Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-08-25
West Virginia Negro vOSte.

Commenting recently upon a statement
which had appeared in Cincinnati rsper
charging the Democrats Of West Virginia
with having threatened TO kill the negro
voters of that State il they should offer to
vote in the next election. we said:
Now, we take the liberty of saying thai
there is not word of truth in that state
ment. No newspaper no respectable Dem
ocrat, no man whose words are worth re-
peating, has over msny any threat which
could fairly described in the words quoted
above
The Wheeling Iuteiiigencer copies the
above paragraph from the Dispatch, and
comments upon it as follows:
at is fair to presume from the above that
our contemporary has not seen the inter
view of Eustsce Gibson, published in the
Washington Star and telegraphed to the
Cincinnati Enquirer, Pittsburg Dispatch
and other papers. But if it speaks with a
knowledge of the assertions made by Mr..
Gibson, then we infer that the Dispatch
considers Gibson as man whose words
are not worth repeating.
What ought to be done with an editor
who thus perverts the truth? The Cincin-
natl paper to which we referred had charged
that the Democrats had threatened to kill
the negro voters Of West Virginia if they
should attempt to vote in the coming cleo
tons. That language could have but one
meaning; and this was that certain leading
Democrats of West Virginia had threatened
to kill negroes entitled Undcr the COnstitu
ton and laws OF that Stale 10 exercise the
right of suffrage Il they should ATTEMPT to
vote next fall This was the statement
which we pronounced false, and which the
Wheeling lntelligencer, by necessary impi
cation, confeSseS TO have been false, but
which nevertheless, that respectable journal
by resorting to a subterfuge IN penning the
above psr0grsp, eudeayOrS to palm of upon
its uniformed readers as true. The lntellI
gencer ought to be above such unjustiia bl,
partisan tricks. Well does that journal
know that Eustace Gibson has never
threatened to prevent any lawful voter
white or black, from voting. And, we re
peat the Inteligencer confesses that it has
been guilty of the trick of seeking to de
ceive the public-confesses its crime when
it gives as the foundation upon which its
false charge is based report of an inter
view in which Mr.. Gibson was asked about
not negro voters, but negro non-voters, who
it was charged, had been imported into
West Virginia for the purpose Of depositing
fraudulent ballots for Maxwell, the Reppb
lean candidate for Governor.
Now. as we have said heretofore, we do
not believe that the Republicans of West
Virginia ever intended to colonize negroes
in that State for the purpose mentioned.
But all the same il was the report that they
inteaded to carry the State by colonizing
negro voters that Mr.. Gibson was ques
toned about, and it was to negroes not en-
titled to vote that he referred when he said
the Democrats of West Virginia would not
permit such voters to cheat them out Of the
election.
Both the Cincinnati paper and the Wheel
ing Intelligencer deliberately undertook to
deceive the public if they based the charge
We have refuted upon the interview with
Mr.. Gibson reported in the Washington
Star and other papers. The Intelligencer
Was imprudent enough to expose its own
uniustiGsble trick-its attempt TO apply
Mr.. Gibson's remarks concerning negro
tramps to negroes entitled to vote-and in
confessing its own guilt proves beyond a
doubt that the Cincinnati CommercialCfa
zette had been guilty of the same petty
eleciioneering trick.