Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-01-25
CHANDELIERS POLITICAL SCHEME.

OuANUUCls -
The following is the full synopsis of the
bill introduced in the Senate by Senator
Chandler for the regulation of COMPRESSION
al elections in South Carolina:
The bill prescribes the times, places and
manner of holding elections for Represen-
tatives in Congress, directs the county
supervisors of registration of South Caro-
lima to make each July and August, before
the Congressional election, beginning with
1883, q new, full and complete registration
of all electors qualified to vote for Repre-
sentative in Congress. If any voting pre-
cinct is greater in size than five miles from
the center to any point thereof, the super
visor is required to reduce its size. Inc
certificate of registration required by the
South Carolina statute shall not have at
tached any voting condition incident to
property or other qualification; All regis
tration records shall be public and the
names of electors shall be published in
one of the county papers. The Governor
of the State is reSuired, thirty days before
each Congressional election, to appoint
four commissioners of election for each
county, to be apportioned equally among
political parties, and the commissioners
are in like manner to appoint our man
ayers of election for each precinct, whose
duty it shall be to conduct the election,
protect voters, preserve peace, and before
adjournment declare the result of the cleo
ton. The Congressional polling place shall
not be the same place as the State polling
place, all ballots to be legal shall be dis
tinctively marked by the managers OF
election. In order to give all an equal
chance to vote, it is provided that when
five members of either party cast their
votes an opportunity shall be given to the
other political party to cast five votes.
It is made a misdemeanor for the officer
appointed to refuse to serve, and it is maue
felony for any person to attempt to inhu-
ence the election by fraud or intimidation,
or for officers of election to wilfully refuse
to register any person or to strike his
name from the register, or to refuse the
vote of any qualified elector. It is further
provided that no elector shall be impris-
oned on election day for refusal to pay
his poll tax.
1t is not probable that the bill will ever
become a law, nor do we suppose Mr..
Chandler thought it would when he intro
duced it. But its introduction in the Sen
ate and publication in all the papers of the
Union, will have the effect he desires,
viz. Create the impression in the North
that the negroes OF South Carolina are not
allowed a free exercise of the ballot, and
thus boost the bloody shirt for what it
may be worth in the approaching Presi-
Dental campaign; and by eliciting such
public criticism in South Carolina as the
measure would naturally evoke, prove to
the country that we of this State are yet
u~nregenerate and unreconstructed. The
bill has met generally in this State de-
fance or ridicule, just what Chandler
would desire, only one newspaper in the
State, so far as our information extends,
taking a serious, sober view Of the ulti-
mate consequences of the bill, even if it
should never be called up again in the
Senate. The Greenville NeWs, over the
signature of its owner, Mr.. Williams, who
is temporarily editing the Charleston Sun,
publishes a we'll -tined article on the SUBJ
ject, showing among other things that
this bill is the outcome of the peculiar tao
tics resorted to in redistricting the State,
the policy of which we doubted at the
time. The Ners says:
When the proposition to redistrict this
State by the establishment of curious lines
between the congressional districts so as to
throw the black vote into one district and
make the others Democratic, was sugges-
ted and considered several years ago, the
Greenyille NeUs protested against it as a
device for obtaining temporary ease at the
cost of permanent safety. We then urged
the fact that some thousands of loyal, hon
est Democrats would be deprived of prop
err representation by being thrown into
a district hopelessly black, in which there
would not be even a fighting chance.
The warning was u%nheeded, but the
trouble it promised came. There was
murmuring and complaining in the black
district, and apparently in response to it.,
Col. VIM. Elliott was, in 1886, elected to
Congress on the face of the returns by an
astonishing revolution in political affairs
there over Robert Smalls, the Republican
candidate. This newspaper protested
against that election as making a bad mat
ter worse, and warned the people of the
State that their trusted political leaders
were making trouble for them, and other
newspapers in various sections of the State
followed that lead.
These matters are reviewed to show that
the people and press of this State have not
unanimously accepted the action OF certain
of their political leaders as representing
their ideas of justice or wisdom.
Now the results foreseen by those who
were not blinded by the temptations or
passions of the moment are come. The
Northern Republican press, responding to
the signal from the leaders of that party,
have begun a systematic waving of the
bloody shirt with South Carolina as the
chief text and the black district election as
the foremost illustration. Senator Chand-
Ter is advertising us as a people loving
frauds and violence, destitute of honor,
moved by brutal impulses and regardless