The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-07-16
Senator Lamar's Witness.

cents on the dollar to-day"
Senator Lamar's Witness.
Shortly before the adjournment of con-
gress Senator Lamar, of Mississippi,
made speech, in reply to Senator Win
dom, on the subject Of the negro exodus
from the south. In it, he quoted largely
from book entitled "White and Black;
u Visit to the United states" by Sir
George Campbell. The author, who is
a member of the British parliament,
travelled through several of the southern
states in the autumn of 1873, and, az q
disinterested observer of high character
and intelligence, his testimony is of
course entitled to much weight. Senator
Lamar has accordingly called him
as witness, and carefully quotes
such passages from his book, as
refer to kindly relations existing between
the whites and the negroes, and to APP
parent prosperity and progress among
the latter. But he has been equally
careful to suppress other passages of a
different purport. Sir George Camp
bell was III South Carolina at the time
Of the election in 1873, and for n while
afterwards, and his account of the frauds
by which the Democratic minority car
ried the election, written on the cool and
temperate language of impartiality,
should have found place in Senator
Lamar's speech. Here is a paragraph:
Il believe l violate no condolences, be-
cause there was no whispering or conf
dence about it, There was not a pcry
yreat amount Of violence and intimida-
ton. Some Republican meetings were
violently interfered with before the cleo
ton, and on the day of the election there
was, at some places, certain galloping
about, firing guns, and such-like demon
STATIONS by men in red shirts; but any
intimidation used was rather moral than
physical. In all districts where the par
ties in any degree approach equality
there would be, perhaps, no very strong
grounds for disputing the victory of the
Democrats. 1t is in the lower districts,
where the Republicans are admittedly in
an immense majority, that great Demo-
cratic mGjOrifics Werc obtained by the
simple 2DrOccsSof What is cGttcd stubiny
tie ballot bOTcs.
"FOr this purpose the Democrats
used ballOt-papers of the thinnest posi-
BILE tissue paper, such that n number of
them can be packed into one larger
paper and shaken out rs they are drop
ped into the box. These papers were
freely handed about; they were shown to
me and l brought away specimens of
them. lnever heard suggestion that
these extraordinary little gossamer-web
things were designed for any other pur-
pose than that of fraud. At one place,
in the Charleston district, where not
above one thousand persons voted, there
were found. / believe thirty-five hun
dred papers i'll the box. In such case,
the practice is that the election man.
ayers blindfold man, who draws out
and destroys the number Of papers in
excess of the voters. Of course, he
takcs care To dra,O ont tie Mick papers
Of the opposite party and to tcarc Ia,
Tie papers Of his Otcn party, 80, when
the process is completed, the Democrats
are found to be in a great majority, and
the return is SO made by the return
ing board. There are some other
grounds of complaint. In some of the
black districts the number of polling
places has been SO reduced that it is i'm
possible for allwhO wish topoll to do so in
the time allowed. At one or two places
the ballOt-boxes were stolen and carried
off. At one place, IF achich Ihaoe per-
sOaat k'Oricdg", the appointed election
managers simply kept out of the way and
had no poll at all. Hundreds of blacks
who came to vote were told they must go
elsewhere, when it was too late to do SO.
In short | have no hesitation in saying,
as matters Wifhia ny O,UR kaO,Uledgc,
that if these elections had taken place in
England, there tcCrc irregularities aChich
WOuid hurc ritiufcd them before
an ftectiOn .j"ttyc a hundred times Opcr.
"The result of these elections was
that, except in the single county of
Beaufort, not one Republican or indie
pendent was returned to the state legis-
lature; nor, l believe, was n single Office
bearer of those persuasions elected.
The dominant party took everything,
and the Republican members of congress
were all elected. South Carolina re-
turns a solid Democratic representation
to the next congress-"
Such is the report by Senator Lamar
witness of the methods by which South
Carolina was carried for the Democratic
party two years ago. 1t contains moth
ing new, but is only confirmation, by
n disinterested foreign statesman, who
was present ut the election and cognizant
of the facts, of the Republican assertion
that the state of South Carolina was
made Democratic by fraud, that the
men who sit in congress from that state,
like many other Democratic members
of congress from the. south, hold their
seats by fraud. and the legis-
lature which sent Wade Hamp-
ton to the senate was chosen
by fraud. The same Wade Hampton,
whose title to seat in the senate Is
thus founded on fraud, had the
effrontery, In the recent Cincinnati con.
vention, to promise II solid south-solid
only by fraud-for Hancock and Eng
lish Aud thereupon the convention
proceeded to denounce "the great fraud
of 1S76-77," and to resolve "that the
right to free ballot is right preserva-
tive Of al rights, and shall be main
tanned in every part of the United
States"