Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-11-11
From the New York Tribune.
Wade HamptOn's Broken Pledges


patch from South Carolina. This is the
State, let us remember. which. as Mr..
Tilden's confidential agent reported in
cipher to him actually gave majority of
its votes in favor of republican electors in
1876. Within two years, when the repub-
lican votes at the North have greatly In
creased, have half of the republican vot-
ers of South Carolina been converted to
democracy Or is it conceivable that the
entire republican vote was voluntarily
withdrawn; that 90, 900 free citizens, who
voted for Messrs. Rainey, Cain, Smals
and other republican candidates for Con-
gresstwo years ago, have now unanimous
ly refused to vote for the same and SINH
lar candidates. Let this question be seri-
ously and carefully considered by the cti-
zens of Northern States. 1t involves
something UNNECESSARILY more important
than the success or failure of either party
in single State or Congressional election
There can be no better time TO consider it
than this. The democrats have control of
the State government, and every member
of the legislature except three, it is said,
and every representative in Congress.
Whatever they wanted in South Carolina
they have secured Nor is there any Con-
gressional committee by which the demo-
cratic methods in South Carolina will be
investigated. But those methods will
nevertheless be examined, and anxiously
by the people of the North, where freedom
exists and the Constitution is obeyed.
ai Let 1t be supposed. for example. that
the State Of New Jersey, having given a
small but unquestioned majority for Mr.
Tilden two years ago. had given this year
one hundred thousand majority for the re-
publicans, electing straight republican
delegation to Congress, and hardly enough
democratic members of the Legislature to
be counted as scattering. Every one
would have asked at once whether such
result could have occurred without fraud
or crime. Even if every candidate had
been changed, and every new candidate
of the democratic party had been sudden
ly proved guilty of crimes as offensive as
those laid at the door of No Is Creamery
Park, the democratic vote would not have
diminished one-half No conceivable in
fuence would have made as many as one
quarter OF the democrats willing to vote
for the party against which they had
fought SO long. II half of the democrats
had been reported as voting republican
ticket cor If nine-tenths of them had been
reported as refusing to vote, there is not a
reasonable and candid man In the country
who would not have said, Either the
count was false or the vote was not free
Il Wade Hampton undertook, upon his
honor as a gentleman, to see that the Con
stitution and laws of the United States
were faithfully enforced and fully respect
ed in South Carolina. We know right
we'll that it was difficult task that it
was hard work for BIN to restrain the ex-
tremists and the rabid Office seekers of hi.
party, even If he tried his best. But he un
dertook the task voluntarily. The result
is that it has not been performed There
has been no free election In South Carroll
ma. The Constitution of the United States
has been openly and Systematically defied
The laws of the United States have been
completely broken. The meetings of one
party have not been free, aud Wade
Hampton knows it. Moreover, he has
made no movement whatever to protect
the members of that party in their right
OF free assemblags. The Tribune calls
upon him by name, because he pledged
his personal honor, and tells him that the
facts and the result place mark upon
him which we fear he will not be able to
efface. They do not indicate that he has
made. SO far as can be seen, the slightest
effort in this respect to enforce the Con
stitution and the laws of the United States,
as he pledged his honor and took solemn
oath that he would. He knows the FOLLY
Of the prevaricating excuses so often made
by his partisans. He knows that at the
North. and at the South as WELL all hon
cradle men will despise him as dishonored
and foresworn if he resorts to those ex.
cuses, or suffers the facts as they now an.
pear 10 pass into history without ex.
PLANTATION. 1t matters not whether the
democratic majority proves to be 100 900,
or 10000, or $4,000, as long as it is
palpably majority which, in State like
South Carolina, does not reflect the honest
and free choice of its citizens. 1t reflect, :
the will of class. That class rules
through Wade Hampton. And the free
choice. the will, and even the freedom OF
discussion, of every other class of citizens
are stamped out utterly, with the aid and
approval, and for the benefit. of the man
who pledged his personal honor to see that
all citizens in South Carolina were protect.
ed in their rights.
This is but one State out of sixteen. II
offers a sample of the least offensive mode
of defying the Constitution. In some
O..