Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-07-27
GEORGE MATHES. EDlroR.
The South Carolina Gerrymander.

Mr.. Samuel Dibble, who was recently
elected from seat that he wrongfully
held in the Lower House of Congress, is
generally credited with the paternity of
the new apportionment in South Caro-
lima. MIR. Dibble is a political casuist
OF The type that has been developed in
the South by the exigencies of the Bour-
bon cause. He pretends to be an hon
orable gentleman, and grows highly in
dignant if his pretensions in this respect
are disputed. Yet he will wink at forg-
cry, perjury, or theft to accomplish the
suppression of the negro vote in his
State, and believes that in so doing he
is acting the part of the patriot and the
statesman. Some of the Republicans
in the House, during the debate in the
Mackey-Dibble case, were weak enough
to say that they believed the latter was
a man of honor, though they had the
best possible reason in the record before
them for knowing that he was not.
Dibble has been the manager of the
Bourbon campaigns in the Charleston
district for many years, and he is res
ponsible, if anybody is, for the frauds
that have been practiced there. 1t is
time that Republicans should begin to
call things by their right names if they
wish to respect themselves or be res
pected by others. Nothing was ever
gained yet by compromising with
scion of Southern chivalry engaged in
dirty work as to his personal response
bilty for it.
Dibble has himself thrown a strong
light on his pretensions as Southern
gentleman by preferring a new plan of
of apportionmcnt for South Carolina,
which in its disregard of the require
ments of decency and law dwarfs all
previous efforts of the kind that have
been made to this country He had the
plan of this appOrtionment in his pocket
1T the very moment when he was pro-
testing his purity and innocence in the
halls OF Congress. But the least exam
ination of il will show that an honorable |
man could not have conceived il, and !
cannot now cOuntenance it. The OBJ |
ject of it is to nullify rs far as possible |
the c0lored vote of the State The col |
orcd majority in South Carolina is 3d.
600. Dibble's plan begins by putting
$4,000 of it in one district. This district |
- $50 miles long. Ii varies in width |
from $50 miles to $50 feet, except for |
three miles, where it is an imaginary
line. The net of Legislature uses the |
following language in describing part of
the Seventh District
James Island. Folly Island, Morris |
Island, and the Islands laying between
them and the lower portion of Charles
ton Harbor, and the ocean coast-line
from and below high-water mark.
The ocean coast line from and below
high water mark is, of course, nil dur
ing high water. The district is shaped
like q bat with outstretched wings, |
though, in the words of Polonius, ''it is
backed like Il camel and from one
point of view is every like weazel"
Such coniiguration never was seen in
this country before since Congressional
districts began to exist.
The other six districts have been ar
ranged with view to returning Bour-
bon members, but all of them, with two
exceptions, have colored maiorities.
The number of male persons over u
years Of age in the new districts in 1880,
according to the official statement of
the census Office, is as follows: