Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-08-04
Waterfoirn Republiran.
WATERFOWL, WIS.
Boarding the Lion.


default. He suggests that the State be
not abandoned to the Democracy without
struggle. He claims that a contest
should be made in the coming election,
and that as many Republicans as shall
dare to vote have their ballots duly
counted. There is in the State of Missis-
sippi an undoubted Republican majority,
but the rule-or-ruin minority have, for
several years, by fraud, intimidation and
red-hsnded murder, held undisputed pos.
session Of the Government. To induce
the Confederate Bourbons OF Mississippi
to tolerate free ballot would require
opposition to their shotgun policy in
kind; if the majority had been composed
largely of Anglo-Saxons, the remedy
would have been tried before this, but in
O contest of that kind the ex-slaves would
be engaging in a most unequal struggle.
Tt Is because the numerical majority in
opposition have not been willing or able
to meet their prosecutors with their own
weapons, that Mississippi Is now in com.
paratively undisputed possession of the
Democracy.
The Democratic policy of terrorism
carries its own condemnation In the very
remarkable change which has taken place
in Mississippi under it. By the census of
1870, there were in the State $4,000 ne
groes and $4,000 whites. 1t Is neither
claimed nor is it reasonable to suppose
that the increase among the whites has
been in q greater ratio than among the
blacks. There is considerable white
Republican element IN the State, as the
DIXON and CHISHOLM affairs and the
Congressional investigation clearly prov
ed; while the negroes, when left free to
vote as they wish, cast Republican ballots,
almost without exception. In 1872 the
Republican majority in the State was
$4,000; IN 1878, 10000; in 1876. TILDEN
was credited with a majority of nearly
$4,000, while the following year the Dem
ocrats made STONE Governor by major
ity of 96,559 in total vote of 9S,S95. In
sixty-two of the seventy-two counties in
the State, not single Republican vote
that year was cast. Yazoo county was
one of the ten returning Republican votes.
It gave three votes against the Demo.
cratic ticket. The year before there were
two men found bold enough there to vote
for Mr.. HAYES. Previous to 1875, the Re-
publican vote in Yazoo county was about
$500. In that year it dropped to seven.
We are promised that this year In Yazoo
not single vote shall be cast for GAR.
FIELD and ARTHUR. In four Congress
sional districts in Mississippi choosing
Republican Representatives in 1879 there
was total Republican vote of 60915.
In 1878 the Republican vote in these
same districts was but 2,712.
But what measures can be taken to
assist Republicans in voting, in Missis'
sippi, Is indeed a vexed problem. Mr..
HAYES declares that the Administration
will do all in its power, but that is neces-
sarily but bagatelle. The existing ma
tional law enables the President to COM
pei an approximately fair vote in cities of
over 10000 inhabitants, but Vlcksburg is
the only such place in the State; nowhere
else in Mississippi can Federal Super
visors and special Deputy Marshals be
appointed. Even In cases of domestic
violence, arising through the attempts of
the Confederates to suppress Republican,
by the wholesale, it requires either the
application Of the Executive or the Legis-
lative branch of the State, to enable the
national authorities to intervene. Never
theless, the distranchised Republicans of
Mississippi, as of other Southern States,
should be stimulated and assisted to the
full extent of possibility by the Republi-
cans of the North. Very likely our en-.
deavors may be impotent to effect pro-
per recognition Of the rights of our
Southern brethren, but we can at least
enter this our active and solemn protest
against the greatest political crime of the.
age-the crime that makes the alleged
freedom of the Southern black more OF
form than fact. It is therefore meet that
Senator BRUCE and his Republican coad-
tutors in Mississippi be awarded all the
aid, moral and substantial, that the party
in the North can legitimately give them.
IF for nothing more than to have had the
satisfaction of assisting in q righteous
struggle. and exhibiting to the world the
true spirit of the "chivalric" Democracy
Of the South, with all its hateful intoler-
ance and disregard for human rights.
The late Empress of Russia was one
of the richest persons in the world.