Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-02-20
A New South Carolina Method.


A New South Carolina Method.
The Bourbons of South Carolina have
hit upon new method of disfranchis-
ing the Republicans Of that State.
Hitherto bulldozing and ballot-box
stuffing have been the agencies used
for this purpose. The negroes have
been intimidated by loss of employ
ment, indictments upon trumped-up
charges, midnight raids, threats Of
death, persecution of every description,
and Ku-Klllxism in its worst forms, un-
til they have BEEN afraid to exercise
their privileges of citizenship. To COM
plete the work of disfranchisement, the
tissue-paper ballot was resorted to at
the last election, and packages of these
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 filling every Office in South Car
olina, from the highest to the lowest,
with Bourbons. This work was ac-
complished; not only was the Republic
an State Government overthrown, but
every petty office was occupied in pal
pable violation 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, which might even
have put Tammany to blush in the
palmiest days of the Tweed-Tilden
regime. Bulldozing and ballot-box
stuffing, the methods of the riie-clubs
and midnight riders, and the tissue
paper swindle have been so thoroughly
exposed and so clearly proven that
the Bourbons of South Carolina dare
not resort to these methods in anoth-
or 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 lis impor-
tant to note at the very outset that the
BOurbons do not attempt to deny that
the State is Republican. The Charles
ton NeWS 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,
and prejudice, elect their candidates in
1880, as they elected them from 1868 to
1874. The VoteS are there 10 do IT,"
And again: "As surely as water seeks
its own level the negro gravitates to-
ward the Republican party" There is
no hesitation in the statement that this
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-
gent and responsible citizens shall rule,
whether they are nominally in the ma
jOrity or not what course shall the peo-
Pile 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
nessesPh
The course has been determined upon.
1t is the passage of registry law dis
franchisng 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 a total male white population
above the age of twenty-one in that
State of 81, ,547, of whom ~, 400 were il
| literates, and total male colored pop
ulation above that age of 5,475, of
whom 20, $50 were illiterates. 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-
lican electors. 1t may be said that some
of the negroes must have learned to read
and write aince 1870, but this will make
no difference in the application of the
law. All the laws of South Carolina
are supposed to be operated in
the interests of every citizen, and yet
it is notorious that a negro guilty of
certain Otiense can be punished and
a 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 colored man who says that he
can read and write shall read well and
WrlJe ulsJlncIly, anu we nave every reh-
son to infer that his examination in
these tests will 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 disfranchisement
which is not as infamous and as corrupt
as the old methods, 1t is a deliberate
declaration that the Republicans Of
South Carolina shall not vote at the
next election. 1t is bold and villain
GUS plot, perpetrated under thin legal
disguises, to steal the vote of the State
and deliver ii 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. II fitly illustrates the
low tone of public sentiment in that
State and the unscrupulous 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.
"A Kentucky paper candidly con-
/ a.