The Princeton union., 1880-10-28
tial nominations by the mere force of the solid
1873 electoral votes, which lack but AZ votes of

600 people and it is through blood and terror
and fraud that that power has been secured
and it is this party, SO Reconstructed and con-
trolled,' that asks the American people to trust
it g just this once" with the reins Of govern
ment.
Put your heads in the Southern moose if We
will, Opeople but blame not us for failure to
warn you.
What has this dominating 'ssoid South done
in the States where it waded through blood and
terror and fraud to supremacy? What has it
done in Congress? What has it proposed to
do? What will it do if continued in legislative
power, with Hancock in the executive chair :?
Let us see.
In these ''solid Southern" States it has re-
pudiated righteous State debts, and it has en-
acted laws which put humanity to shame laws
which make the condition of the poor white
and black laborer worse than that of slavery.
Ihe crime OF stealing hog is, in Georgia. q
felony, punishable by four years in the peni-
tentiary! In Mississippi the punishment for
stealing sucking pig, a lamb Or a kid of the
value of S. is five years in the penitentiary
This is because the half-starved colored people
who steal are apt to steal something eatable.
One dollars value Of what colored people are
driven to steal is grand larceny, while in the
to steal it is petit larceny up to $40 worth. In
Alabama imprisonment at hard labor for five
years follows the stealing of few roasting ears
df corn!
In Mississippi there is a 'contract" system
by which prisoners "under sentence Of any
jail, are contracted out to "any responsible
person for their mere maintenance! Even a
person simply 'conmitted to Jail for an offense
that is bailahle" can be compelled to go out and
work for any of these contractors because if
be refuses ''such person shall be entitled to
receive from the common lailer, as diet for
each day, only six ounces Of bacon or ten
ounces of beef, and one pound OF bread and
water" Beside this he is compelled to work
out the costs of prosecution, etc., which at the
rates paid by the contractor might consume his
entire life!
The contract system prevails also in Alabama
and in Georgia to still greater extent and, in
fact, this vile and degrading system extends to
nearly all the Southern States.
A witness before the Senate Exodus Investi-
CATION Committee testified that in Texas ''when
| man gets intoxicated or plays game of cards,
| be is tried before the County Judge and fined,
and tho courts work in the lawyers fee until the
! whole thing amounts up to $685. S75 or S1O0."
| Said he: GA man who was arrested in Milan
| county for carrying slx-shooter was fined $65 :;
| think the costs and lawyers fees amounted to
| Sos; he was at work all last year and tho year
| before last, and the year before that again"
| Evidence was before the committee that q COL
| ored woman was arrested and fined $50, and
hired to work it out at a quarter of cent day !
| Thirty dollars are IL, 0OD quarter cents, which
! years! These people, it was also testified,
"work under the supervision of @ sergeant
| with gun and nigger-hounds."
| BY theslandlord lien-laws of South Carolina,
| Georgia and other solid Southern States, the
| landlord has lien in some cases on one-third
an ana IN other cases upon the whole Of the crop.
! Ihe miserable tenant cannot sell or take for his
own use any part of it, unless by the consent of
the landlord. until the landlords paid, and in
many cases hAs to turn over to him the whole
crop, trusting to bis honesty for the return of a
| remnant. In too many cases the landlord takes
all or nearly all then the poor tenant is forced
to make contract with the landlord for future
food and supplies, in which he gives the land
lord the control OF everything.
| This system of keeping poor people in state
OF everlasting debt is what is called peonage a
| condition In some respects worse than slavery.
! 1t was this system of peonage which, pursued
| by the Spaniards in Mexico and other Spanish
American dependencies, led to the bloody reyo-
lutions which freed them from the Spanish yoke.
1t is this system of peonage which largely
accounts for the exodus of the poor colored peo-
| pie from the South This is how the ''solid
South - rules now in those States where it has
full power
| Can any one doubt that, in the event of the
election Of Hancock and a Democratic House,
the "solid South would extend the ac-
white as we'll as black labor-and, in course OF
time, thoroughly NIexicanze it.? If there be
such doubter let him glance over the pages OF
history.
The "solid South" where peonage now
exists, is g solidifed by the old slave power
tho power which insists on oee,si3ag labor, in.
stead of paying it fair wages and giving it ar
has held tenaciously to this accursed system
by which honest labor is degraded and made
servile. They will never give it up To then
it is d religion. In 1885 their great apostle
Calhoun, said:
"Let it be fixed let it be riveted in every
Southern mind, that the laws Of the slave
holding States, for the protection OF their do
mestlc institutions are paramount to the laWi
of the General Government
In 1886, Pickens, of South Carolina, declared
that capital should own labor, and that "i
laborers ever obtain political power in thi
country. it is in fact in state of revolution =
Hammond, of South Carolina, termed tht
people Of the North, the mechanics and labor
ers, bythe opprobrious name Of ''sans culottes =
Said he:
been Commenced Comm iced The si1 sans cal calotte tie.
are moving! On the banks Of the Hudson, th
Ohio and the Susquehanna; on the hills and il
| the dales and along the iron-bound coasts O
immaculate New England, they are musterin:
their hosts and preparing for their ravagesr'
leader, said:
Slavery is great prinordial fact, rooted il
] the origin of things. y As
corollary to this, it may be safely deduced tha
the existence Of laborers and mechanics in or
ganized societies was the result of the partia
and progressive emancipation of slaves. *
History tells us, also, that when the working
classes stepped out Of bondage they branche
into four recurring subdivisions hireling
the beggar. the thief. and the prostitute"
Other Southern leaders uttered similar doc
trlnes, declaring "free society a failure;
''slavery is the normal condition of the labor
ing man, whether white or black;'' eth
principle OF slavery is right, and doe
not depend upon complexion;' ':slaver,
white Or black, is right and necet
sa1y;' "the laws Of all the Southern State
justified the holding of white men in sla1
ery;'' and the abominable ''free society
was denounced as being made UP of "nuc
| sills of the North, ''sman farmers and greas
! mechanics"
Rufhn actually proposed to reduce the whit
mechanic and laborer to bondage! While Fit;
hugh systematized the proposition by sayin
that negro slave is worth about $500, q whit
slave, by reason of his harder working natur,
would be worth 1900. Give, therefore, tt
$1,000 capitalist one white slave, the $10,0
capitalist ten white slaves, and the millionai1
1000.
"But," says Northern Democrat "the WI
settled that matter of slavery forever that is
dead ISSUE"
Not 40. nv friend, True, we thought It se