The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-08-11
The November Election-sA Full
Vote, q Free Ballot and q Fair
Count
The following is copied from a tele-
gram to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat,
dated Jackson, August 9Th

gram to the ST. Louis Globe-Democrat,
dated Jackson, August 9Th
The Republicans will hold preliminary
consultation tomorrow. Lynch, Hill, Lea,
Fitzgerald, Alcorn, Simrall and Others say
they will unite all Democrats, Republicans,
Creenbackers and independents in favor OF
purifying the ballot in Mississippi, TO meet
in Convention at an early day, and to put
an opposition ticket in the field. They
declare they intend TO make free ballot, a
Tree election and fair count the main and
only issue They say it is folly for them
To attempt anything till they get a fair
ballot, which they think they can do by a
combination like the one mentioned above.
This preliminary consultation resulted
in the call of Republican Convention
on the 18th inst; the Greenbackers, we
learn, having previously named the
oath as their day of meeting. These
movements indicate a combination of
1 the Republican and Greenback parties
/ together with the sO-called Independent
element of the Democratic party. The
/ Democratic-Conservative party will
stand ready to meet the allied forces
and to defeat them at the ballot-box
1t Is singular to note the grounds
upon which the combat for the over
throw of Democratic rule is to be made.
Ii is not assumed that it has not been
honest 1t is not assumed that it has
not been economical. 1t is not assumed
that it has not established law and order
and dispensed justice with impartial
hand to all classes and both races. 1t
is not put forth that a more progressive
policy is TO be adopted by the allies
That immigration is to be encouraged
Or that railroads are to be built, and
manufacturing is to be promoted
We are left to infer that in all these
essentials the Democratic party has left,
or will leave, nothing undone, if con-
tinued in power. The allies, we are
told, are to have but one issue, and
that Is, "a free ballot, full vote and
fair count
Now, we will undertake to say at the
beginning of the canvass that the OPP
position to the Democracy intend max
ing their fight upon a false issue. The
maintenance Of Democratic ascendancy
does not depend upon the debauchery
of the ballot-box and fraud in elec-
tions. 1t depends upon the intrinsic
merit of the Democratic cause and the
moral conviction 1t has wrought in the
minds of the people that it is fit to be
trusted with the administration of their
affairs. If the Democratic party has
any single committal which it places
above all else; it is its determination
that the elections shall lie free, and that
the count shall be fair. The National
Convention of the Democracy, in 1880,
in nominating Ger. Hancock for the
Presidency, announced this article as q
part Of its creed
"The right 10 a free baltQt is a right pre-
IN egery part oftte United States."
Gen. Hancock, in accepting the Pres
idential nomination, emphasized this
declaration by saying:
"H is gital principle =. o,,r system that
8eitler .traud nor force must be qtlowed e
,lbpert the rights of the people. =
His only By a faH rate, a free ballot and a fair
count that the people can r',ie IN tact as re-
qrir6d by the theory Of our government"
Gen. Hancock in Rttering this senti-
ment, voiced the universal sIatit Of the
Democracy as embodied in their plat !
form No party deserves to live which
violates it in practice. 1t is for this |
reason we have never ceased to main
tain that the i.ePQ blican party deserved |
death for the stupendous fraud which /
it practiced upon the people IN installing
the candidates for the two highest
offices in the government, whom they
had rejected in 1876.
In our State elections the machinery
by which elections are conducted is in
the hands of the Democratic party
but the law enacted by the Democracy
is ample to secure free ballot and a
fair count" 1t requires that neither
party shall be represented to the exclu-
sion Of tEa others in the management of
elections, and the State BOARD will no
doubt see that its provisions are strictly
observed. The Democracy will
count sEeir majority by thous-
ands, and when the victory is won,
there will be no sign of violence, Eor
faint of corruption in victory which
the most doubling will be compelled to
admit to have been q fair expression of
the viii of the people in favor of the
sound, conservative, enlightened and
spirit which it has ipaugu-
rated