National Republican., 1880-07-13
THE CRY OF FRAUD,

THE CRY OF FRAUD.
The Louisville Courier-JOurnd enters
upon miry ground when it assumes the role
Of prosecutor of the republican party upon
the allegation that it has been guilty of
stealing states. This cry of fraud on its
part can be justified only on the hypothesis
that one way for thief to escape is to
raise the cry of " stop thief" and thus turn
the attention of the minister of the law in
another direction and away from the guilty
party. 1t undertakes to show that the re-
publicans stole the state of Louisiana in
1876, when it knows, us does every intelli-
gent man in the country, that Alabama and
Mississippi were stolen outright through
the shotgun policy of the democratic party.
But for the reign of terror and fraud insti.
tuted in all the south by the red-shirters,
the night-iiheT5, the bulldozers the tissue
ballots and the false co;!nters, every state
south of the Potomac would have been scored
to the republican side of the account in
1876. 1t was through these agencies that
any of the late confederate states were
captured then and are held now by the
democratic party. Give free expression to
political opinion and free ballot in the
south and it would cease to be solid for the
democratic party. More than half of those
states would wheel into line under the re-
publican flag. This the Courier-.Journdl
knows though we do not expect to find it
clothed with u sufficient degree of candor
to admit the fact. There has been no
material change of political sentiment since
the close of the war The change of stua-
tion has been brought about by methods
that do not find their origin in civilization,
but relate to barbarism. They are methods
that never have been introduced anywhere
else Systematically in this country except
in the late confederate states, and never
until those who Introduce them had re-
belled and had been whipped back into
submission by the national power. When
the south emerged from the war aud passed
under the laws of reconstruction, the legit-
innate sentiment of the voters of that Sec
tion was largely republican. 1t was so
demonstrated and was so in fact. Every
state was decidedly republican in its local
government and in its congressional repre-
sentation. Some grave mistakes were made
in the characters Of men who secured posi-
tion, but they were susceptible Of reform
by Legitimate processes, without resort to
revolutionary measures, such as lave been
introduced by the democrats. But they
could not brook delay. They inaugurated
policy of terrorism that only finds its
motive power in barbarism itself The
whole south was rife with the cold -blooded
murder of republicans, both white and
black. Every county, town and hamlet of
every state south Of Virginia was dotted
by the graves of murdered republicans
until the citizen who assumed to exercise
the right of opinion and suffrage in behalf
of republican principles took his life in his
hand Under such methods and influences
and unprotected by the constitutional
power which vouchsales to every state re-
publican form of government, and which
means the free and untrammeled exercise
Of all the rights Of citizenship, the southern
republicans were either shot TO death,
forced from the ballOt-box, or ntimidated
to degree that they dared not venture to
attempt an exercise Of their rights of citi-
zenship. Where these methods were not
resorted to- the most llagrant frauds were
instituted through the tissue ballot and
false counts, until the south by these com.
bined methods and agencies made itseli
solid on the democratic side.
This is history that cauG2t be gainsad
1t is truth that cannot be successfully to
MED, and yet, in the face of this wholesale
theft of states, the democrats now hold W
their hands in holy horror because they
were not permitted in 1876 to steal Louis
lana, South Carolina and Florida, to make
their scheme Of rapine, plunder, false voting
and murder complete in all the statel
throughout the south, by which aut
through which they intended TO steal thii
government. They failed, for the simple
reason that there is a Superior Power which
has this nation in keeping and would no
allow 1t 10 be destroyed by the torch Of re
bellon, or by the chicanery Of its enemies
and which will not permit them 10 triumph
in the pending campaign, This is our hop
and our faith, aud the hypocritical cry 0
fraud from the lips Of convicted traitor
aud rebels will in no degree intimidate 0
deter republicans from faithful discharg
Of duty in this struggle.