Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-03-24

WASHINGTON, March ga long letter
from Attorney General Brewster to Dallas
Sanders, Assistant United States District
Attorney, at Charleston, is published, with
Mr.. Sanders reply. The first paragraph
commends Mr.. Sanders for the part he has
so far taken in the cases on which he was
sent from Philadelphia. The remaining
portion is as follows
"By the by, l was upon the point of
writing you letter this very day upon a
subject that concerns me very much, and
desire you to convey what 1 now write to
Mr. Melton and read every word do write
If [ were not about to write to you l would
write to Mr.. Melton himself. Au iuvestiga-
tion has been recently had here in Wash
ington of the contest between Smalls
and Tillman in the House. l send you
now forthwith by this mail printed copy
of the proceedings aud the testimony and
argument that was sent to me only yester-
day. desire to invite your attention to
it, and Mr.. Melton's attention to f.,
and l expressly request you to say to Mr..
Melton that 1t is my determination to have
these matters thoroughly investigated and
closely pursued. The right Of suffrage
must be protected, no matter who
suffers. l wish Mr.. Melton to be
told by you that l expect that he will prose-
cute forthwith the most important persons
who have been concerned in these attempts
to defeat honest elections by fraudulent or
forcible means. say the highest and most
responsible people are those whom l desire
to be first prosecuted and first pursued.
There will be no example If merely iusignifi-
cant persons are taken hold Of. Those
who stand high in the community and
have thus ventured to violate the law and
encourage others to do it, are the very per-
sons to be first prosecuted and, If convicted,
punished in a signal way. Then things will
begin to change, and voters will be en-
couraged to vote according to their cOnvic-
tion, and those who do vote will feel salts
fed that their votes have been duly counted
and surrender cheerfullY to an honest result.
81 am very much inIearnest about this, for
have heard, what l cannot credit, that It
is currently said In South Carolina that the
only persons who will be prosecuted will
be a few Insignificant and obscure per-
sons. Such prosecutions l will not con-
slider as being those that justice
requires to be instituted and pursued. The
criminal court house should not be used
only for the punishment of the obscure.
Il must not be poor mans court house.
All who violate the law, and especially a
fundamental law such as right of suffrage,
must be made to feel the terms Of that law
Abuse of the right of suffrage, such as Is
charged to have been perpetrated in South
Carolina, is practical treason against the
dignity of the people and the fundamental
principle OF their power, and 1T must be
signally punished.
cat this point l have paused and reread
my letter. | was about to send it off to
you, and read it over. saw that through
1t ran pretCy sharp tone of reprobatioD of
this supposed attempt to pursue the poor
aud obscure, and to permit the prosperous
and important to escape the prosecution
that they merited-prosecution for the
offenses they were charged with having
committed. / see nothing in my letter that
ought to be modified, for l am deeply in
crat and, very properly, sympathiz9 with
your party, and l talk to you
with a little more vigor because you
are Democrat, and also because
we erjoy such close personal and friendly
relations. | wish to express my Republi-
can convictions uDOn this subject. / intend
more emphatically to indicate how import
ant all Of this is to both sides that there
0hould be fair play = fair play all
ment of the popular will in any
election that is controlled or biased by force
or fraud. and l do insist that both Demo.
Gratis and Republicans should have their
faces set as flint against abuses of the free
and fair use of the ballot bcx. | would
not in any way impeach Mr. Melton, aud
therefore ! will not write even letter In
the kindest spirit that might be construed
as giving color to such imputations, for |
believe as the public believe, and hope that
he will do his duty.
81 am, with great respect, your friend,
"BENJAMIN HARRIS BREWSTER.
''DauGS Sanders, Esq Asst DIST Attorney
0fube United States, Charleston, S. c."
The letter is dated March 18Th.
In his reply, dated Charleston, March
2lst. Mr.. Sanders says:
Il enclose you list of election cases so
far selected for trial, the extract being taken
from yesterdays Charleston Nea0s and C01tr-
ier. When l resched Columbia last month
Judge Melton instructed me ia my visits to
various counties 10 select the strongest cases
against the most important aud Influential
men, and mott to take little fellows. You will
see by the list enclosed that the men
we propose to try are exceptions from Barn
well county-the managers Of elections
that is, the election officers who carry on
the election on the day of election like the
judge of inspectors of elections in Pennsyl-
vanta. Then we have a case from Sumter
county against the board of county canvas
sers. THESE are the men who count the re-
turns from the various precincts of their
respective counties and forward the result
to the board Of State canvassers."