Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-11-22
THE MISSISSIPPI DEMOCRACY
OUGHT NOT TO BE DEFILED BY ANY SUCH
SUBTERFUqE


1t seems that they sent up from Tate
county to Jackson, Miss, tally-sheet, Civ
ing 1872 votes to ~. r. Chambless" The
readers of Sundays Pcayune had the partic-
ulars by telegraph, and will not doubt that
Gen. Chalmers was unq uestionably elected.
To defraud him out of mis- certificate is
shameful and indefensible, and legal technic-
alities cannot excuse il. The Mississippi
Democracy ought not to be defled by any
such sublerfuge. Unless ii can be demon
strsted that there really is a person named
-. X. Chambless," who actually was voted
for in Tate county, the officials at Jackson
will not be excused from a count which could
have been rectifed by returning the tally
sheet for resurrection. But Congress will,
beyond doubt, correct the matter, give the
recalcitrsnt his seat, and make him happy.
The affair, though, has its ridiculous
aspect, aud in this respect will be one OF
the most vivid humors of the years cam
paign. 1t affords the first chance which the
Second Mississippi District has had for a
good hearty laugh since Chalmers sobered it
by declaring that if he went to Congress
again he wished to go "with an undisputed
title from district having N sjority of
white voters" l. is a queer fact that the
Second District, to which he appealed,
against that snbdued measure OF congress
sional injustice which threw him out OF his
seat in the old Sixth Distric', had, in 1880,
according 10 the census, 1924 whites and
90y605 colored people, but the generals
arithmetic may be right after ALL for the
Jackson Clarion's figures assign 10 the district
1856 white voters and Il, 654 colored voters,
a clear white majority of two. Politically,
it is about as evenly divided. 1t gave Gen.
Lowry 1901 majority in 1851 over Col.
King. Tate county gave Lowry 1883 votes
and King 1886. majority of three against
the regular Democrat. The gallant Col.
Manning, whose old district is identical with
the new Second, except that Yalobusha
county has been taken from it, was peculiarly
entitled to hold il. He wrested it from the
OF Pontotoc, aud then Maj. Albert r.
Howe, OF the Fifth Massachusetts Cav
airy. Howe had 1881 votes, against
S2l6 for w. A. Alcorn, Democrat. Gull
ford Wiley Wells, a lIeutenant-colonel in
the Union army, five years United States
attorney for the northern district of Missis-
sippi, ran for the Forty fourth Congress as
an administration Republican," and beat
Howe above 5000 votes. Col. Manning en-
tered the field in 1876, and obtained 20,329
votes against II sos cast for Thos. Walton,
Republican. His vote in 1880 was 15,2 55
against 1896 for the Rspu blicaD, Buchanan,
and 1856 for the Greenbacker, Harris. The
fact that the Republican and Greenback
vote combined was only 10y less than Man
ming perhaps euSSc5lCu " 0cAs
the notion that his own personal popularity
among his old soldiers might turn the scale.
The well-known Democracy of Gen. Chal-
mers would. prevent heated partisan with
holding of Democratic votes procurabe
through personal influence. The result
proves that he calculated shrewdly. II
Gen. Chalmers had contested his Old
district with Judge Jeffords, he would
have had public sympathy in any
catastrophe; but the ungenerousnsss of car:
petbsgging into Democratic district and
running against a fellow-soldier in the
Southern cause, and the erratic greatness of
defying Democratic nomination instead Of
seeking it, partly counterbalaDce the serious
aspects of the occasion, and will bring upon
him roars OF laughter instead OF spasms of
coincidence. As The general himself told the
House of Representatives last April, when il
had under consideration Lynch's case against
him: "In my judgment the day has gone by
when the people OF the United States can be
made TO weep as we wept in childhood over
the Last Of the Aohicans.-Netr Orleans Plea
yune.