Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-06-10
DEMOCRATS on DANVILLE
THE MINORITY REPORT GIVEN
To THE SENATE.

leges and Elections on the Danville riot
investigation was submitted to the Senate
to-day. The preamble Of the resolution
under which the committee acted is
quoted, upon which the minority COM
ments at some length, declaring that any
lawyer with an honest disposition to as
certain the truth would see that, taking
into consideration all the facts asserted
in this preamble, Congress was clearly
not authorized by the constitution to in
terfere, but would conclude at once that
the matter was purely a State affair
The general election' referred to was a
matter of purely State concern. Nor was
it anywhere said that the offenses were
committed by authority of any State law
in contravention of the constitution, or bv
the aid, cOnnivance or neglect of any Off
Ger of the State of Virginia; but were
wholly done in violation of her laws and
in contempt of her authority. The
allegation, TOO, that none of
the offenders had been brought before the
courts was true because of the omission
to say, doubtless with view to deceive,
that the State authorities, from the Gov
ernor 10 the corporation scavenger of
DanVille, belonged to the same political
party which was responsible for the resO-
luton and in whose behalf the inquiry
had been conducted. The fourteenth and
fifteenth constitutional amendments are
quoted, and further arguments are based
upon them in support of the theory that
the general government had no right of
interference in the premises.
THE MAJORTTY's THREAT.
''But it is indirectly said," continues
the report, 'by the majority of the COM
mittee that they propose no interference
by actual legislation fmther than the in
Vestgatlon to expose to public condem-
nation the action of the rioters in Dan
vile, and it is also intimated that should
the people of Mississippi not vote for the
candidates Of the Republican party in the
pending Presidential election, then the
committee recommend a further investi-
cation of the whole people of those States,
with view to depriving them of repre-
sentatIOn in Congress under section of
the Fourteenth amendment. The latter the
undersigned regard simply as a partisan
threat, III itself strange interference with
the free exercise of the right of suffrage,
which it is believed many people against
whom it is directed will treat with the
contempt it so richly merits, and the for
mer would simply seem to be a PROPOSE
tlon to shift the expense of printing a
campaign document from the pockets of
the Republican NatiOnalsEXecutive Com
mittee or to the public treasury.
'Decent respect tor the opinions of
mankind" the report asserts, ''should
have impelled the Republicans to con-
duct the investigation with fairness. and
set forth its results with judicial impair
tiality. A glance at the majority report
would satisfy every just mind that this
had not been done.
AN UNFAIR EXAMINATION.
.EThe examination was conducted with
all sharpness and rigor, the shutting off
of unfavorable testimony, the leading up
to and solicitation Of that which was IA
yorable, which usually characterize the
trial Of a criminal case in a Hastings
Court. The people of Danville We're all
the way through treated as though they
were on trial, with the Republican Sena-
tors acting as prosecutors. Things were
assumed to be true on the rambling state
ments of ignorant negroes, though dis
proved by dozens Of witnesses of greater
intelligence, both white and bIack.''
THE DANVILLE RIOT.
The minority present a resume of the
political history of Virginia from 1879 to
1888 in order to show the condition Of
affairs which existed at the time of the
riot at DanYille.
The bitter feeling between the adherents
of the Coalition and Democratic parties,
they point out, was intensified in the city
of negro laborers had been drawn
by the tobacco factories, and where.
outnumbering the whites, they
had secured control of the municipal
government, the result of which had been
that outrages and indignities had been
committed upon the people. They speak
of the address to the people of the South
west and the valley of Virginia, issued bv
citizens of Danville, setting forth their
grievances and appealing for help at the
ballot boxes, and say OF it that it was a
partisan campaign paper, that it did not
profess to be anything else, and
that while it contained the usual
amount of eXaggeration and heated
expression, its sentiments are
proven by many most respectable wit
nesses to be in the main correct, espe-
cially in regard to those grievances which
were most irritable and offensive to the
sensibilities of their people.
THE CoALITIONIsTs EXCITED.
This circular, the minority say, gave
great offense to the CoalItionists, and
they then come to the speech made by Col.
Sims denouncing the authors of the circu-
lar as liars, scoundrels and towards.
which they assert inflamed the already
excited negroes to the point of threats and
violence. They dwell at length on the oc-
currences of the day following the de-
livery of this speech, and the en-
counter between the young white
man Noel and the negroes Law
son and Llewellen, which precipitated the
riot. They insist that the testimony taken
by the committee shows that many of the
negroes engaged in the riot were armed
and llOurished their weapons threatening
ly. and that after the whites fired in the
air to scare them away they fired back as
they retreated. They also deny that there
was any evidence to show that the whites
fired upon women and children, as assert
ed in the report Of the majority. They
say that Col. Sims was more to blame for
the blood shed in Danville than any other
man, aud they condemn the majority for
refusing to hear the testimony of citizens
of Danyille as to his character.
They criticise the report of the ma
jOrity as still more unfair
more partisan and disingenuous
even than the examination of witnesses,
and say: s'We challenge all just minded
men to examine it. confident, if they do.
that they will conclude that the COM
mittee did not want the real facts, but
were searching for material for the politi-
cal campaign"
NOT PREMEDITATED.
They say further that the proof is over
whelming that the riot was not premedi-
tated nor the result of conspiracy
Referring to the charge that the Demo-
cratic party of Virginia sought to
disfranchise the negroes of that
State by the imposition of the
capitation tax and by other methods. thev
make general denial, and then enter
upon an elaborate exhibition of the meth.
DDS by which the right of suffrage is
abridged at the, North. They point TO
Massachusetts,, where, they say. under
the law forbidding the right of suffrage to
illiterate persons and paupers who are
unable to pay taxes, IA, 500 persons are
disfranchised for ignorance or poverty:
to Rhode Island, where they say that the
restrictions on suffrage are still worse
not more than 40per cent, they say. of the
adult males being entitled to a vote, the
remainder being distranchised, not only
for crimes, but for ignorance, poverty and
foreign birth; and to the District of Co
lumbia, where they say that the Republi-
can party has abolished the right of suf-
frage altogether, and where 177OOO per
sons are governed as ''satrapy." sUnder
the very shadow Of the dome Of the capi-
tOl of the great republic, the corner stone
of which is suffrage of the governed. y saw
the minority, ''that great first principle
is denied and spit upon for no other reason
than because 33 per cent. of the popula-
tion is composed of negroes who could
WELD the balance of power in popular
elections"
THE RACE ISSUE.
Coming to a discussion of the charge
made in the majority report against the
Nor oav~ snf