New-York tribune., 1879-03-29
FREE ELECTIONS THE ESSENCE OF FREE
DOM

|
II is time for Republicans to consider
the Democratic Army bill in the light
! of present facts. There has been too
much talk Of precedents and of cOnsis-
tency, in dealing with this subject, and too
little attention to the grave fact that Demo
cratic revolution has already gone so far as
to make all prccedents worthless. There are
new conditions, which demand entirely differ
cnt action from that which was proper when
the aim of the Government was to test the
fidelity, the loyalty and the honor of South
em Democrats by a kindly and generous con-
fdence The test has been made, and has
failed Free elections, in the absence of mil
itary force, have not been secured at
the South, as Southern men promised.
| Wade Hampton himself, chief among the
makers of pledges. has broken them all by
| tolerating the systematic invasion of peace
able meetings and of voting places all over
the State of South Carolina, by armed and
drilled bodies of Democratic rebels. There is
no other fit name for men who attempt to
overthrow by display of armed force the free
| Government which the Constitution establishes.
! ONLY because force and terrorism did not suf
fee to overcome the real majority, tissue bal
lots were systematically used, and the people
were cheated Nor has this revolutionary
conduct been confined to one State Who
does not remember how full Democratic Tegi-
meuts were raised, armed and drilled, and even
supplied with artillery, in order TO OverpOwer
the Republican majority in Pulaski County,
Arkansas7 The very same course has been
taken in Louisiana, where massacre has alter
mated with assassination as a means of Dem
In MIgSI ClrNI.I in do
and, in short, in nearly every State at the
South where a Republican majority existed,
armed force has been used to crush it. The
Democratic demand has come to mean this :
that one party may arm, drill, terrorize, in
wade meetings and polling places, and assaS-
| sinate or massacre as much as 1t pleaseS,
and that the Government shall be stripped Of
all power to protect its citizens to defend the
| freedom of elections to enforce its laws, or to
preserve the peace.
The British parallel, suggested by Demo-
Gratis, covers them with infamy. There never
was in Great Britain any resort to armed
mobs for the control of elections. Assassina-
| tion and massacre never were resOrted to
! there as political weapons. These are not
! Anglo Saxon methods; they are Mexican, and
! belong to creatures who utterly unfit for
self-government. The only danger in Great
Britain has been, not from the revolutionary
/ whence of armed mObs. but from the linger-
| ing power of a monarchy once absolute, from
/ which liberty had been wrested by slow de-
| gTees. The restraints there nCedful and proper
| become mere aids to rebellion where freedom
| is assailcd, as here, never by a central power,
| but by armed invasion OF meetings and polls
| by lawless mObs.
| 1t is high time for Republicans TO declare
broadly and resOlutely the true rule namely,
| that the first necessity in a free Government
is to maintain free. honest and peaceable
| elections There ought to be in this country.
ut every poll, civil officer backed by ample
| power whose duty it should be to suppress
all violence, or terrorism. or forcible inter
! ference by either party. 1t is the theory and
| intention of our laws that there always shall
be such an officer, backed, primarily, by the
whole power of law-ablding citizens, and, in
case of need, by all the military force of the
! United States Government. Not in vain does
the Constitution make the President Com
mandeT-in-C Chief OF the Army, and bind him
! by an oath to take care that the laws shall
be executed and the peace preserved If
local officers were not traitors, Federal power
would be invoked only where revolutionary
violence had become too strong TO be sup
pressed by the civil power Of State or
! local Governments. But the plain truth