The Republican journal., 1885-06-04
A Worthy Champion,

The Bangor Wing utters Shrek over the
appointment of j. l.. Meade, postmaster of
llaziehur,t. Copiah county, Miss. He appears
to have been chairman of the Democratic Com
miltee Of that county and advised Print Mat
thews, who was shot down at the polls. not to
vote. The deed was brutal. nhuman one,
and nobody has defended it. But it was not
wholly unprovoked. Matthews was a head
strong, reckless character who undertook to
place the whites of that county under negro
rule.
Among those who warned him of the danger
of his course was Meade. But he reckessy
persisted and was fool hardy enough to 90 to
the ballot box without taking any measures to
defend himself, knowing that his life was in
jeopardy; and he was then and there adv ised
not to attempt to vote. But vote he did amid
the excitement. apparently desiring to make
martyr of himself. Doubtless the President
and Postmaster General would have been glad
to find somebody else to appoint but the people
there were for Meade, and it is not easy to see
how they could have done otherwise than APP
point him. Belfast Age.
About the only paper in the country that has
attempted to defend the infamous appointment
of J. l.. Meade, of HaZleburst, Miss, is the
Belfast Age, and we give its defence in full as
an illustration of the readiness of the editor of
that paper to excuse anything and everything
on the part of an Administration from which
Mr.. Rust Is in hopes of securing the Belfast col
lectorship. Even the Boston Advertiser, one
of the strong Administration organs, thinks
that Meade "ought to be an outcast rather than
the incumbent of an honorable office under the
Governments" but the fact that he was indors-
ed by his co-conspirators in the murder of j.
Z. Matthews is, according to the peculiar rea-
soning of the Age, sufficient ground for his APP
pOinlment.
The deed was ''brutal one" SAYS the Age
but really Matthews should not have persisted
in voting after he had been warned by the band
OF ruffians of whom Meade was leader, to stay
away from the polls. We had supposed that
the undeniable right of free American citizen
to go to the polls and cast an honest ballot was
one of the fundamental principles of this great
Government which was at least fully recogniZ-
ed in the North, but it seems that since Mr..
Rust Joined the Democracy he has become the
champion of the shot gun methods of the South,
and thinks if a man persists In voting contrary
to the wishes Of the thugs and murderers, or
informs the poor blacks that they have equal
rights, it is a small matter if he is assassinated.
The Age attempts to excuse the terrible deed
on the ground that 1t was committed in mo-
ment of great excitement, but in so doing the
editor of that paper is guilty of gross misrep-
resentation of the facts. There was no excite
ment al the time Matthews was shot. On the
contrary but three men were permitted to re-
main in the room where the baoting took
place. and Wheeler, the chosen assassin, was
engaged in a pleasant and quiet conversation
with Matthews five minutes before be deliber-
ately shot him. When Matthews started to
deposit his ballot Wheeler exhibited no excite
ment, but remarked, "Print | would not vote
to-day if | were you" and then coolly ridded
his body with buckshot. Meade was one of the
nstgators of that crime and chairman of the
meeting that passed resolutions indorsing 1t,
and yet the Belfast Age undertakes to excuse
the Administration for selecting such man for
public office. 1t is a worthy champion for such
a cause.