Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-04-15
Alleged Election Frauds in South
Carolina.

at Charleston, instructing him to proceed
forthwith to prosecute certain Demo
cratic election managers in that State for
alleged violation of United States cleo
ton Jaws. was simply the dying effort Of
the Radical party to maintain itself in
power by g revival of sectional hate.
That it has already failed m its purpose
is evident. True, the prosecutions are
being proceeded with, and before they
are concluded some one or more of the
election managers may perhaps be con-
victed in the United States Circuit Court
of that State. Nevertheless the object for
which these prosecutions were ordered
has not been realized. twas hoped that
these trials would revive the waning
fortunes of the Radicals by, once more,
bringing the sanguinary undergarment
prominently into notice. Yet, not
withstanding that a few stalwart jour
mails have feebly seconded the efforts of
our bloodthirsty Attorney General Of
the dinner plate coat of arms, by allud-
ing to "Brewster's tricks in South Caro-
lina," ETC.. the Northern heart has not
been fired, and refuses to beat responsive
TO the tune of sectionalism.
The cause Of this is self-evident. Just
after the war, naturally enough the peo-
pie of the North felt embittered against
the South, and were ready to approve
any act or deed which would lead to her
humiliation and modification. Hence
it was that the MOseses, the Pattersons,
the Chamberlains, and other bright and
shining lights among the piOus and viz
tuous Republicans. were upheld in power
by the administration and the Republi-
can party, and given carte blanche to
prey to the utmost upon the people
of South Carolina, while upon others
of the same stripe were conferred like
privileges in other Southern States. At
length, however, the Northern people
found that this condition of affairs
affected them almost az injuriOusly as it
did the South, since, under it, the South
could not prosper, and with the South
despoiled and poverty stricken, an undue
proportion of the national burdens fell
upon Northern shoulders. This touched
the Northern pocket and quickly opened
the eyes of our brethren of that section
to the fact that promoting sectional hos
tility was a very Improbable business;
that the interests Of the various sections
of the Union were mutual, and the wei
fare Of any one was largely dependent
upon the prosperity of the remainder.
As result of this conviction on the
part of the North, Grantism was. in
1876, given its quietus, and the people of
the country, both by the choice of a
Democratic Congress to succeed an
overwhelming Republican majority in
that body, and by the election of Mr..
Tilden to succeed Grant, plainly declared
that they were wearied and disguised
with sectiOnalism, and were heartily
tired of the old stale grindings of the
Southern outrage mill. Brewster, how
ever, is such a dyed-in-the-woo Bourbon
that he can forget nothing nor Learn
anything Hence his inability to see
that sectional animOsities belong to a
past age so far as the people are con-
cerned, and hence, also, the reason why
his feeble attempts to reinaugurate
Grantism have so signally failed.
But the superb impudence as well as
infamy of this effort of Brewster to
revive Grautism in South Carolina, and
africanize the State, IS made strikilgly
apparent when we reflect that even were
the election mausgers now on trial guilty
of the offenses alleged against them, they
have been merely executing the villainY
which they have been taught by Mr.
Brewster's own party. a Contem-
poIary recalls to mind the fact
that during the days when
Radical leaders. such as Ex-Governor
Moses who have since become felons,
had full possession Of the political ma
chinery in our sister State, it was very
common matter for the ballot boxes to
contain more votes at elections than
theVe were voters. This was the usual
practice of the very party now so vir-
tuously indignant over imaginary Demo
cratic frauds of like character, and to
meet the emergency Of the case, the
Republican Legislature Of the Stale en-
acted the following law, recorded on
page1 III, vol XIV, South Carolina statutes
'If more ballots should be found, on
opening the box, than there are names
on the poll-list, ali the ballots shall be
returned to the box and thoroughly
mixed together, and one of the managers
or the clerk shall, GoittOut seeing tie bal
lots. draw therefrOm and Immediately de-
strOg as many ballots as there are in ex-
cess of the number of names on the poll
list"
When this Republican law is read,
and it is remembered that the chief charge
against the present managers of elections
in South Carolina is that they have been
guilty only of an act legalized by the
very men whom Grant maintained in
power at the point of the baYonet, the
fragrant hypocrisy and impudence of the
administration in instIgating these trials
are plainly manifest. True, followers OF
Republican practices should, under the
strict operation of justice, be, as a
rule, immured within the walls
of a penitentiary. Nevertheless we
venture to assert that such a scene as is
now being enacted in the Federal courts
Of South Carolina-viz. the criminal
trial, by political administration, of a
set of men charged only with doing
what the very party to which the admin
istration belongs had previously legal
ized-could be witnessed in no other
country of the civilized world
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Improvement OF Mississippi River