The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-10-15
ORANdEBURa, s. c., September 10, 1880.

or Monroe am requested to cause itS publica-
ton. A. g. DODGE,
Chairman Green county Republican Com.
ORANdEBURG, s. c., September 1G, 1880.
4. O. DOatge, Esq.,, Monroe, Wis:
My DEAR SIR.-YOur favor of the 10th inst,
came duly to hand. l am glad TO hear from
you again. ! hope your fond political hopes IN
the coming election may be realized. We, OF
the south, confess ourselves anxious Oh this
question, but to oil human appearance, We are
perfectly helpless. The Republicans of this
state, fear, can do nothing. We haye already,
without tho least question, over Sc, 600 Republic
cam majority in this state On free ballot,
and fair count, We could to-day give large
Republican majority, and it seems strange,
when this Ii M undisputed fact, that We mnsi,
nevertheless, DO counted in with the solid
south, and well the people ut the north may
wonder that it IL 40. But wish they might
witness how il is done.
II il asserted that the coiored people have
gone over to the Democratic party, and that, AZ
Hampton affirmed, $4,000 voted for him. But
greater untruth was never uttered. II IL per-
fectly astonishing how the colored people cling
to the Republican party, and that, too, in the
people, whe own the soil to u great extent, and
control tho capital. They often submit TO he
driven from house and home rather than vote
the Democratic ticket. The Democratic party
can get only very few, comparatively wortha
less cOorcd men, to train in their ranks; those
who are inclined to be idle and intcmporate.
You may well ark then how they control the
state' will send you III this specimen of
the ballots by which, III this section they count
ed out large Republican majority gwen by
this county. We have here from 1000
to 1000 Republican majority. At the
last election they Overcame this, and
secured some 800 majority for the Democratic
al ba hnI wb |
We're voted and counted; they are from ballot
box after the returns had all been duly made.
The Democrats here, without blushing, freely
boast of how they did it. Merchants claiming
to be respectable instructed their clerks how to
do up and conceal the tissues in their regular
ballot. Ministers claimed to think it was all
right. a. il was done for good purpose. Two
Democrats in this county boosted of casting $50
ballots; one voted twice, casting 80 ut each bal
lot, and the other, 80 at one ballot. At the
polling place where / reside there were found
over three hundred more ballots in the box than
names on the list. The number of ballots
was reduced by extracting the cx-
cess in Republican ballots and count
ing the Democratic. This could easily
be done when one was blindfolded by the sense
of feeling. They refused 10 allow respectable
Republicans to witness the count. II anyone,
they claimed to be Il Republican, was allowed to
be among the managers it was some one too
or else plant tool that could be used to their
own liking. In an election held in this county
for judge of probate, it IL now known and
conceded, even by Democrats, that the man
run for the Office by the Republicans had two
votes on the count to one Of his opponent, still
they counted in tho Democratic candidate.
There in no difficulty here in getting tools to do
this dirty and illegal work for that party. The
idea seems quite prevalent here that the end
justiiies the means. They seem to think that
the negro has no right to vote anyway, and for
that reason there il no harm to neutralize his
vote. II il done, they Ray. to keep bad men ont
of office!
Senator Hampton never uttered more truth
in the same number of words than when he de-
cared the principles of Lee and Jackson to he
the ones for which they were now contcndlng.
Some suppose that for the reason that slavery
does not now exist the cause for which they
fought has disappeared, but this is not the case
The spirit of slavery still lives in the south. the
same pet ideas in regard to state governments
and rights, and the same determination to con-
troll the colored people to serve their interests,
and the same Unsuitable desire and purpose to
control the general government. They are now
seeking by strategy and diplomacy to secure the
object they failed to reach in the contest Of
arms. That cause IL AZ dear TO the hearts Of
the solid south to-day n ever. In no instance
do they confess that they were wrong; the only
tears of regret they shed are over the painful
reflection that they did not succeed. If
they can now succeed in clectine their
president, the way will be open for the full con-
summation of all their fOndly cherished de-
signs. wish il were possible for the Republic
cans of the south to vote freely and fully at the
coming election, but do not now see how it
can be done. Republicans are not allowed, as
yet, to feel that they are at home III the south.
They have many ways Of showing that they
have little respect for those who differ from
themselves IN their political opinions, but still
il they can control the political situation and
count us out, We hope they will refrain from
shooting liz. The only way to keep the south
everything; in their efforts to control the
cou TRY they wish to be let alone. Tho inte-
rests involved in the approaching election, as
far as the south is concerned, are immense. If
the cOlored people cannot here enjoy the right
which il representative of all rights the re-
suit will be that they will abandon the south,
and this of itself would complete our
party for protection, free ballot
and permanent financial prosperity, but
it il now as during the war, the north must
do the fighting. If they only move in to meet
the shock of battle with a solid north, then,
thank God, we shall be safe; and the same Sec
ton of our country that loved and protected
the "old flag" then, will do it in this contest
1t is not the south merely now contending for
the cause in which Lee and Jackson fought, but
tho north are contending for the same princ-
pies for which so many dear ones were sacrificed
in that bloody conflict. You did not yield then
to the demands of the solid south, and trust it
will not be done in the approaching election.
We shall expect to hear good report from
the great west next November. Vermont does
not go back on her wcll-known record, etc.
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TruIy yaura A WERSTFR