Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-09-25

obtained in the south. Until then,
there will be no prosperity in the south.
| The democratic party of the south has
| false leaders, and look at the leaders of
the past. Where are the heroes and
champions of slavery? Did they save
slavery? If you put it on the abstract
principle of power; if you deny the
question of a God: if you deny the
sentiment of humanity; if you deny
the equality of men, did they accom-
plish their purpose? Did they save
YOUR slaves? No, sir Then what sort
of leaders are they? In ordinary
battles il man deserts you, you shoot
him. Should not your so-called leaders
| have been thrown overheard long ago?
And yet they ipger on the scene. If
YOU have a democratic hero in the south
| [ will tell you who it is. 1t is not the
crafty and Shiny handed Hendricks, who
opened the war but did not fight. But
| it is Jeff Davis. He is the hero of the
south, Is he not? Why. look at the
demonstrations in the south that attend
| him wherever he speaks. When
you were defeated in battle and
found that one: southern man could
not whip six Yankees, when you were
| driven to the wall and then returned to
the house of your fathers, and were
asked to obey the laws and to reverence
| the old flag, did these men become recon
ciled? Did they attempt to build up the
republic anew on broad foundations?
No, sir; we are all still struggling with
the issue. Look at the immigra-
ton which comes to this country. 1t
steers clear of the solid South, because
there is tue spirit of b9rbarism there.
| There is no room fer a man unless he
contributes to the political power of the
solid South. Look at the great reunion
of the grey recently at Texas. [ have
with me few extracts from the speeches
What do the speakers say? "We're not
ashamed of the lost cause, and if we had
it to do over again we would act just as
we did before" They defy you, and
they avow the same principles that
| brought on the war. They proclaim OPP
position to the Constitution of the Uni
ted States, and to the oaths they had
secretly sworn to. What do you hear
echoing from Virginia and Mississippi?
| What do you hear from West Virginia?
! Why, Democratic member of the
| Legislature is reported to have said
that the Republicans are going to
bring black voters into West Virginia,
and he says, IF they do, not
single negro in West Virginia shall be
allowed to vote" What right, men of
Kentucky, have they to say because
! some men are illegally imported that
! therefore no honest citizen of the cOlOred
race in West Virginia shall be allowed
to vote? 1t is the same right which the
democratic party of Kentucky says is
! higher than the constitution and the
! law-the god of force; that is what they
/ Thew n n Or q
shall vote under such circumstances.
Have the negroes consented to this al
legged fraud Not at all. But the dem
ocrats claim the right to use the inherent
power Of despOtism. If white men or
| ganize the cOlOred men to vote the repub-
lican ticket, then the democrats say
they will drive them out of the state.
They will do it by violence; there is no
law for it.
Why, just look here, right under your
own eyes, in the seat of civilization, in
the bluegrass land, the old scene Of the
mob Of 1916! Did you hear of the cleo
ton the other day? First the slave
power goes to a republican meeting and
interrupts it, and clainas representation
at an exclusively republican meeting.
In the city of Lexington and county
of Fayette there is the very closest
division Of the republican and dem
Ocratic vote. I believe that in a free and
untrammeled election the republicans
would have hundreds of majority in the
city of Lexington and county of Fay-
cite. So close was the election in the
opinion of the democratic leaders, that
they got up a big barbecue to draw out
the democratic voters. They invited
sOnae of the great guns of the western
states. Ward, Hunt, and Platt, of Ohio,
and VOORHEES,, of Indiana. What for
Because they knew that if there was a
fair election it would at any rate be
close. And what a spectacle Of a farce
and fraud that election was. An old
man who had voted the democratic
ticket for forty years told me that he
was so disguised at the infamous pro
ceedings that he had turned around and
voted the opposition ticket. Bands of
democrats were appointed as police, and
they drove republic from the polls
and assisted at repeating and other kinds
of fraud Reliable men have told me
that whole carriage loads of democrats
were taken from one precinct to anOth-
er and were voted at each [ know
that a good many we're taken from my
county, Madison, and voted at the cleo
ton in Fayette county, and [ am credi-
bly, informed that the same is true of
other counties. And now what was the
result? 1t was admitted beforehand
that the election would be close. Did
the democrats beat the republicans by
eleven votes ? No, sir; the returns
| showed that the democrats had ma lori
ty Of LOO. Could that be so in a fair
election? Most certainly not. But the
democratic managers were not skiIlful.
They -overshot the mark, and counted
too large a majority for themselves
At Yonkers.