Helena weekly herald., 1880-07-08
STEVENSON ON SUFFRAGE AND MIL.
ITARY COERCION.

course. Among other remarka bic statements
we will extract two consecutive sentences fol
a word of comment He says: "The peo
: Pile are tired of interference with the popular
right of suffrage. They are sickened anG
disgusted with the military, which attempt tc
coerce them" In the first place let US soberly
inquire where the right of suffrage is inter.
fered with, by whom, and no are the vic
Tins. We have never heard Of any one al
the North, who was justly entitled to vote,
prevented from doing So In some few
cities where fraudulent voting is largely prac-
ticed as regular thing, attempts have been
made with some success to check the evil.
The Democratic party never found any trou-
bic to get in all its legitimate vote, and much
more besides.
The only place in the country where there
is no right of suffrage is at the South, and
the negroes are the victims and the class and
party represented by Stevenson have sup
pressed the ballot Compared with this euor-
nous, wholesale crime, almost universal at
the South, the few and scattered irregularities
i
has been more violent interference with the
legal right of suffrage at single election in
some single parishes at the South than in all
the North in all the years since the founda-
ton of our government. In the parish of
East Feliciana, Louisiana, after a bloody
campaign by the Ku-Klux, out of 2, 1877 reg
istered Republican voters only one dared to
60 TO the polls. 1t was the same in many
other parishes. In the whole State there
were 2,314 more negro voters than white,
and more whites voted the Republican ticket
than blacks the Democratic. In nine parish
es, where there were 11,6O4 registered Re-
publican voters, after the slaughter of few
hundred of their principal men only nineteen
dared to vote the Republican ticket. In Mis-
sissippi and South Carolina the same scenes
were enacted with similar results. In all the
States of the South by one device or another
the negro is virtually disfranchised And yet
these men get up in convention and prate
about interference with ''the popular right of
suffrage There is not man in this coun-
know beyond doubt that with this popular
right of suffrage free from violence and
fraud the States of Louisiana, Mississippi,
Florida and South Carolina a: least would be
as regularly and reliably Republican as Yer
mont. And those who make such assertions
as Stevenson know the facts as we'll as any
body else 1t is bad enough to know that
there is no right of suffrage to the negro
without having the intelligence of the country
insulted by these ironical lamentations over
interference with the popular right of suf.
frage by the perpetrators of this interference.
Oh, yes, the negroes can vote as they please
anywhere in the South, but at the risk of
their lives, and when they are shot down like
dogs there is no law to punish their murder
ers. The people of Russia enjoy just as
much freedom to-day as the negroes of the
South. Troops have been Withdrawn be-
cause it only seemed to aggravate the evil
Violence and fraud have won the victory and
are in undisputed possession of the felC.
The negroes are counted, but only to give
greater power to the usurpers and robbers.
1t would seem that these men ought to be
content with the undisputed enjoyment of
heir il-gOtten gain without taunting the men
If the North with their hypocritical cant
Ibout interference with the popular right of
uffrage The South is solid to-day only be-
,ause the popular right of suffrage is trodden
lnder foot The only method of redress left
'pen is for the North as solidly to unite and
efuse the South any share of control of the
ational government until the right of suf- {
rage is re- established, till the spirit as well
s forms of free institutions are sustained and
espected. 6
How appropriate it must seem to the reader
f this speech for the party that is ''sickened E
nd disgusted with the military" to follow up 3
1ese expressions by nominating for the Pres 8
lency man who has been in the military =
ervice all his life, and has absolutely no civil \
ecord at all further than reputation of
aving always voted the Democratic ticket, +
hich is certainly about the minimum of any
vl record. Evidently Stevenson at the time
making this speech did not anticipate the v
of Hancock, or these inappro- n
rate expressions would never have been ut 8
red. What strange commentary upon e.
e speech is the action of the convention. 6,
ersons sick and disgusted with the military c.
military man! But party apol- N
fists may say that the sickness and disgust O.
as not expressed at the military uncondi- m
'nally. but only at one which attempts to q,
erce them. Even this will not improve the Ii
Sc, for Hancock, during the time that his b,
ilitary record acquired any lustre, was CO. pl