Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-12-25
Wafrhman & Journal
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER %, 1873.
Election Frauds at the South.
SENATOR BLAtsE's SrKEcH DELIVERED IN THE USrTED
STATES SESATR DEcEsBER II, 1873

recent elections were carried by the democratic
party in the Southern States. Second, to find II
there be any method by which a repetition Of
these crimes against n free ballot may be pre-
vented.
The newspaper is the channel through which
the people Of the United States are informed Of
current events, and the accounts given in the
press represent the elections in some OF the South
ern states to have been accompanied by violence.
in not few cases reaching the destruction Of life
to have been controlled by threats that awed and
intimidated a large class of voters to have been
manipulated by fraud Of the most shameless and
shameful description. Indeed, in South Carolina
there seems to have been no election at all in any
proper sense OF the term. There was instead q
series Of skirmshes over the state in which the
polling-places were regarded as forts to be CAP
tured by one party and held against the other,
and where this could not be done with convent
ence frauds in the count and tssue-ballot devices
were resoited to ia order to effectualy destroy
the voice Of the ma ority. These in brief are the
accounts given in the non-partsan press, of the
dsgraceful outragcs that attended the recent cleo
tions and, so far as have seen, these statements
are without serious contradiction. It is but just
and fair tn all parties, however that AN impartial
investigation of the facts shall be made by COM
mittee Of the Senate, proceeding under the author
ity Of law and representing the power OF the ma
ton Hence my resolution.
Bnt we do not need investigation to establish Ger.
tain facts already of official record We know that
one hundred and six representatives in Congress
were recently chosen in the states formerly slave
holding and that the democrats elected one hun
dro1 nd npasibly hunIrpd N nd tyo nd
the Republicans four, or possibly five. We know
that thirty-five Of these representatives were as
signed to the Southern States by reason OF the
eolored population, and that the entire political
power thus founded on the numbers of the col
ored people has been seized and appropriated to
the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of its own strength by the
democratic party Of the South.
The issue thus raised before the country, Mr..
President, Is not one of mere sentiment for the
rights Of the negro-though far distant be the
day when the rights OF any American citizen,
however black or however poor, shall form the
mere dust of the balance in any controversy; nor
is the issue one that involves the waving OF the
" bloody-shirt," to quote the elegant vernacular
Of democratic vtnperation; nor still further il the
issue as now presented only n question Of the
equality Of the black voter Of the South with the
white voter Of the South; the issue, Mr.. Presi-
dent has taken a far wider range, one of porten-
tous magnitude; and that is, whether the white
voter of the North shall be equal to the white
voter of the South in shaping the policy and fix
ing the destiny OF this country; or whether, to
put it still more badly, the white man who fought
in the ranks of the Union army shall have as
weighty and influential vote in the government
of the republic as the white man who fought n
tine ranks OF the rebel army. The one Tough 60
uphold, the other to destroy, the union OF tina
states, and to-day he who fought to destroy Is a
far more important factor in the government oil
the nation than he who fought to uphold II.
Let me illustrate my meaning by comparing
groups OF states OF the same representative strength
North and South. Take the states OF South Caro-
lima, Mississippi and Louisiana. They send seven
teen representatives To Congress. Their aggre-
gate population is composed Of 1,O3j 900 whites
and ,22i,0W colored, the colored being nearly
10000 in excess OF the whites. or the seventeen
representatives, then, it is evident that nine were
apportonod to these states by reason of their col
ored population, and only eight by reason OF their
white popuIation ana yet III the cholce oil the en-
tire seventeen representatives the colored voters
'''' "N 'N'N '~'N~ - i' ~
kindred on the shores of SenegamDia or on the
Gold Coast Inc l,o@''ooo white people hau the
sole and absolute choice oil the entire seventeen
representatives. In contrast, take TWO states IN
the North Iowa and Wisconsin, with seventeen
representatives. Ihey nave whlte populato oil
224IooJ-consderably more thah douDle the en-
tire white population OF the three southern states
! have named In Iowa ana Wisconsin' there-
lore, IL taxes loz'ooo whlte popu'a''oh 10 sehu
representative 10 Congress- o'' III ooutn N"roiina'
MISSISSIPPI ana LOUISIANA every "oo" wil'e
people sehu representative III o'he' "o'"H'
ooooo whlte people III thoSe southern oui'cs h"'e
precisely the same poiiticai power III Tue govern
lnent oil the country that loZ'Vo whte people
have In Iowa and Wisconsin
Take another group oil seventeen fepresen'a'
tves from the south ana IRON the Nor'l' "eor-
gia and Alabama nave white population o'
l'15S'ooo, and colored population oil l'V=o"V
They send seventeen representatives TO congress
oil whom nine were appor,ioheu ON account VI u't
white population, and eight ON account OF the col
| ored popnH''ioh' nut 'he co'ofeu 'o'eis "'e ho
aoe TO choose single representative 'he wnl'e
democrats choosing the whole seventeen Inv
| iour northern suates' Michigan' M'hhcsou'' NC
brtska and Caiiiornii' nave seventeen represent
atiVes' BASED on white popniatoh o' TWO oahu
quarter miIiions' or almost double the "h''
| population oil Georgia ana Alabama so that II
these relative groups OF states we fnd the whit'
man South exercises by his vote double the po
litcal power OF the white man North
Let us carry the comparison 10 more compfe
hensive generalization. The eleven states ina
| formed the confederate government had, py th