Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-01-23

no more CRIMINAL, no more beln0uS
than the New York Tilden-Tweed
frauds of 1868. Remove from the DEM
ocratic bulldozing frauds which have
distinguished the elections in Missis-
sippi and Louisiana for several years
the feature of assassination, and they
are no worse than those of Tilden and
Tweed. And the Garcelon- Pillsbury
crime in Maine is no whit more afro
cious than that of South Carolina or
that of New York. The country is
more shocked because in the present in
stance the fraud is perpetrated in an
old State, and, so far, the criminals
have benefited by their fraud. In New
York the fraud did not affect the re-
suit of the Presidential election, and
the people seemed to lose sight of the
smaller fact that the Government of
the largest State in the Union had been
seized possession of by fraud!
1t is hoped and believed that the
Democratic crime in Maine will yet be
defeated and the peoples representa-
tives secured in possession of the Govern
ment. But suppose it should notp Sup
| pose the conspirators should succeed in
retaining control of their stolen powerP
| What thenp Is the case of Maine in 1880
any worse than was that of New York
in 1862 And is the stealing control of
State Government at the North more
menacing to the perpetuity of our free
institutions than the stealing of South
ern State Government The public
does not realize it; but the fact is, the
most startling feature of the general
political situation is the circumstance
kaH II l,xy 1o
minority, using force, in several South
ern States, and the usurpation contin-
ued, now, for years. And the Govern
ment of the Nation confesses itself pow
erless to prevent or punish the crimes
against the right of franchise which
these usurpations involve.
The South has been made solidly
Democratic by frauds upon the ballot
box, and these frauds have been rem
dered possible only through the capital
crime of murder. And yet the country
has remained calm because, apparently,
the frauds and crimes were committed
in the extreme South. The Northern
people in a good-natured way have said:
"The South is solidly Democratic by
fraud; we will make the North solidly
Republican honestly" The Northern
people have thought-good souls-to
cure the evil of fraud in elections at the
South by honest elections at the North.
They seem to have forgotten that the
first great Democratic fraud was perpe-
trated at the North, that only dozen
years ago the largest State in the Union
was stolen bodily, so 10 speak, by Til
den and Tweed, and that the Demo-
cratic party of the Nation sanctioned
the theft by accepting as its candidate
for the Presidency the chief criminal in
the nefarious business! He who con-
siders the stealing of the Government
of Maine as sporadic case of Demo-
cratic villainy is not only poor stu
dent of political history, but utterly
blind to the logic of this particular rob-
berry. When the Democratic party had
secured Solid South its managers as
sumed that the control of the Nation
was within their grasp, and their spokes-
men outlined the party policy so often
sively thatthe reaction here foreshadow-
ed Solid North. The stealing of Maine
is the Democratic answer to Northern
expressions of disgust. "If," say they,
in their secret counsels, "if we can
steal Southern State Governments with
impunity, why not Northern State Gov
ernments as wellP" And we have the
robbery in Maine. The atrocity in the
Pine-Tree State is not the work of Gar
celon and Pillsbury alone. 1t is part
of the Democratic plan to steal the
Presidency in 1880. Democrats in va
rious parts of the country, and the Dem
ocratic presses, denounce the crime of
their fellows in Maine; but the crimi-
nails hold on to their plunder. The
Court decides against them on every
point, but they adhere stubbornly to
their original programme. Whyp Be-
cause the Democratic party, as an or
ganizatien, does not speak. Individual
Democrats speak, but the party is
silent.
1t is time for the Republican party of
the Nation to say that elections shall
be free and fair, not only in Maine, but
in Mississippi, Louisiana, and South
Carolina. The surrender of a known
Republican State of the South to the
Democracy, without struggle, is a con-
fessien of defeat everywhere. For, if the
Democratic party can usurp the Gov
ernment of Mississippi, it can usurp the
Governments of Maine and New Hamp-
shire, and enough more States to secure
control of the National Government.
The Committee of Southern Republic
ans who demand that the Republican
party shall in the forthcoming Presi-
Dental contest canvass every Southern
State are right. The fact that stealing
States has been transferred from the
South to the extreme North shows that
acquiescence in election frauds any
where is suicidal as well as cowardly.-
Chicago Tribune.