
read, and they will carry conviction. The
pursuit of information thus far has been at
tended with no great difficulty. The Demo
Gratis, as a rule, say little about the last
election; but the incidents of the cam
paign, the methods of the ballOting and
the count, are notorious and undIsputcd;
and If they are not much talked about,
except by the victims, it is not be-
cause there is any lack of knowledge on the
subject. AS a South Carolina gentleman OBJ
served to another, in the confidence of a loud
public conversation in smoklng-car, the
tissue-paper ballots were used "all over the
State Although it was little crooked, it
"wasn't very wrong after all. We Ind to do
"H. or are ShOuld hare been bedten.' Which
settled the question, of course.
Two aspects of the case are presented viv-
idly in our correspondents letters. One is the
systematic. intimidation of the negroes be-
fore the election the other is the sys-
tematic and enormous Justification of the
vote afterwards. 1t Is an unworthy mock
ery to speak of the election III South
Carolina as quiet" and to protest that no
blood was shed III depriving the cOOred voters
of their rights, when the whole military force
of the "red shirts" was employed for weeks
before election day to break up the Rcpubli-
can meetings and 10 torrify the poor freed
| people with the notion of an impending mas
| sacre. Certainly the terrorism which is in
! spired by companies of infantry, cavalry, and
artillery, parading in front of the negroes
political meetings, the " best men" all " well
"hceled," and the cannon OstentatiOusly loaded
with tenpenny nails, is no less real than the
violence which draws blood or leaves broken
/ homes. Northern mud-sills are incapable of
appreciating the fine flower of chivalry which
can thus demean itself toward the ignorant
and helpless. But what the gentleman SAID
of stuffing ballot boxes, he would probably
say of pointing artillery at obstinate voters
owe had to do 1t, or we should have been
| "beaten."
| Euftner uCldllS are given dbOut tIt use Ol
the tissue-paper tickets or " kiss jokes or
"Hampton's little iokers." They seem Ia
| have been furnished III unlimited quantities
! from some central authority, and to have
been quite generally employed, either folded
| in with the regular ballots, or in some cases
! boldly crammed into the box by the handful.
| BY highly ingenious arrangement these
fraudulent papers-for which it was im-
possible that there should be any honest
use-were made to count double. The law
provides that if the ballots, on being counted,
| are found to exceed in number the names on
| the pol-lists, they shall all be returned to the
box and the surplus shall be drawn out at
random, after which the count shall go on.
! OF course wherever the little jOkcrs were
used n great excess appeared. But III count
ing, the canvasscrs took the precautiOn to lay
the Republican and Democratic ballots in
separate piles, and when they were put back
| into the box the Democratic tickets always
went in first, with the Republican tickets on
top. Thus the surplus to be drawn out came al
| most entirely from the Republican vote, and
every " little joker not merely added one
fraudulent vote to the Democratic total, but in
volved the destruction of one genuine vote
cast for the other side. Upon the whole, the
disappearance of the Republican majority in
South Carolina may be said to be pretty COM
pletely explained. The gentlemen in red
shirts have been asking us what we are going
to do about it. We think the question with
| honorable Americans now ought to be, What
| is Wade Hampton going to do about 1t 7