The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1885-01-14
AFRANK CONFESSION.

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lished at Oxford in Mississippi; and Oxford
is the home of Senator Lamar, who is one
of the United States Senators from that
state. 1t may be safely assumed that the |
Falcon understands the Democratic poll
tics of Mississippi, and that it would not
wantonly misrepresent the Democracy of
that or any other state. 1t not long since
quoted the remark of Mr.. John Il. Lynch,
to the effect that twenty-six electoral
votes were stolen by the Democrats
through fraud in the South, and then
said: "Hurt how it may, he tells the
truth" The Falcon then proceeded to
philosophize as follows upon the subject
sit is great pity that the Constitution
of our forefathers should bleed for it is
the guardian of our peace and prosperity.
1t is the boast of an American citizen
that, as sovereign, lie sits in Judgment
upon his rulers and his magistrates. The
elective franchise is The foundation stone
of our liberties. And yet zoe of The South
lice from gear 10 gear in giotati0R Of
these sacred rights. Instances are too nB-
merous for as to deny 10. But it has been
government of misrule which has
brought us to it, and, as we believe, in
this instance the end we were to attain
justified the means. Calhoun predicted
long before the emancipation that there
would be a civil conflict that the Negro
would be freed that the south would be
vanquished, and he wished he could live
to speak upon the relations of tho colored
man to the politics of the United States.
He said they would naturally side undiyi-
ded and as solid phalanx with the peo-
Pile of the North, aud that there would be
with them few 'profligate whites, who
would he soaking mt nf tho EaH-
eral Government. Only too true have
his predictions proved, and the protection
of the people of the South has been their
determination to stand together and to
have control of their offices of govern
ment, although they were forced 10 sacri-
flee some of tie constitutional rights of
their former slaUes IN the attempt The
Southern people, and in fact those of the
Anglo Saxon race, will not submit to DO
domineered over by any other race of peo-
pie, and the Northern people cannot
realize the truth of this fact, because
oppositions are between whites and
whites, and not between whites and
blacks. We kaoso that there haze been qau-
meroaS election frauds in the South, and
Matfhc colored mans cote has not been
fairly counted but we do not think he
has yet reared himself to position where
his voice should have equal weight with
ours"
Such is the language of one of the DEM
ocratic papers of Mississippi. 1t is a
frank confession of fact. 1t admits that
'we of the South"-that is to say, the
white people of the South--'live from
year to year in open violation OF these
sacred rights, and that "the instances
of such violation "are too numerous for
us to deny it," 'The protection of the
people of the South"-that is to say
again, the white people of South--"has
been their determination to stand to-
gether, and to have control of the offices
of government; and this they have done,
"although," in doing it, ''they were for
ced to sacrifice some Of the constitutional
rights of their former slaves in the
attempt" we know" says the Falcon,
''that there have been numerous election
frauds in the South, and that the colored
mans vote has not been fairly counted"
We admire the manliness and candor of
this confession.
The gist of the apology for all this is
that the white people of the South are,
must, and will be the governing race,
even in those states in which they are in
the minority, as in South Carolina, Miss
issippi, and Louisiana. They must have
the ''offices," enact and execute the laws;
and the black people, though under the
Constitution of tho United States politi-
cally their equals, must submit to this
dispensation. Take Mississippi, for OK
ample, with a population in 1880 COM
posed of 479,39 whites and $50, 300
blacks and this theory says that the
government Of the state shall be in hands
of the former, and that elections shall be
SO manipulated, whether by violence or
fraud, or by both, that the minority, and
not the majority, shall rule. The minor
ity being white, assumes its right to rule
the majority, being black, and proceeds
to use all the measures necessary TO assert
and exercise the right. The white man
politically counts for more than the black
man, though the Constitution says that
the two are and shall be just equal.
This is the case as presented by the
Falcon, and we have no doubt that its
statement is substantially correct in Miss
issippi, as we'll as in other Southern
States. The fact that, in the Southern, a
much smaller number of votes is cast and
counted in the choice of Congressman
or Presidential elector than is cast and
counted for the Same purpose in the
Northern States proves beyond the posi-
bility of denial that, in the former states,
there is a large body of electors, who do
not practically participate in such cleo
tions. The ratio of representation is the
same at the South that it is at the North,
and if SO, there ought not to BIO this diff
erence in the number of votes cast and
counted, and there would not be if the
doctrine of "free ballot and fair
count" were equally applied in both sec
tions of the country. The simple truth
Is that the colored vote is to large ex-
tent suppressed at the South and this
fact the Falcon is honest enough to con-
fess.
Congressman Chalmers, in offering a
bill In the House of Representatives to
restore republican government to Miss
issippi, recently made short speech in
which he told the same truth that the
Falcon confesses. That is not republi-
can government in which minority of
the people, whether white or black, has
usurped the prerogatiyes of the majority,