The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1880-09-24
! TRslBER a, 1870

q ae1i Tssg3H liz I'D gaslsaozts.i yisa1
dsmdR y = ssskass ne sssesss iGaRsotid. u
- aE1Esnnallin4 i1self RepdblicanI Ii
rNoYeWbey next Nig -, ipse fanes khe
reetoration Of carpet-bAg rule over csf
/ peepIe. TtS leaders now ars the sane msn
who led Il four and eight wears sincs, its
doaosen saans, - paFpeses thssssme
4 DOW a. then. s,.rs III .vT98agu agN lane
ne. e We are told most nmpressively : the
Republican North will never be indif7er1
ent to State governments maintained
iealy by naturalization and by frsnd.'
,Whether it win O. not, 0tate govern
| mants thus maipteined' ere RepubIi-
can or Democratic State goyernments
brought into being, as we'll as maintain
cd precisely IN this manner, existed for
| years m LOuisiaaa and Florida but pro-
fessing to be Repahliean the Republican
North heheld their existence, it seezns to
me, with considerable cemposnre. Moth
ing Is more notorious than the intimida-
ton for years, ana now, brought te bear
by tAeir own race on colofed people Of
these States<to prevent fhem from casting
Democratic yptesr unless il 10 s'the frauaS
by which their Returning Boards were
able to convert minorities into rnaiori-
tics, and VSce cessu. But the victims be-
ing Democrats, / fancy the average
Northern Republican thought they got
just about what they deserved. And
less than four years since four friend
wiil see / am not going back twenty
or ten or even Eve years., when by
one of the most memorable of these
frauds, not by any means gEeater than
its predecessors yet undeniable, the Presi-
dency was given to the defeated candi-
date, was the Republican North very
much grieved3 Was it not,l upon the
whole, rejoiced? /? And though my favor
lite paper, the Nation, said in substance
Mr.. Hayes could not as man of honor
accept the office at the hands of the
scamps composing the Louisiana Return
ing Board, he nevertheless did accept it
at their hands; more; he rewarded the
scaInps for giving it to him, as he did
quite number of distinguished North
ern Republican visiting statesmen who
helped the scamps to give it to him. Gen
eral Garfield, one of the statesmen for
his participation in the work, or despite
thereof, is, by solid Republican North,
if it can be made solid or nearly solid, to
be rewarded with the succession to Mr..
Hayes.
Can our visiting friend put his hand
upon his heart and say he verify believes
the governing spirit of the Republican
North would discountenance resort to
intimidation, whether among Southern ne
groes or Northern Democrats, if thought
necessary to the success of their Presi-
Dental nominee Let me read to him the
following extract of letter dated four
days since, from an intelligent Southern
woman summering North, written from
Pottstown, in the midst of the iron-works
of Pennsylvania. Pottstown is, / believe,
the home of that most seeming virtuous
Republican judge, Mr.. Justice Strong, of
the Supreme Court of the United States,
whose influence should be potential there:
! They may talk of bulldozing in the
South, but it is nothing to what they do
here. All of the hands in the iron-works
here are informed that if they vote the
Democratic ticket they can leave. And
so it is all over the North
at will be gratifying to be assured
that all reports like this are unfounded,
that nothing of the kind is known, or at
worst only to very limited extent, in
the establishments Of the Republican
manufacturers and capitalists of the
North, and that the stupendous frauds
charged as eharacterizing each succeed
ing election in Philadelphia, the second
in population of all our American cities,
are but . myth. speak thus intending
to justify no electoral fraud and no IN
timidation Of voters perpetrated by South
ern Democrats. Neither one nor the
other has marked our Florida elections
to the extent of changing the result in
favor of the Democrats; while the latter
have been, as already shown, repeatedly
the victims of both.
"In conclusion, let me notice what the
speaker has said about the Federal Office
holders in the South. Admitting that
many of the incumbents are unworthy
he thinks they should, nevertheless, be re-
tanned in their places. That there can't
be anything very wrong about them, else
we have been singularly derelict in max
ing known our grievancea' Well, as Mr..
Greeley used to say, let us ventilate this
matter . little. The chief actor in one of
the most monstrous political frauds ever
perpetrated in Florida or elsewhere, that
of 1870, above mentioned, by which the
returns from se0en Democratic counties
were rejected, was then Deputy Marshal
of the United States Gad Attorney-Gen- \
eral of Florida By that fraud he earned
his promotion, and scGs promoted to the
Office Of Marshal, and held it at the time
of the inauguration of General Hayes. A
member of the Florida bar, State and Fed
eral, of fair standing, thereupon wrote to
Mr. Devens, the newly-app0inted United
States Attorney General, courteously ask
ing, in the interest of civilservice reform.
that the marshal be removed; assigning
his participation In this ffand as the
ground Of the request. The communica-
ton was not even acknowledged, and, Of
course, no removal made. About the same
time the same gentleman, IN like courteous
manner. addressed . letter to Postmaster-
General Key, calling his attention to the
postmaster ct Tallahassee, q negro Of
very little education, an active and ag-
rressive partisan, thoroughly infamma-
tory and ineendiary in his political ha-
rangnes to the ignorant masses Of hisown
race,l asking that he be removed, and
some intelligent, n0n-pertisan white man
be put ia his place. This communication
met with the same favor - the other. OF
course no such person would be aIlowed
to hold the same Office ct the capital of
any Northern State for . day.