New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-07-23
THOSE CANNON AT OXFORD.

General Chalmers Is 1ndlgnanC Decause III
$780, with HancOcks platform OF "a free bal
lot and fair count" upon their lips, the DEM
ocrats fired cannon at the polls in Oxford,
Miss, "to intlmidate Republican voters" This
is little too much-evcn from Chalmers. 1t
was in this very campaign of 1850 that
Chalmers, as the Democratic candidate for
Congress IN the With District, was the benefci-
airy of the grOssest frauds committed by his
party. Over 1000 votes legally cast for his
Opponent were thrown out on trivial and I'M
lawful pretexts by Democratic canvassers, and
it was only because of his rage at losing his
seat in Congress, and because he thought his
party should have supported him more
fiercely in the contest in the House of Rep
resentatives, that he turned reformer at all IL
is impossible that q man with his record should
be accepted as an ally in good standing by
the Republican party, and his long speech at
Jackson, which was evidently an attempt to
strengthen himself after the repulse given him
by the Mississippi Executive Committee a few
weeks ago, will not avail much. The indie
pendent sentiment-such as there is-in the
Democratic party at the South cannot gain
anything from such leader.
The results of the various Independent
movements in the Southern States have been
disappointing thus far. Much was hoped for
them in the campaigns of last year. Some
sympathy had been aroused at the North, and
il was hoped that the elections would show
such an increase in the number of Indepen-
dent Congressman that the despotic sway of
single party in the South could be regarded
as broken. But leaving aside the Six
Readiusters who have been elected to
the XLYIIIth Congress from Virginia,
there are only three Independents elected, or
claiming to be elected, to the House from
Southern districts. One is General Chalmers
himself who will probably be rejected in favor
of Manning; another is Tyre York, who was
the outcome of one of the triangular North
Carolina contests, being supported by Liberal
Democrats, Republicans and Prohibltonists,
and elected over another candidate supported
by Liberal Democrats and Republicans. and
the Bourbon nominee the third Is the pre-
posterous "Tom" Ochiltrce. of Texas, who
has already announced himself in favor of
plenty of appropriations, and so will he III
good party standing. The South will be, prac-
tically, quite as solid in the new House as 1t
was in the last, except for the gain of four
Readjuster votes from Virginia. Nor does the
general condition of politics in the South hold
out all the promises of Bourbon disintegration
that it was hoped would show themselves
within year of the Presidential campaign.
In Georgia, where the outlook seemed brightest
for a time, the Independent faction has dis
played little life since Alexander III. Stephens
protested that he was a good enough Bourbon
In North Carolina a good showing was made
last year, the Coalition coming within few
hundred votes of victory, but the failure was
evidently regarded as discouraging In Ten
nessee the State Credit and Reputation fac
tons may fight bitterly Oh State issues, but
it will be strange if they do not support the
same electoral ticket. In Mississippi the move
ment is weighed down with Chalmers, and in
Texas the Independent talk seems to have
died out. Here and there throughout the South
the movement-if 1t can be called one-gives
sign of Lille now and then, but its progress
is very slow. All the influences of the South
are against il, and it must seem questionable
whether it can affect the next Presidential
campaign at all, outside of Virginia and North
Carolina. 1t certainly cannot do more with
out the aid from the North which has often
been suggested but never granted so far
eminent speakers and a wide distribution of
documents.
1t is important to remember here that the
Solid South gained in political power under
the new apportonment. In 1880 it had, in
Guiding Delaware, 1873 electoral votes out of
500 in 1884, it will have 153 out of 401-
a gain of nearly one per cent in the proper
ton of It's vote to the whole. 1t is also to
be remembered that the Democrats control %
States in the new House of Representatives,
and if the election of President should in any
yay be thrown into that body-which now
seems improbable of course-they would elect
their candidate. These are two good reasons
why, if anything Is to be accomplished in
winning electoral votes for the Republican
ticket in the South next year, the subject de-
mands early attention.