Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1879-04-17

intend to disfranchise the Republicans
of the south and carry every state for
the Democratic presidential candidates.
At the last election some seven hundred
thousand Republicans were robbed of
their votes by violence and cheating and
by such crimes against popular govern
ment the south has been made 'solid"
for Democracy. The chivalry" with
rifles in one hand and tissue ballots in
the other, elected the present Democrat
ic majority in the national congress. The
Investigations already made of the
elections of Florida, South Carolina
and Louisiana, supplemented by the
reports of reliable eye witnesses
and correspondents prove that the Con-
federate element carried those elections
by barbarous and brutal methods utterly
destructive of free government and per-
sonal liberty. Senator Butler, of South
Carolina, owes his seat to the fact that
he led ferocious mob upon an unarmed
and defenceless body of colored men,
trying to exercise their constitutional
rights as freemen. The leader goes by
the name of Butcher Butler because
he is red with the blood of innocent
men. This is only specimen. All over
the south violence has ragged and the
colored men been harried and driven in
terror from the polls; and where vio-
lence was unnecessary ballot stufing and
false counting have given the Democrats
the victory. These facts are notorious
and are abundantly established by indis.
putable evidence, in the states of Flori-
da, South Carolina, Mississippi and
Louisiana and other states. The success
of the southern Democrats at the last
election was the triumph of the mob by
cheating, by ferocious terrorism, by the
shot gun and by murder. 1t was q
vast and concerted insurrection and con-
spiracy against free government. The
rights of the majority were trampled
down and the old minority of slave
masters secured supremacy by means as
detestable and as dangerous to the re-
public as was the despotism of slavery;
in fact, it was the slavery tactics over
again. Before the war they ruled by
the lash and the chain; now they mean
to rule by the revolver and the tissue
ballot. The object is the sane in both
cases-the remorseless domination and
sway VI Iuc OOu1cucIdIc CAdoS hAO tuc
permanent subjugation of the majority
of the people. 1t is because of this pur-
pose and the means adopted to secure it,
that the south is "solid", against the
election laws. These laws interfere with
this purpose; they secure witnesses of
the crime and the deputy marsbals are
authorized to make arrests and severe
penalties follow conviction. No wonder
they hate the law! The exposure, if it
does not entirely arrest the crime, en-
! lightens and rouses the northern people
and tends to unite them against the
attempt to seize the general government
by such means.
! It is useless to smut our. eyes to: the
truth and "indulge in the illusions Of
hope" in regard to the Democratic par
ty. The Confederate brigadiers" are
its masters still, and, as of old, dictate
its policy; they intend to carry the
southern states in the next presidential
election by defrauding the majority of
their constitutional rights; they rely
upon the Tammany machine to secure