The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-05-21
Mississippi Elections.

The senate committee appointed to in.
vestigate the election outrages in Copiah
county, Mississippi, has made its report.
The committee, after discussing the rights
conferred by the constitution, say:
"The proposition that the protection of the
right to vote, secured by the fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments to the constitution, is
the concern of the whole people needed no
argument. The census of 1880 showed $685.
600 colored people in the former slave states
These were counted on to give these states
their representation in congress and the electo-
raj college. Forty-four members of the house
Of representatives and forty-four electors were
given to these states by this populations
weight of representation in the house and in
the electoral college sufficient to have changed
the whole course OF our history in the past and
not unlikely to determine it hereafter. Miss
ssippi herself owed four of her seven repre-
sentatives to her colored population. The
states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi South Carolina. and Virginia have
fifty representatives, twenty-six of whom
they claim only by reason of the 1921, 800
colored persons upon whom the electoral
franchise has been conferred.
From the facts presented to them (the COM
mittee) they conclude that conspiracy, Or
ganized by representative young democrats,
with the countenance of that party in Copiah,
was entered into to drive their opponents
from the polls. To that end the mob was
gathered and systematic outrages were perpe-
trated, ending in murder, one of the victims
being wealthy and generally respected white
man. During the whole time that these offenses
were going on the democratic state and county
officers remained passive, and thus allowed the
election to be turned into mockery
The committee had not time to go into an in
vestigation of the security of constitutional
Atu,saa t.N.,s .1.x rnfAr NNf I'M
evidence of witnesses who think Copiah ia
vorable specimen of the counties of that state !;
to the documentary matter brought to our at
tention; to the evidence taken by the senate
committee in 1876; to the testimony in the
election cases in the house of representatives
to the numerous declarations of the democratic
press and to the crimes well known and I'M
punished, such as the murder of Chisholm, of
Dixon, OF Foote the United States collector of
internal revenue, and three Others in YaZoo,
whose bood-stained hand Copiah is so eager to
grasp. No legislation dealing with Mississippi
alone, should be enacted without an investiga-
ton which should cover all parts of the state.
Before such investigation, national election
will have taken place. at which the temper and
respect for law of the people of Mississippi will
undoubtedly be made fully manifest. 1t is
asked sometimes with tone OF exultatiOn
and defiance, what remedy we can propose for
these things. PROFESSIONALLY, 80 long as any
considerable political party shall deem it for
its interest to countenance such crimes, the
remedy will be attended with difficulty. But
| they little understand the spirit of the age,
the temper of the American people, or the
power Of education and freedom, who be-
lieve that these things can long endure
when held up to the daylight. The communi
ties that perpetrate them cannot long with.
stand the adherence and Indignation of the
country. The power of the moral sense OF
mankind the sting which belongs to the con.
seriousness of having violated it, which Mr.
Webster, sixty years ago, deemed strong
enough to turn the scepter which Turkish OPP
preston held over PROSTATE Greece to ashes in
the grasp of the tyrant, will not long fail Of
full effect upon the people of an American
state. 1t is noticeable with what care the
events of the election of 1883 have been KEPT
from the newspapers The sensitiveness Of
most of the democratic witnesses who wert
above the level OF mere ruffianism to their con
dition showed itself through their tone Of
bravado and defiance. II the constitution ha,
not powers enough in its arsenal for the pro
lection of all the rights 1t confers or recognizes
the people, on being satisfied OF the fact, will
confer others. The great prizes for which
these crimes were committed can be kept from
the grasp of those who commit them by thu
exertion of an unquestioned constitutional au
thority. Each house of congress Is impera
lively required by its duty to refuse seats Il
persons whose election is, directly or indirectly
due to crime, either OF violence or fraud"
Commenting upon this report the Inde
pendent says:
1.-THE democrats base all hopes Of carrying
the next election upon the assumption that ev
cry southern state will cast solid democrats
electoral vote. We suppose that this will b
the fact. And yet If the election were to b
a perfectly fair one, and all the legal voter
were to have an equal right to vote, and wer
to be protected in the exercise of this right
there are at least half a dozen of these state
that would give their electoral votes for the re
publican nominee for president. South Caro-
lima would do 80. Mississippi, Alabama ant
Louisiana would do so. The reason why the.
will not do so lies in the fact that the voice @
the people will not be expressed. Is such fac
a matter of no consequence to the people OF tn
United States?"