Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-09-24
THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER "a, 1885.
The Cry of Fraud.


The Cry of Fraud.
The cry Of the northern Republicans
about alleged fraud and bulldozine
In the southern States suggests to the
same psrtisans means of excuslne
themselves for their recent defeat as
the advocates Of high license in Wis
cousin. TIE r,ader will recall the fact
that the returns from the last Wiscon-
sin election gsvethe victory to the ad-
yocates of low license. Commenting
upon that result, JOE MEDILL, OF the
Chicago Tribune, rails out as follows :;
ain the towns where the low tax
was voted the election was travesty
on popular suffrage. The saloons raj
lied all their constituents in force and
employed the most disgraceful and out
rareous methods TO oyerawe the high
license men and suppress the vote.
High-license voters were pelted with
stones and mud, the pedlers were
driven from the polls by violence, and,
in the absence Of any registration, boys
and illegal voters of all kinds were
paid with money and unlimited beer
and whiskey to vote for the doggeries.
The rum-sellers controlled not only the
approaches to the polls, but the polls
themselves, and every man who had q
hipb. license ticket in his hand was
jeered at and threatened, and, if he
persisted in his efforts to vote, was
surrounded by crowd of loafers and
hoodlums and driven away"
"Your doxy is heterodoxy and my
doxy is orthodoxy" 1t is the same
old story Of human frailty repeated
everywhere and whenever occasion az
fords an opportunity. The southern
States vote the Democratic ticket and
the cry of fraud or force is raised at
once by the defeated and disappointed
gang Of offce-seekers whose hands are
thus kept out of the public treasury.
Year after year the southern States
have suffered from this cry, and year
after year it has been revamped for fur
ther use. Now it would seem that it
has been repeated so often that the Re-
publicans have come TO believe that it
is good cry for them to raise whether
-, . ,c~4ko.x, Ctoxa ~ n cnnfhorp
Note the wording Of the Tribune's
wall. 1t follows closely the wording
of the charge which for fifteen years has
been made against every southern State
whenever carpet-baggerism or scala
wagism was forced to hide its dimin-
ished and dishonored head. "The
most disgraceful and outrageous me-
thods " were, we are told, resorted to in
Wisconsin in order to do what, reader?
To "suppress the vote" Useful
phrase, that. 1t has done good service
against the southern people for years
past, and is, we trust, destined to do
good service hereafter against north
ern people. Do you remember
ever to have heard Of the "sup.
pressed negro vote" in the South?
How often we have endeavorcd to show
that as Virginia cast last year 2S4,99l
votes out Of total vote Of 1874 200 lin
1880, there could not possibly have
been any suppression Of the negro
vote" Let all southrons rejoice that
hereafter the charge Of "suppressiug
the vote" is to be used freely in the
borthern States, and will lose all force
as soon as it loses its sectional charac-
ter. 1t has never had any force not
derived from the fact that it was en-
ployed against alleged "rebels" and
other " disloyal" persons.
1t would seem that the advocates OF
low license in Winconsin are almost as
bad as the southern kuklux klans,
night-riders. red-shirtcd electioneerers,
and such like dreadful subjects or OBJ
jects Of negro apprehensions. These
Wisconsin desperadoes used mud and
stones freely, drove voters from the polls,
let boys vote, paid illegal voters Of all
kinds to vote, jeered at the high-license
men, and finally surrounded them and
drove them away from the polls. Alas
Cor Wisconsin, there is no hope for her
or else there is hope for South Carolina
Mississippi, Louisiana, and even yir,
GINA
Is Wisconsin Republican State OF
Democratic States For twenty years
II has voted the Republican ticket. In
1864 il gave LINCOLN 1854 majority
out Of total vote of 1892. In
1868 u gave GRANT q majority OF
"a, $50 out Of total vote Of 1913. 564.
In lsI2 1t gave GRANT a majority Of
1860 out Of total vote Of l92. 3OS.
In 1876 it gave HAYES a majority. In
lssoit gave GARFIELD 7,0lS plurality
over both HANCOCK and WEAVER.
In 1854 II gave BLAINE a plurality
Of l4,69s over CLEVELAND, BUTLER.
and ST.. JOHN.
Go on with your good work, Mr..
MEDILL. You are building better
than you know"
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