Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-12-05

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ct, by expelling them from churches, sep
arating them from their wives and mob
bling them. 1t may be done more peace
fully by bribery, by cheating, and by the
general election trickery in which certain
classes in all political parties deal, and is
so done. The Republican Dudley's So
bill bribery in Indiana in 1880, land the SIX
box ballots by which the Democrats car
ry South Carolina, are both excellent
specimens of low d voter may be sup
pressed without being bludgeoned. In
the first case if the voter were honest his
Democratic vote would not have been
suppressed, and in the second case if the
voter were intelligent enough to read and
write his Republican vote would not be
suppressed. Vice and ignorance are ele-
ments that cannot be counted on with
certainty in campaign; they are likely
to deceive and be deceived. Our Repub-
lican contemporary forgets to remember
that the first event of ''portentous inter-
est and fearful significance" was the act
of the State legislatures of the Union,
some willingly and some unwillingly, OF
1868, by which nine hundred and forty
seven thousand coters, with few excep-
tions, as ignorant as animals, were pre-
cipitated into the body polite of this
great Republic, and that at the next
Presidential election succeeding that act,
every fifth voter not only could not read
or write but had not the slightest COM
prehension of the theory of government.
That was indeed an experiment OF "fear-
full significance to be borne by only one
section OF the country. That was the
most tremendous experiment OF modern
times, the result Of which no man of that
day could measure. Happy was it for the
republic that the men into whose midst
this mass of ignorance was preciplta-
ted, to participate in and, in some cases.
as in South Carolina, actually to control
their local governments, were men of un-
wearying patience. But unhappy was it for
the Republican party that they were also
men of great political shrewdness and
tireless devices. That this mass of igno-
rance was to be eventually controlled,
shaped, and used by the intelligence that
surrounded it, and on whom it depended
in great measure for employment and
support, was as inevitable as any law of
nature. That it was thus to be moulded
by the Democrats for the use of the Re-
publican party was not to be expected.
And so, after the first bloody encounters
that followed the surprise and indigna-
ton of the South, the cool heads applied
themselves to making use of the mass in
stead of maintaining hostility to it. The
Southern Democrats have already solued
the question that looms up SO portentous-
ly in the murky clouds of defeat before
the eyes of Mr.. Blaine and our cetempo-
rary. They have solved it in the same
way that the employers Of the Northern
States solve their political questions, by
enlightening the labor they employ as to
where their mutual interests lie. 1t has
become a matter of self interest with a
large part of the coiored voters in the
it is likely to remain SO. Indeed, now
that Democratic administration is about
to prove TO the colored people of the South
that they have nothing to fear. the self
interest of that class of voters will be a
much larger factor in deciding elections
And so, let Mr.. Blaine and our cotempo-
rary wait patiently. The Republican par
ty with every advantage, in sixteen years
has failed to solve the question. It has
been dismissed from pGweE aud the re-
spoEsibiity of the settlement row lies with
the Democratic party and Grover Cleve-
land, who will settle it to the satisfaction
of the coiored men of the South as well
as of the country at large. Let our CO.
temporary look to the new power with
confidence and give it a hearty and patri-
otto support.