New-York tribune., 1878-11-12
ELLCTIONS Ar THE SOUTH.

!
gress by virtue of an amendment of the Con-
stitution which they have declared Infamous,
unconstitutional and void. True, they were
elected by fraud or violence. The startling
letter of Mr. Mackey of South Carolina, which
was printed by TIE TErBUNE yesterday, and
ought to be reproduced in every journal IN
the land which seeks to publish the truth,
gives picture Of the real condition of many
Southern districts. First, prescription Of the
worst sort is employed to break down the Re-
publican party; then assassinations are devised
by secret leagues and terrible massacres strike
terror to the hearts of timid or peace-Ovng
voters; and finally, if all these methods fail,
the ball0t-bOxes are stuffed with Democratic
ballots on little slips of tissue paper, with such
reckless impudence that the number OF ballots
counted exceeds the entire number OF the
/ names on the poll-lists in at least twenty pre-
! cincts out of thrty-tWO in county. Every
! day il Is becoming more plain that the "Solid
"South is product, not OF the free-will OF
voters, but of systematic violence and bound
! less fraud. The men who could not buy the
/ Presidency in 1875 mean to steal it in 1880,
! and if a SolId North does not prevent, they
surely will. But they would have power to
4
worst, and could not have gained, even by
! force and fraud, as many members by at least
| ~ as they now have gained, if the recent
amendments OF the Constitution were not in
! full force against the Union, though void
! against its foes. The Southern Democrats deny
! the validity of the Fifteenth Amendment, and
! trample it under foot and deprive the cOlored
! Republicans of all chance to choose represen-
! tafives OF their own even in localities where
| they outnumber the whites ten to one and yet
| these same Southern Democrats elect II more
| members of Congress than they could elect if
| the negroes had remained slaves.
| Emancipation, VIC all remember was the
crowning act in the suppression of the re-
| bellion. But it was said with truth, by all
| intelligent citizens, that emancipation would
prove farce without enfranchiSement. In
| States governed by former masters, the ne
! groes would have been in a condition worse
! than slavery. The breaking of fctters
| would have been an act of cruelty, had the
negro been left without ballot for the de
fence of his personal rights. There were sa-
| gaciOus men who then maintained that no
change of the Constitution would suffice that
communities which were hostile to the Union
could not be safely trusted, until whole gen
Grafton had passed, either with tue admins
tratiOn of local governments upon which the
relations between the late masters and their
late slaves would depend, or with a
share in the Government of the United States.
1t was their most urgent plea that the United
States should hold in its own hand for years
| the protection of the cOOred people in their
rights, and that the communities lately in re-
| beliOn should be retained as territories under
military supervision until loyal local govern
ments could be firmly established. But the
| more generous view prevailed. The country
decided to trust those who had rebelled, and
| to restore them to the share in the Govern
ment of the Union which they had forfeited
providing only that the increased representa-
| tiOn resulting from emancipation of the ne
| grOes should 60 to their benefit, and not to
| the benefit of their late masters. The former
slaves. it was declared, should elect their own
representatives. On those terms States were
readmitted. The faithful observance of those
terms was a condition in fact, and is 10 this
day condition in reason and equity. of the
restoration of the defeated rebels to political
rights.
| Yet the colored citizens are no longer per-