The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-02-19

were dumped into the boxes, in some
places exceeding the entire registered
votes of precinct or district, so that
there should not be an obstacle in the
way of filing every Office in South Car
olina, from the highest to the lowest,
with Bourbons. This work was &C
complished; not only was the Republic
an State Government overthrown, but
every petty office was occupied in pal
pable vio1ation of law, and the State
sent to Washington five Bourbon Repre-
sentatives, three of whom misrepresent
strongly Republican districts in seats
which they have stolen by the most
barefaced frauds ever perpetrated in
this country frauds which might even
have put Tammany to blush in the
palmiest days of the Tweed-Tild
regime. 5Bulldozing and ballot-box
stufing, the methods of the rif1e-clubs
and midnight riders, and the tissue
paper swindle have been so thoroughly
exposed and 30 clearly proven that
the RonSbonR Of South Carolina dare
not resort to these methods in anoth-
er election. They know that it would
arouse storm of Indignation from one
end Of the country to the other. Some
other method must be devised. and this
has been accomplished in the special
session of the Legislature. 1t is impor-
tant to note at the very outset that the
BourbOns do not attempt to deny that
the State is Republican. The Charles
ton Nes0s and Courier, which defends
the new infamy. says: "The colored
people are still here. They are still the
majority. They can on the color line,
which is likewise the line of ignorance,
klos- I.k -.
1880, as they elected them from 1868 to
1874. The votes are there to do It,"
And again: 'sAs surely as water seeks
its own level the negro gravitates to-
ward the Republican party" There is
Republican majority shall be overcome.
The same paper says, "With these
facts before us, and starting with the
assumption that it is the settled pur-
pose in South Carolina that the intelli-
whether they are nominally in the ma
pie of the State take to make them
selves safe and avoid the horrible strain
of such elections as the last, with their
uncertainties and manifold unpleasant
nessesS'' go -
The course has been determined upon.
1t is the passage of q registry law dis
franchising every .elector who cannot
read and writa, and, as the Bourbons of
that State for twelve years past have
not only afforded the negroes no oppor-
tunities for education but have mani
tested the most bitter hostility to it, it is
easy to see where the burden of this in
famous law will fall with the heaviest
weight. According to the last census
there was total male white population
above the age oftwenty-one in that
State of 81, SAT, of whom Is, 400 were il
iterates, and total male colored pop
ulation above that age of IS, 475, of
whom 70, $50 were initerates. Admit
ting that the law makes no discrimina-
ton, it would disfranchise one-fifth of
the white Democratic electors and more
than four fifths of the colored Repub-
ican electors. It may be said that some
of the negroes must have learned to read
and write since 1870, but this will make
no difference in the application of the
law. ALI the laws Of South Carolina
are supposed to be operated in
the interests of every citizen, and yet
it is notorious that q negro guilty of
q certain offense can be punished and
q white man cannot. The statutes visit
the black man with the full penalties,
while they can be sufficiently strained
to allow any white man TO escape. 1t
will not be severe tax upon the quail
ty of South Carolina justice to demand
that q colored man who says that he
can read and write shall read we'll and
write distinctly, and we have every yrea-
son to infer that his examination in
these tests wilt be of searching char
acter; while any white man who can
make his mark will be admitted to the
right of suffrage. There is no feature
of this new method of Acknowledgement
which is not as infamous and as corrupt
as the old methods. 1t is deliberate
that the Republicans of
South Carolina shall not vote at the
next election. /, It is q bold and villain
GUS plot, perpetrated under thin legal
to steal the vote of the State
and deliver it to the Democratic candi-
date for the Presidency, and is as in
famous in its nature as was the plot
four years ago to sell the vote to Til
denis agents. It ftly illustrates the
low tone of public sentiment in that
State and the INSCRIPTIONS dishonesty
of the politicians, as well as the desper-
ate condition in which the Democrats
find themselves on the eve of general
election. * Chicago Tribune. a5s