The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-05-02
Southern sentiment.

Southern Sentiment.
A few days ago the Tribune made a
quiet assertion that public sentiment in
the South sustained frauds upon the
ballot-box and opposed all efforts to
bring the perpetrators of them to JUS
tice. Southern journals have taken
offense at this assertion, have COM
planned that it is full of 'srancorous
hatred" toward the South, and that it
is "partisan slush" which ought to: be
held in reserve till the next Presidential
campaign Yet the assertion was the
simple truth plainly stated. We do not
suppose that anybody at all familiar
with the sentiment of the South, as ex-
hibited in the trials of election cases,
will deny this. That there has been
ballot-box stuffing in every election in
many Southern States for several years
past even the Democrats no longer deny.
It has been confessed to by Wade Hamp-
ton and the Bourbon organ of South
Carolina and by General Chalmers and
the ablest Democratic organ in Missis-.
sippi time and again. If the boxes were
stuffed, somebody did the stuffing; but
in what Southern States have any men
been convicted for that offensep One
verdict of guilty" was secured in
South Carolina, but the jury who
brought it in were so bulldozed that
|, they retracted it Immediately,
II There have been recent attempts to
bring ballot-box suffers and intimidat-
ors to Justice in both South Carolina
and Louisiana, and public sentiment in
those States has defeated them. In
South Carolina there was merely pre-
liminary examination before the United
States Commissioner, and this resulted
in the binding over of two men for
trial. The animus of the public was
shown by the extraordinary report of the
examination published in the Charleston
Neios and Courier, the chief Democratic
organ. The Government officers were
charged with "infamous tactics" with
coaching their Witnesses" and with
instructing them to swear to false testi-
mony. One account opens in this way:
"The atmosphere of the courtroom to-
day was infinitely purer than before, the
negro witnesses having been excluded,
attendance of white people" All the
negro witnesses are set down as liars,
|. and clumsy efforts are made to ridicule
them by ascribing different degrees Of
blackness to them. Thus one is de-
| scribed as "black;" another as "cop-
per-colored; another as "coffee-col-
ored;" another as 'bronze; another
| as Every black" another as "young
and coppery;" another as Every ebo-
N.Y." another as having q "brown face
and blue tie;" another as " saffron
colored;" and still another as "black
and burly." The whole spirit of the re.
| ports was one of contempt for the wit
nesses for the Government, and of bit
ter hatred for the Government counsel
| The arrest of accused persons was
always spoken of as an outrage upoI
free citizens, and one would Judge
from reading the accounts, that the in
nocent citizens of the State were the
victims of a base conspiracy. If publ,
sentiment in South Carolina does no
sustain this view, why do the newspa
pers of the State take it so unanimously
The Louisiana case is far worse thai
this. About week ago sixty men wer
brought to trial in the Federal Court il
New Orleans for ballot-box stuffing
They were all Democrats, and were &C
cused by Democrats. The evidenc,
against them was overwhelming, yet
conviction could not be secured. Twt
patches of them were acquitted by
jury in the face of incontrovertible evi
dence, simply because public sentimen
would not sustain a conviction. Th,
crimes were committed in Novembel
last, and were so fragrant that even tn,
Bourbon organ of the city, the Times
Democrat, was moved to protest agains
them. 1t said on November %: at i
not possible that such deeds can be per
petrated with impunity; it must be tina
the men who committed these outrage
can be found and confronted with tn,
people and the law they have wronged
and if, as has been said, the State Law
cannot reach the chief criminals, thel
there is Federal statute that can be in
/, voked-" The Federal statute was in
Toked, when this same Bourbon organ
turned about and declared that tn
'.order for these political prosecution
emanatess from Republican caucus O
coterie," and they are designed mot t.
punish crime but to aid the Republican
party" Public sentiment was to-
strong for the organ to Withstand, ant
all through the trial the papers influ
ence was exerted to defeat justice. S,
hopeless was the outlook that after tw,
patches of indictments had been acquit
ted the prosecution moved the indefinit
postponement of the remaining cases.
Now we respectfully ask, in view o
these facts, if we were guilty of 'sparti
san rancor'' in saying that public senti
ment in the South sustained fraud upol
the ballot-boxp Happily there is on
newspaper in New Orleans which ha
the courage to defy public sentiment
The Picayu1e, an Independent Demo
cratic paper, says the prosecutions wer
in no sense Republican, and that ''if tn
party is not summarily purged of tn
scoundrels who have perverted its pur
pose and disgraced its record, it i
doomed soon to be abandoned by ever.
representative of virtue and intelligenc
now within its ranks We wish W
could believe the Pcdyune voice
the sentiment Of a large proper
ton of the people of Louisiana, but tn
action of the jury shows most clearly il
which direction the popular curren
runs. 1t may be that in time the South
ern people will see the blind folly O
their course, and discover that the prin
ciples of right and wrong are not re
versed in politics simply because a ne
gro has entered into the problem; bu
that point has not been reached yet
NJ T. Tribune.
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