Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-05-03
SOUTH CAROLINA.
Those Pleas of Gaflfy Catered by Ad-
vice of Counsel i'm the Election
Law Cases.
what General Noise Has TO Say About
1.-THE General Governments
Power.

Baltimore Day: There has been great
jubilation among certain Republican papers
IN the North over the victory won by the
government" in forcing some persons
charged with election frauds in South Caro-
lima to plead guilty, and the readers of such
papers have been encouraged to expect a
wholesale coming forward Of Democrats be-
fore Judge Bonds court to confess their sins
and beg for mercy. AS these papers have
the means for securing correct information
at their hands, there Is no room to dou bt
that their gross misrepresentation of the
facts is deliberate and intended to deceive
those who depend on them for news, since
such papers could not have been honestly
mistaken in a matter concerning all the de-
tails Of which they were sure to be informed
by telegraph. The facts of the case disclose
proceeding by no means creditable to the legal
representatives of the United States, and the
victory" they have achieved is barren
one, and its full details show how persistent
the misrepresentation of affairs in South Car
olina has been. 1t must be remembered that
District-Attorney Melton declared his inten-
ton, in order to avoid needless prosecution,
to pick out in each county REPRESENTATIVE
cases, and that he submitted these to Dallas
Sanders for investigation. 1t is to be
presumed, then, that those brought to trial
were among the most fragrant cases to be
found. One OF these was that against two
commissioners of election in Sumter county,
who were charged with conspiracy to defraud
because they had, in canyassing the votes of
that county, thrown out the ballots of three
precincts. In one case the ballot-box was
delivered to person not a manager in viola
ton OF law, and delivered by him to the
county canvassers. In another the managers
OF the election had absented themselves
from the polls, and there was evidence that
the ballot-box and poll-Lst had been
tempered with. In the remaining case two
ballot-boxes were used, and there was no
way to determine which was the lawful box,
as there could be but one, according to law
In the exercise of their judgment the COM
missioners threw all three precincts out.
ms was The ofense on account of which
they were indicted for coTTuptiy refusing to
count the votes. We doubt if there is a
State In this Union in which canvassers
have not refused to count votes because OF
irregularities no greater than these, and yet
this Is the case in which the Government
won this great victory, which is hailed az
the forerunner OF general confession by
all the d mocrats of South Carolina that
they are miserable sinners, who have habit
ually cheated at elections"
GENERAL NOISES STATEMENT.
General Noise, counsel for VIM and
McLaren, who pleaded guilty of an unin-
territorial violation OF the election laws in
South Carolina, has been violently assailed
in that State for allowing his clients to make
such plea. In very temperate letter to
the Charleston Nous (Democratic), defend
ing himself, he says:
81 now say that am as much opposed to negro
rule, or the return of corrupt government such as
prevailed from 1865 to 1876, any man in the
State, and l will DO as much any man to secure
the continuance of that honest economical gov
eminent which has obtained in the State since
November, 1916. But one thing Thought
was settled in South Carolina, and that was that
the government of the United States was too
strong to be resisted. have never said nor do j
think that individual officers of the government
could not be resisted. But do think that it is a
suicidal policy which should array the state or its
others against the general government or the
national PUBLIC opinion. And hope TO see the
day when South Carolina will no longer furnish
campaign thunder to Radical press or speakers"