Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1889-01-25


~, 900, and insinuatiohs that The resul
III one or two States was determined b.
bribery. They intimate, therefore, tia
he was really elected President Con
sideriDg that Mr. Cleveland's four years
lease of the Presidency was stolen fnl
him by the Southern wing ofthe party
which for muny years controlled th'
House Of Representatives by means o
the worst election frauds known in aul
history. talk Of this sort is hard 10 bear
We notice that the Southern bulllozer,
and ballot-box suffers do not indulge IN
it. They rather initiate the brutal
frankness Of the Editor Of THE Green
vile. $. G. News" who says that what
is charged against the party ii, true,
and adds:
The gauut and unkempt soutberuer
who pokes a shotgun into voters face
to chase him from the polls is better
man than the sleek, portly Northern
manufacturer who offers poor devil Of
a workman the choice between voting
for high protection and starvation. The
most reckless redshrt riders who ever
pulled a trigger are less guilty than the
wealthy hypocrites who gave and the
hcelers who handled the money that cor
rupted the ballet last November 4 = y
The crookcducss in Southern elections is
to save the credit, etc"
II is hardly worth while to prove a
case that is so frankly confessed. But
not many realize, perhaps, to what ex-
tent Republican institutions have ceased
to exist in many parts of the South. -
The election returns for the last twelve
years afford some striking contrasts
The year 1876 was the last in which the
Republicans party had anything ike a
chance 10 the South. The Ku Klux
Klau had been organized the year before
but the bulldozing policy was in its ear
ly stages. Bear in mind that tue total
vote of the United States has increased
from s, i26, 273 in 1876 to 1888 ,97n
in 1888, a growth of 35 Der cent
While the total vote of the country
has increased 80 per cent. the Republi-
can vote in the States of Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and
South Carolina has shruuk, under the
lash and shotgun, and through the dis
cOuragement resulting from persistent
fraud, by percentages ranging all the
way from l6 to 81. Take Louisiana,
where IS, 315 votes were cast twelve
ycaFs~sgeo,yr 'aGsd"oa4i 30 ;89G 'iasrNUyeM-
Der according to the returns. The Dat
ural Republican vote would bemore than
100, 900, or over three times the vote
returned. Has any intelligent nan any
respect for alleged popular majority"
resting on such figures? The difference
in South Carolina between the vote count
cd and the vote that would doubtless
have been cast in a free election IS o.
600. or considerably more than tlidwbole
OF Mr.. Cleveland's popular majority. !"
The difference is almost as greasis S1Ju-
isiana. Taking only the Eve States
named abose, and giving.the Rspgbf-
cans the average increase Of the IDA
vote throughout the country, which We
have the right to assume it would have
had under a Republican form of govern
ment, the party has been robbed Of more
than $50, 600 votes in these States alopc.
Gen. Harrison's majority in the North,
where Republican institutions prevail.
was nearly 100000 votes.
Under these circumstances, the less
We hear about Mr.. Cleveland's popular
majority" the better. Mr.. Cleveland
never had majority of the popular vote.
either in this election or the last. He
was never elected President, but obtaill-.
ID that Office through fraud. General
Harrison has been elected President in
pite of fraud. This is the distinction
which history will be compelled to make
'etween the MEM. Y. Tribune. y