National Republican., 1882-08-17
The Lesson of ChaImers's Candidacy.

The Lesson of Chaimcrs's Candidacy.
The State of Mississippi was, in 1874,
wrested from the control of the Repub-
lican majority, not by voting, but by the
suppression of Votes. The negroes, who
constituted not only majority of the
Republican party, but majority of all
the voters of the State, were assaulted by
bands of armed men, and made to under
stand by the inhuman massacre at Vicks-
burg and by similar occurrences else
where that their political enemies had
deliberately determined to take by vio-
lence what they could not have by
numbers at the ballot-box. The
majority of 10000 given for Grant
in 1879 -a---''S ''"t--nnlV obliteratpd
but 50 completely were the blacks
terrorized, and so absolute was the
despotism of the Bourbon minority, that
by the suppression of votes on the Re-
publican side, and the stuiling and false
returns of votes on the Democratic 81 de-
the latter was made to appear 10000
ahead. The success Of this bloody revo-
luton encouraged similar movements in
other Southern States, and us the desper-
ate scheme was introduced into one after
another of them it was designated by its
projectors and promoters as the Missis-
sippi plan"
For eight years this "plan" has been
the system of government wherever
the "organized Democracy" have found
it necessary and possible. 1t is pure
and simple military despotism. The
States in which it has prevailed have
been military camps, and the absence of
active hos,lities has been due to the
submissiveness of the unarmed and un-
disciplined majority under the usurpa-
tion of the unscrupulous leaders of the
minority, The ballot-boxes seized by
violence through the Mississippi plan
have been made to tell what story best
pleased their custodians since that time.
Arraigned for this treason against Re-
publican government in the States and
. for rebellion against national authority
in overthrowing the freedom of elections
for members of Congress, the Bourbons
made two separate detenses. The first
was wholesale denial of the charges
and a concerted sneer at the overwhelm-
ing proofs of their truth, which they
called 1.-THE Northern outrage mill"
The second was a justification of their
revolutionary conduct on the plea of ne
cessity, they alleging that it was the
only method whereby they could escape
the curse Of what they termed "negro
and carpet-bag rule"
The first Of these defenses, viz: the
general denial, is not worth discussing,
The reign of terror which preceded and
made easy the subsequent reign of fraud
WAS not a succession of secret crimes but
rather a series of pitched battles, the
history of which rests upon equal
authority with that of other sanguinary
revolutions against established govern
ments. The denials deceived only the
most credulous and willing, class
whose numbers were increased by the
conscious f,llsehoods of certain influential
Northern newspapers. The unfortunate
victims of Bourbon hatred were like the
man told of in the Scripture parable
who went down to Jericho and fell
among thieves. Like him, they were not
N-enly beaten and stripped Of thcrraiment,
but like him they were also neglected
by heartless hypocrites who, pretending
not to see them lying wounded and help
less, "passed by on the other side" If
the priest and the Leyite had seen the
bystanders see them see the wounded
traveller they would have preceded the
Good Samaritan in pouring oil into his
wounds and taking him to an inn. And
80, if the great Northern journals which
in 1875 derided the idea that anybody had
been hurt by Bourbon shot-guns in Mis-
sissippi, Louisiana, and elsewhere, had
doubted their own ability to deceive the
public by swearing to the defense made
by the Bou bons Of the Southern Jericho,
ihev would have taken the side Of the