Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-08-19
A Common Danger.

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A Common Danger.
The Southern Republicans at the meet
ing on Thursday all spoke with emphasis
on the Importance of encouraging and
sustaining the colored voters, who have,
by the hasty and faulty reconstruction
of the Southern States, been placed at
the mercy of their Democratic rulers
and former masters. They spoke with
neither too much force nor feeling, for
the situation of the black voters in the
South is most deplorable, and the duty
of the party at the North to aid in res
cuing them from their peril is impera-
nor evaded without danger to the Re
publican organization. As to how that
duty may be done men may honestly
differ; but that it must be recognized
and performed if the party is to COM
mand the respect necessary to its sue
cessful existence no one will doubt. No
Republican at the North of any sense or
integrity for a moment contemplates the
abandonment of the Southern Republi-
cans; and the fears of some of the speak
ers at the conference may be dismissed,
and should certainly be discouraged, as
unfounded.
Unquest:onably the result of the re-
construction measures has in some de-
gree justified, as it suggested, these
fears. The giving of the rebel States at
once into the hands of the rebels, with
out guarantee of the good faith which
they so urgently protested, has bound
the black Republicans i'll majority of
the Southern States hand and foot 1t
has subjected Them to violence and
fraud in every form. At first the gross
er forms of violence committed by the
Ku-KluX and other mar.luding bands
prevailed, until the wiser of the leaders
foresaw that in the end the pursuance
of that policy would provoke Federal
interference by Congress or the Execu-
tive, and so stopped it. Tie shotgun
policy which followed has only lately
given way to the milder but equally ef-
fective methods of the tissue-ballot and
falsified returns. This. the prevailing
form of Democratic fraud, they learned
from their Northern allies, and it must
be admitted in all candor that they have
improved upon the lesson. So long as
the State governments remain in the
hands of rulers who will neither stop
these outrages themselves nor call upon
the General Government to interfere,
the only support and relief to which our
Southern friends can look must come
from the Republican party; and that
sympathy and support they can conf
IDENTIFY depend upon, for good faith In
this matter is necessary to the existence
and integrity of the party itself
And also necessary to its safety as a
National organization. One of the
gravest dangers to be anticipated from
the success of the Democratic party, and
one which has been too little commented
on, is the extension of the Southern local
methods of intimidation and fraud even
to other States. If under Governors and
other State officers at the South such ter
rible outrages and gross frauds are pos
sible, and the General Government can
not constitutionally interfere to prevent
or give relief, what is it not possible to
possible to do when the State, the Legis-
lature and the Executive officers are un-
der Democratic control, and there is
neither call nor inclination to interpose
the strong arm of the Government? Un-
questiOnably but for fear of Executive
interference the outrages of the Ku-
Klux would to-day be as general all over
the South as they formerly were. The
election of Democratic President
would instantly revive all those horrors.
Who does not believe that in the exulta-
tion which would follow the capture of
the General Government-and this
would be the construction which the
Rebel Brigadiers would put upon sue
cess this fall-the black and white Re
publicans of the South would again be-
come the helpless victims of marauding
bands? Whoever does not suspect that |
in the North the frauds perpetrated
years ago, and which constant vigilance
and persistent prosecution have but
lately suppressed, will be revived, does
not recognize the recklessness and the
of the Democratic party. |
The success of General Hancock in No
vember next means just this. Outrage |
at the South and fraud at the North |
will be revived, and he will be power
less, even if inclined to interfere. The
only safety to both sections lies in the
success of the party which gave liberty |
and owes protection to the blacks, and
which suppressed fraud at the Northern
polls.-(N. Y. Tribune.
"TO BE, OR NOT TO BE-"
"To be, or not to be-" that is the ques-
tion, whether to suffer from II diseased |
system and continuous impurities of
o,,,. blnNI ~, 70 fol- Srr;,,o, or,I