Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-08-13
The Improved Mississippi Plan.


The Improved Mississippi Plan.
! 1t seems there are improvements posi-
bic even in the methods of the buld0zcrs.
The Mississippi plan has worked quite
satisfactorily SO far TO the average south
ern democrat, but recently a better plan
has been found, as exhibited in the cele
bratcd Yazoo county case. The a,lya-
tage> of the new plan are fully set forth
in recent article in the New York Times.
"It does not require says the Times,
ian exceptionally acute mind to perceive
that no voter is of much political conse-
quence provided he has nobody to vote
for. So long as the Louisiana republicans,
for example, had candidates of their own.
they were an element in politics which de-
mandcd the attention of local democrats
with whips and shot-guns. If, however,
they had been without any candidates, the
trouble and expense Of intimidating them
would have been spared. The true point
of attack is, therefore, manitestly the re-
publican candidates. If these can he
abolished. the republican voters can be
left in peace. The southern democrats
were, perhaps, little slow to perceive
this, but so soon as their minds were stint
ulated by sense of gratitude to the adj
ministration, it became clear to them. and,
abandoning the practice of intiniidating
voters, they adopted the far preferable
plan of putting an end to opposition can
didatcs.
SO far the new system has worked beau
tifully. When the southern republicans
nominate candidate, the democrats, in
stead OF riding all over the country, wear
ing themselves out with whipping negroes,
and wasting good ammunition in shooting
the most conspicuous of them. simply wait
on the candidate and inform him that he
must Withdraw or die. When four or five
hundred armed men make proposal of
this kind. the candidate is compelled to
admit that the odds against him are too
large, and if he has a wife and children
or is not particularly anxious to die. he
gracefully withdraws and the democratic
ticket is elected without opposition.
1t is impossible to praise too highly the
simplicity and excellence of this method
of proceeding. The great end of demo-
cratic supremacy is accomplished with
very little trouble and without bringing
Il pang to the back of a colored voter.
| Under the beneficcnt influence of the new
system we shall have perfect harmony
in the South. All the bad passions
which used to be excited by an election
will vanish. There will be but one
ticket and one set of candidates in the
field, and wickedly disposed republicans
will have no opportunity Of voting against
it. When we contrast this state of things
with the unpleasant features of former po-
litical contests in the South. when one par
ty was occupied for weeks prior to an cleo
ton in hunting up and whipping the vot-
crs of the other party, thus creating hard
. feelings a. well as wasting time that could
have been more pleasantly spent in the
consumption whisky unpolluted with the
revenue tax, we at once perceive the i'm
mensc advance that has been made in
Southern craftsmanship, and are compelled
TO admit that the policy of cancellation has
not been without substantial and benefi-
cent results.
Nevertheless, there are people who are
dissatisfied, and who insist that in State
where one party shoots all the other party's
candidates, the republican form of govern
ment guaranteed by the federal constitution
/ to every one of the States does not exist.
This is, ~ course. a'wholly untenable ar
gument. Mexico is n republic, and vet
for many years it has been the custom of
the supporters of one Presidential candi-
date to shoot the opposition candidate.
Bolivia i, a republic, and it never has any
Presidential candidates whatever. since
""'''' " H'PP'H9 ~ bV il'HidtHt NOUS tne
office until some one assassinates him md
steps into his place, without the formality
OF Il nomination or an election. The truth
is, no one can exhaustively define a repub-
lie. The Roman Republic, the French Re-
public, the South American Republic and
the Republic Of the United States resem-
bic one another in hardly anything. The
Southern States call themselves Republics,
and they would certainly regard it as i'm
pertinent if the federal government were
to suggest that they were anything else
If our Southern brethren will accept
little fraternal advice, 1t might be well to
suggest that they should suppress republi-