National Republican., 1880-11-23
OUR PLAN.

is in earnest in advocating what il admits
is "broad" plan for the treatment of
southern congressional contests. Our plan
is to declare the seats vacant and have new
elections, where there is conclusive evil
dence of fraud at congressional elections,
and should district persist ia its deter
mination to overthrow the will Of the ma
jority by tissue ballots, repeating or intimi-
dation, then it should be at once required TO
hold another election and the process should
be continued until there is free vote and
mn honest count.
A persistence in this treatment Of the
questions involved will, we believe, prove
effective, and 10 set of managers know so
well the strength of it as do the men rep
resented by the Nelrs and Courier. There
are many signs pointing to the fact that
bulldozing, intimidation, ostracsm and
false counting are working out their own
cure in some sections The people are be-
ginning to count the cost. A few more
trials will surfeit them.
People in the north cannot properly esti-
mate what it costs to suppress the rcpubli-
can vote in such states as South Carolina,
Alabama and Mississippi. We believe it
costs more-when everything is taken into
eousideration-in each one of them than
was spent by both parties in Indiana in
the October contest. The cost 10 these
southern states comes upon their own
people wholly, MS they are not helped by
contributions levied upon the party in
other states.
We do not, of course, say that a very
large sum was raised in actual money to
carry South Carolina, for instance, for
HANCOCK. Nine-tenths of the expense was
IN the shape of indirect damNges-in time
lost, paying work neglected, labor dsor-
ganized and laborers angered, horses taken
from the farm and ridden to death, cotton
left in the field unpicl5cd, etc.
For four months thousands of white
democrats were in the saddle half the time,
day and night. There was no peace, no
rest from excitement, no steady work from
these, the most effective producers in the
state When man in the agricultural
districts of the north saunters out of an
evening once week to attend n meeting
at the nearest schOol-house, Mt which there
is speaking for an hour or perhaps two
hours, and two or three times in US many
months attends grand rally in the neares
town, he thinks he has been through NJ
exciting campaign" What would he say
if he was obliged to mount his pow-hors,
and ride ten, twenty, thirty miles t.
"divide time with the radicals"-to bt
gone, perhaps, day and q night, perhap:
loDger-thus having to attend all the meet
ings Of his opponents in politics rs well Il.
his own? Suppose TO do this he had to pu
on his red shirt, take with him provendei
for himself and horse, strap on pistol and
be ready to use it.
Such campaign as that would cause rht
average farmer Of Pennsylvania to recall
the war time, when LEE raided upon hi,
fat fields.
Yet thousands of men in South Caroline
find this to do every two years. In uddi
tion to this labor, IL was estimated in 1871
that not less than 5000 900 worth of pistols
rifles, artillery and ammunition was pur
chased by the democrats, and every yea
since the amount of such dead capital /
being added to.
In fact, there is scarcely any exaggeratio
in the remark attributed TO Judge To,
MACKEY that South Carolina could as wei
stand another SHERMAN raid as anothe
such contest as that between CHAMBER
LAIN and HAMPTON.
NJ Ia - a Al.
tear of conscience incident to election
carried by the mixed tactics of force an
fraud. 1t is nevertheless evident that tn
decentralization attendant upon them
attracting the grave attention and profoun
concern of all righl-minded citizens in III
south. There are false oaths of office to b.
taken by precinct managers, every tissu
ballot folded into his ticket by the voter /
adistinct, conscious act of lawlcss deception
every false return made includes an act Z
perjury. When such deeds are done /
the north they are LETT to the hired scum Q
cities In the south they are required t
be done and sanctioned by men held 10 u
otherwise truthful, honest, law-abiding an
respectable.
The thoughtful editors here and ther
are tentatively pointing cut the dangers
society fostered by such loose practices
II is true these remarks only crop out aft,
the elections, and have not, except in Il
case Of the Yiclsslmg HHaid yet take
the form orprotests against fraud and vi
Ienoe; but they show that feeling
anxiety and an expectation of evil 10 con
lies buried behind many u clustering e
terror.
Our plan aims at the development
these feelings until they give themselv
force by expression. 1t aims at tiring ol
those who dislike he labor Of bulldoziI
and al making al perceive that the gan
does not and cannot be made to pay. v
lave given the subject much thought AZ
we are confident that it win, if prompt
nut into operation and persisted in, ult
mately result in securing, at least in fe
eral elections, free vote and an hone
count