The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-27
The Old SANDER Reiterated.

The resolutions adopted by the Massa-
chusetts Republican State Convention, and
published in our dispatches yesterday, are Of
the extreme bloody shirt kind. They are
intended to convince the people of Massa-
chusetts that the colored voters OF the South
are kept from the polls by shotguns, and
that the ballots of the few who are per-
mitted to vote are not counted. How long
do the Northern Republicans intend to
continue to mako these ridiculous and
slanderous charges without producing any
| proof of Them There ought to be no
difficulty in proving that the colored vote
is suppressed if it be true that it is. If
there are cOlored voters who have been pre-.
vented from voting by the shotgun
methods, or if their ballots have not been
counted, they can be found and their testi-
mony taken. If the Republicans are
sincere in making the charge
that the Democratic party in
the South denies the colored voters
free ballot and a fair count they will collect
the evidence in support Of it, and give it to
the country Their failure to make an eff
fort to support it is pretty conclusive proof
that they do not believe they can. If they
should attempt to support it, and not sue
coed they would be deprived of what they
regard as one of their chief campaign
weapons. They prefer to use the charge
for what it is worth, therefore, rather than
run the risk of having it shown that it is
not true by the witnesses they would have
to call.
In their platform the Massachusetts,
Republicans point to the recent election
in Louisiana as a fresh proof that tho colored
vote in the South is suppressed. What
ground is there for asserting that the colored
vote was suppressed in Louisiana? Mono
whatever. 1t is true that the Democratic
majority was large one, but the fact that
the ma jority was large does not prove that
the colored people were not permitted to
vote. Why not get the testimony of a
thousand or more of colored Louisiana
voters that they were driven from the polls
by shotguhs, or that, in one parish they
voted the Republican ticket and that the
returns showed only a hundred ballots or so
for that tickets Evidence of that kind
would have some effect, but the reason it is
not sought Is because there is pretty well
The Northern Republicans refuse to be-
lieve that the colored voters in the South
are not as much interested in politics as
they were during the days of carpet-bag
rule, and their sole ground for asserting
that the colored vote is suppressed is the
small Republican vote in localities where
there is large colored vote
The whole truth is that those of the col
ored people who are Republicans, and
doubtless the great majority of them are,
if they have any pronounced political lean
ing whatever, are not organized. They are
without leaders, and it is pretty safe to say
that large percentage of them does not
even take the trouble TO find out when the
principal elections occur.
Why don't the Republican party send
some of its ablest men into the South to or
ganize the colored voters and get them to
go to the polls9 BY adopting that course
it might increase its vote in the South. 1t
would, at least, prove its sincerity by such
a course, and would be in much better
position than it now is to satisfy itself
whether or not there is any foundation for
its reiterated charge that the colored vote
is suppressed