The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-12-12


tax about Virginia election officers as II
they bad Knowingly violated the laws, aud
deprived men OF their rights, &c.. &c., Is
all bssb. or worse. The pretence that the
Dispatch upholds lawlassness Is "too THU"
Nobody will credit the statement. II j.
only made as sort OF diversion, as we shall!
show by quotation from the wings own
columns.
The Whig assumes that the charges
brought against our election officers are
true, and proceeds 10 argue as II their guilt
had already been proved. We assume
that these officers are Innocent as we
suppose they are, and rs we have no
doubt they will be pronounced whenever
tried. We object. moreover, TO The claim
on the part Of the Republicans that Con-
gress has a right to pass law empowering
the Federal courts TO try the officers OF the
State OF virgioia for acts done in their char
acrer as such state officers. Everybody can
see that the result must be the refusal OF all
good citizens TO act as election officers and
the appointment Of men who have no re-
gard for the State laws or anything else.
What peaceablc, quiet citizen will agree TO
serve as an election officer, when any pegro
Republican can have him arrested and tried
for sn sserror OF judgment
When we denoun& the Federal laws pro-
vidiug for deputy marshals md supervisors
OF election, we are only doing our duty as
Democrats. The present Democratic Con-
eress passed bin for repeating these laws.
but Republican President vetoed il. We
ale afraid we are wasting our time in en-
gaging In serious argument with the Wing
on this subject for IT seems 10 Us that Il
has either determined TO become Republic
can journal, or else TO secure for It's party
the negro vote by going as far as
the most ultra Republican in advocacy Of
what have heretofore been The distinc.
tive measures and principles OF The Repnb-
lican party. We told the Republicans in
November, 1879, that they were 10 danger OF
losing their negro allies; and it seems now
that there is to be a contest between the
Maboneites and the Republicans for that
vote, or else, as We have said, an alliance
between the two parties. We cannot yet
say how This is; and, we repeat, we may be
wasting time in arguing with the Wing as
II il were Democratic journal. Neyertbe-
less. we will call It's attention to the plat
form adopted by the Democratic National
Convention which met in Cincinnati last
June. The wing supported the nominees
a that Convention, who went into The cam
paign upon platform containing anii.cen-
tralization planks, and declared their ap- |
proval Of them. One of these plankS is In |
the words following:
80. The existing Administration Is the |
OF conspiracy only; and its
claim Of the right 10 surround balIot-b boxes
with troops and deputy marshsls to intimi-
date and obstruct cleo ions, and the un'
use OF the veto TO maintain its
corrupt and despotic power. insults the peo-
pie and imperis their Institutions"
That is The Democratic creed on the sub
ject under consideration, aud that is our
creed. 1t was the Wings creed very re-
Gently. As we said the other day, all its
talk about The outrages committed upon the
negroes IN Virginia and ewhere in the
South is Just such as we have been reading
iaiIy in the northern Republican journals
Tor the last ten or fifteen years. Ii Is a cruel
Injustice for the southern people to be held
up before the world IN such light by a
southern journal-especialIy by one which
claims TO be also Democratic journal. We
leny that here is any bulidcziDg or cheat.
ng done by any election officers in Virginia.
The most that can be made OF any such case
hat has come up In the courts is that the
election officers, acting upon what they
considered good advice, committed an
rror OF judgment in refusing to re-
,eIve tax-receipts which had been law
uIly issued. To make great cutlery about
his is on par with the attempt to convert
me of the most innocent Of our little edi.
orial paragraphs into recommendation OF
lot and revolt, by journal which few
lays ago uttered the following seditious
anguage. The Wing said last week:
1.-THE Rsadjusters advocate and defend
Tree suffrage as the right preservative OF all
rights, which can only be qualified to the
race, color, or previous condition OF servi-
Iude: and any further restriction is not
merely On ATTRACTION Of ptighted faith BE-
iDeen man and man, section and section.
State and State. people and government, but
an iarQSion Of the fundamental lao of self
preservation tohich justly RENTS all affected
by ii TO their reSerUed and inotiendbte right
Of revolution. and as justly exposes the Coo
eminent qtiiiy of The INFUSION to all the
epiis and dangers of disgfectionS, diSSen-
sion. riot, and reueh"
We submit that the Wing is proved TO be
Of much more lawless spirit than it could
show us TO be, even II we were to admit that
a paragraph which we wrote in a jocuIar
spirit was intended TO incite the southern
people TO revolt.
We call the Wigs attention 10 the fol.
owing extracts, which We have culIed from
Democratic papers that came to hand on
morning. The papers were not
iunted up, but happened to be on our desk
when we were reading the Wings article.
rbe Lynchburg Ne,5s says:
.sThere Is every reason to believe that il
he Democrats OF the Union. ia and out of
Congress, now tameIy give way 10 the iuso-
ent march OF Radical usurpation and inno-
raiioD, It will not be long before the last
lestige OF popular rights will have disap-
Deared from our Institutions, Even now 1t
must be clear TO every obsefysnt and intel.
igent Judge that the character OF the Gov
'rnment OF tbe United States has radically
,hanged but even the forms that remain
~ m soor he aboilSbed tintess fbe one ,,arty |