The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-07-24
Timely Warning.

INFORMED pOllClClanS III the UH1CeQ OudGeS,
and about as accurate as any one we have
ever known in his conclusion as to results,
has just returned to Washington from
New York. The information he gathered
there has brought him to the conclusion
that if the election were to take place now
in that State, the Republicans would carry
it by 10000 majority. He says the work
ingmen are the principal boilers from the
Democratic party, but that there are de-
sertions among all classes. In regard to
the South Mr.. Mcpherson utters only one
prophecy, and that is that the votes
cast for Blaine and Logan in the South
are to be counted for them, and that the
Democrats must make no mistake about
it. This is the right kind of talk. 1t is
serious matter to think over, that the
Democratic party depends upon a solid
electoral vote from the South for their
ticket, when they know that in South Car
DINA, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana
and Florida, at least, the Republicans have
a majority of the voting strength, and
that these States cannot be carried by the
Democrats in fair election. 1t is only
by fraud and intimidation that solid
South can be secured to the Democratic
ticket, and it is by this vote, added to that
of New York, where the strength Of the
Democratic party is with the most igno-
rant of the voting population, that the
Democratic party expects to get posses
sion of and control this government. The
electoral vote of the South is predicated
upon the assumption that every voter IS
protected in all his rights, and that his
vote is cast as he wishes and counted as it
is cast. The constitution and laws OF the
country guarantee this, and in the fact
they are obeyed and their commands re-
spected, and only in that fact, is the cleo
toral strength of the South conceded
Any denial Of this premise, in whatever
form it may come-every impairment of
this basis of electoral representation. in
whatever way it may be effected, must ne
cessarily destroy the legitimacy of the
power predicated upon it. There can be
no legal, constitutional election, where the
laws guarding the elective franchise are
disregarded. and no constitutional result,
where constitutional guarantees are nulli-
fed. 1t would be mockery of the law
a mockery of the constitutional mockery
of the power and authority of the Nation.
to exercise the elective strength given by
the law, while the facts and conditions
upon which it is founded are denied and
made nugatory. Such negation of high
constitutional rights-the most sacred
muniments of the citizen, would strike at
the very base of our institutions and I'M
dermine the frame work of our political
fabric. Power thus assured would be un-
disguised usurpation startling in it's
brazen effrontery, and dangerous because
OF its lawless source.
The warning of Mr.. Mcpherson is time
ly. 1t is warning in the interest of ma
tional law, of national order, of national
peace. 1t comes in the calm of political
preparation and appeals to the conscience
and patriotism of the country, North and
South, and calls for the impartial consid-
Grafton of all who revere law and recog-
nize obedience to the Constitution. Equal
Nights under equal laws, and uniform JUS
tice under the constitution, are all that
any section or party could ask. and less
than which could not be admitted, with
out assailing the letter and spirit of the
cardinal principle of the government and
peryerting its machinery to revolutionary
purposes. The constitution, and the sa-
cred observance of its guarantees, is the
bond of the Union, and to strike at one of
its vital forces, duplicating the source of
it's power and justice, would be a crime
against Republican institutions and civili-
zation itself.