The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1879-05-29

L
thoughts. aud the thoughts Of HE fel'
low-victims, who had also been bis
fellow soldiers, as they lay like fel
ons in prison in "Fort Davenport" for
Offering to vote7 How did their bit.
ter Thoughts in that hour of degreda-
ton compare with their glorious
dreaMs - they often lay together on
the tented field; when their
Buslss sang truce: for the night cloud had
lowered.
And the sentinel stars set their watch in the
sky;
And thousands had sunk ON the ground oyer
powered
The weary to Sleep and the wounded to die.
In such an hour as this they dream
ed not only Of returning to the dear
ones at home, to their rapturous,
clinging embrace, and burning kiss,
but they likewise dreamed of return
ing to . land1of liberty, to the homes
mAfi6 free from the invasive steps of
tho spy and informer, and to = state of
personal security under laws of their
own making. These bright dreams
have all vanished, and in their. place
the returned soldier, and all others
have embraced q reality as horrible
and a. undesirable to the soul of q man
fit to be free as Dante's conceptions Of
Inferno are to the Christian mind.
The following description Of election
day in Dsvenport's court. in New
York is said TO be but tame and i'm
perfect presentment Of the facts as
they there transpire from year to year
% the elections occur:
Such Q scene as the rooms of this
court presented on that election day
has never before been witnessed In
this city or In this country, and It 10
to be hoped never will again. From
early morning until after the polls
we're closed these rooms were packed
and jammed with . mass of prisoners
and marshals. Not only were they
crowded beyond their capacity, but
the halls and corridors were thronged
with those who were unable to obtain
admission, % that the counsel repre-
senting the prisoners and the bonds.
men who were offered to secure their
release had the greatest difficulty, and
were frequently unsuccessful In OBJ
tanning entrance. In addition to all
this was that deleeiable iron spen' on
the upper floor, in which men were
crowded until It resembled the black
hole of Calcutta, and where they were
kept for hours hungry, thirsty, suffer.
ing in every way, until their cases
could be reached. With scarcely an
exception these men had gone to the
polls expecting to be absent but
short time. Many of them were thin
~ clad numbers had sick wives or
relatives some we're sick themselves.
There were carmen who had left their
horses etanding in the public streets {;
men whose situations depended on
their speedy return men who wished
to leave the city on certain trains.
Every imaginable vexation, inconven.
fence. injury and wrong which the
mind can conceive existed in their
cases, 90 that it was painful for the
counsel who were endeavoring 10 Sc
cure their release to approach suf-
fciently near the railing to hear their
piteous appeals and witness the dis
trees which they had no power to al
leviate. And over all this pushing,
struggling, complaining crowd. Mr..
Commissioner Jno. 1. Davenport sat
supreme, with = sort of oriental mag
nificence. calmly Indifferent to every
thing but the single fact that no man
who was arrested was allowed to vote.
Nay not, in view of this dark and
shameful picture, appeal to Senaters
without impropriety to know whittier
We are drifting? Arc we still hug
ging the miserable deluaion that there
10 no danger, while scenes are being
enacted in strict accordance with the
laws on our ststute-books which
would be . disgrace TO Turkish civil
izatian, If enacted by the arbitrary
authority Of the Sultan2 Has . fatai
lethargy seized the American people,
and are We indeed to follsw the down
ward pathway of all the republics that
have risen and fallen In the past2r The
sailor in northern seas veers of into
safer waters the momont he feels the
current of the great Aaelstron under
his keel. We are in the very vortex Of
Wherein every local priv
ilsge,eyery right of ei.izenship, .ll the.
OF home, and the ship Of
0'ate itself are being drawn down and
dashed 10 pieces. and yet the cry that
all 10 we'll, uttered by false pilots, lulls
into sense of security and rep0se. /
call upon my eountrymen to awaken,
for the hour Of mortal peril to their
institutions 10 here, What has hap
psned in New York has happened
elsewhere. and may happen every
"A0I0s 0uoAb eD0 sSWo AA0AO
such scenes possible remain in force !?
1 invoke against them the memories
OF the mighty dead Who fell for inde.
psndence; who, enriched the soil Of
Massachusetts with their blood at
Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill !;
who struggled with Washington at
Brandywine, and charged under his
eye 1t Princeton, Trenton, and Mon
mouth; who tasted death at Camden,
the Cowpens, and Eutaw Springs, in
order that We might be free; who
yielded up their brave spirits on tho
plains of Yorktown in the precious
hour of final victory. By these great
souls, by their privations, sorrows, an
guish, and pain, implors the Amer.