The Portland daily press., 1880-11-09
Dangerous Demagoeues

In one sense, the loose talk which some
Democrats are making about al attempt to
reverse the result in New York is harmless.
Their suggestions about improprieties in the
vote OF New York city are simply farcical.
There has not probably been so pure an
election in that city for thirty years. The
merchants, lawyers, bankers, clergymen,
manufacturers, and in general the best citi-
zens in all walks of life who have avoided
voting hitherto, this year registered and
voted to man, swelling the Republican
vote much higher than it ever went before.
The Democrats by methods of their own
increased the vote of Hancock to about
$4,000 more than Tilden received in 1876,
but the Republicani gain was so great that
Hancock's majority in the city was
kept down to about $4,000. The causes
Of the Republican increase were
known and recognized before election
and the Republican journals all pre-
dicted Republican vote of about the
amount actually cast The vigilance of the
United States officials greatly checked the
fraudulent registration on which the Demo
Gratis usually rely, and we are justified in
repeating that there has not probably been
so small number of fraudulent votes cast
in any election in New York city for thirty
years, as were cast this year. The leading
Democrats all know this and their whine
about ill gal voting on the part of Republi-
cans is only the complaint which disap-
pointed suitors are permitted to make of the
jury which has decided against them. They
mean nothing by it and we'll know that
there is nothing which they can do and
nothing which they will even try to do.
While this is merely harmless ard empty
snarling so far as the intelligent Democrats
are concerned, there is another class on
which II Is Exercising d WIcKed anu InaIIgn
influence. The low, ignorant and violent
members of the party-and these constitute
the great body of it numerically-take the
thing in earnest and are making, among
themselves, talk about reversing the verdict
of the people and rebelling against
the laws, which is dangerous and
disorganizing. 1t is easy to imagine
that similar effect is produced on the
whiskey-fired minds of the low whites of the
South. All these things lead to violence
and lawlessness, and it is hard to under
stand how respectable Democrats can iusti
fly themselves in infaming the minds of
their ignorant and vicious followers We
have seen the effect of the same sort of
thing il this State. Reputable and law
abiding Democrats have declaimed against
our Supreme Court and denounced our
State government as illegal.. l..mea"ing moth
ing by it except to give vent to their chagrin
by scolding; but in the lower ranks of the
party this railing bears fruit in the stoning
OF Republican professions or in the graver
crime of attempted murder in Cornish. The
leading Democrats who sanctioned and en-
dorsed the forgery of the Chinese letter are
just as much guilty of the murders in Den
yer as are the drunken wretches who com
mitted them.
Prominent and intelligent Democrats who
have chosen to ally themselves with the vic
ious and violent masses which make the
strength of the Democratic party, assume a
moral responsibility not to excite them to
wrong doing by giving sanction TO crime.
How they have borne this responsibility the
rebellion of '61, the draft riots of '63, the
Ku-Klux outrages, the Denver riot and num-
beress minor outbursts bear witness. This
foolish talk about New York is another in
citement to disregard of law, and addressed
to men who are only too willing to improve
suggestions of lawlessness.