Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-01-31
Democratic Confession of a National
Crime

For more than fifteen years the most
authentic sources of information went to
show conclusively that nearly half dozen
of the southern States had been politically
controlled by fraud aud violence, and that
by the like means their electoral votes
came near being given to rilden in 1876,
were east for Hancock in 1850, aud for
Grover Cleveland in 1854. Bv the same
methods of violence and fraud the Demo
Gratis now have majority of the National
House of Representatives, electing Car
Isle to preside over its deliberations and
TO appoint majority of the Committee of
Ways aud Means, through which the
Calhonnites and Clevelandites expect to
strike powerful blow at American manu-
features and American labor. Y ct during all
the time these high-handcd, criminal pro-
ccedngs were being carried on by Southern
Democrats the Democratic newspapers of
the North, aud many others of which
better things might well have been ex-
peeted, have cried ont that the RepIbl-
cans have greatly exaggerated these
Southern Democratic crimes. They have
been again and again pronounced them the
false statements and romantic creations of
carpet-bag agitators and correspondents.
But of late the more respectable Demo
Gratis of the South have admitted and
openly testified to the facts rs charged hy
the Republican press through all these
H.,
has taken place between the two wings Of
the Democratic party of Louisiana for
the nomination of candidate for Gov
eruor and for the control of the next
United States Senatorial election in that
State, has resulted in bringing to light
the most conclusive proofs as TO the
criminal Democratic methods in the cot
ton States.
Governor McEnery led off in this series
Of confessions in his speech in Monroe,
La, October 10, 1887, when in a long and
carefully prepared speech he showed how
Captain Theohald's rifle clubs and Fred
Cams cannon had murdered and intim-
dated the colored voters in Louisiana in
1876 and given the election to the Demo-
Gratis. One sentence from his speech will
he sufficient to give its drift:
The contest was quick and decisive and
the cessation of rifle reports aud the silence
of Cams cannon announced that on the
morrow peace and quiet and victory would be
with long-sutfering people. What was
done in ouachta was done also in the Felici-
anas and East Baton Rouge, and it was the
determined spirit of the people which gave
to Louisiana her emancipation from negro
carpet-bag domination and elected Francis
I. Nichols governor.
The language of Governor McEnery
was plain confession of the charge of
outrage and hulldozing, by which the
colored vote was suppressed in Louisiana
in 1876 But that no one might possibly
mistake his meaning the Democratic New
Orleans Picayune commented on the
speech as follows:
Governor McEnery's recent speech at
Monroe was in part an appeal to the race
feeling of the white people of the parish of
ouachta and the adjacent region. We call
attention to the fact that he had publicly de
clared that the supremacy of the white race
had been achieved by the violation of the |
civil rights guaranteed to the blacks by the |
constitution of the United States aud by the |
constitution of this State.
To this frank acknowledgement of bull |
doing and fraud was added few days
later the statement of James d. Houston,
a prominent Louisiana Democrat, in reply |
to an assertion of Ex-Congressman Wallace
Of the same State. 1t shows how Demo
cratic congressman are elected in |
Louisiana:
Politically, Mr.. Wallace is the last man in |
Louisiana whe should assail anyone on poll
tics. He never was elected to Congress, as
he we'll knows. His election was the grand
est farce ever perpetrated upon the people.
The ballot-boxes were stuffed from one end /
of the town TO the other to return him.
These confessions would seem to be suf-
ficient to prove the claim that Louisiana is
Republican state if the vote is fairly
counted. South Carolina is another state
where the suppression of the negro vote is
still more fragrant, and the leading Demo-
cratic paper of the state, the Charleston
News and Courier, in an attempt to justify |,