New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-19
GERRYMANDERING DEFENDED.

There may he readers of THE TRIBUNE who
are unable or unwilling to belle We that the
Dibbe redistrictng scheme in South Carolina
is justified and defended by the Democratic par
ty and press of that State upon the score solely
that it is a gerrymandcr, and that it will serve
to repress majority of the voters, depriv-
ing them Of their legal rights and their legiti-
mate political influence. Their incIeduity
i, not surprising, for This is the first time in the
history of the country that political party
ever dared defend open, shameless, confessed
fraud This is what is now going on il South
Carolina. And it is not done by the rowdy press
and low-down politicians, but by the leading
and most influential Democratic newspapers
and the most prominent and reputable men OF
tbe marty. Here for instance, is The Charleston
Ne,rs. probably the most influential party organ
in the State and one, too, that has gained quite
a reputation at the North Tor conservatism
from having taken the ground that the tissue
ballot and other fraudulent devices IN use by
the Bourbons should be discouraged and dis
continued so soon as they had effected their
purpose of suppressing the negro vote--this
conservative Democratic organ has no scrupes
IN defending gerrymanderng at the Southa as a
necessary evil.
aThere is a broad distinction, it says in
it's issue of last Saturday, between geIryman-
@dering in the North and gerrymandering in
States like Mississippi and South Carolina"
Defining this abroad distinction" it goes on
to say that . in the North the purpose is to give
@an improper advantage to enc political party,
L" but in South Carolina and Mississippi the OBJ
| ject is to secure an opportunity of electIng
10
character. Any Congressional district in
| South Carolina which can be carried by the
L Republicans is sure to send to Congress some
| u low BLACKBOARD or selfconfeSsed thief
| That is to say that in Mississippi and South
| Carolina free institutions and a democratic
| form of government are a failure that the ma
ority are notfit and cannot be trusted to govern
that there is in those States, unlike the States
| at the North, ruling class to whom, though a
minority of voters, belong the prerogatlves and
privileges of power; and that political trickeIy,
violence, intimidation and fraud are justibable,
if necessary to give the ruling class the upper
hard. They must have the cOntrol-why
Because if they do not some low blackguard
or self-confessed thief" will be sent to Co..
press Isn't there rather fine distinction
here? What lower blackguardism can there
be. pray, than that which, by bullying and
buster, drives peaccable citizens from the
polls: what meaner Cheft than the self-con-
fessed theft of a voters rights and freeman's
ballot; what more disgraceful than to rob
another man of his Office, "A constituency of its
representation, the public treasury of an official
salaryY
And what form of government is it that they
give us with this recognition of ruling class
and establishment of minority control Not a
democracy certainly. The fundamental doc
trine enunciated here is that the poole are not
capable of seif-govenment; that OH the con-
trary popular self government in such c0mmun-
tiles as those of Mississippi and South Carolina is
such an unmitigated and intOlerable curse that
the self-selectcd minority constituting the self
styled ruling class are justified in resorting to
dishonesty, trickery, violence and fraud to es-
cape it. What place is there in the structure of
the republic for such a form of government as
this2 How can South Carolina under such a
system tit into a Government of the peo-
pie, by the people, and for the people ?
There is a single glimmer of light in the dark
ness of the situation. The Democratic organ
from which we have quoted does make a half
way admission that gerrymandering and other
such Bourbon devices are evils, though ne
cessary ones, and promises upon certain condi-
tons, though upon what authority we know
NOT. relief from them ut some indefinite period
in the future. Wien" says The NcpS, the
Republicans shall have the virtue or sense
@to nominate irreproachabe candidates in
aSouth Carolina, the process of political lique-
aiaction will begin, and gerrymanderng will
q soon be thing of the past" But we presume
the South Carolina Republicans do now main
tain that their candidates are "Irreproachable,"
and that, when compared with the Democratic
candidates who have deflauded them OF their