The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-07-17
SOUTHERN ELECTION METHODS.

Under the caption of ga free ballot
and a fair count the Charleston News
and Courier comments on q recent ed
itorial in this paper in regard to the in
dictment of a large number of persons
In Tennessee for election frauds. The
frauds were, of course, committed In
the interest of the Democratic party,
and the Journals article showed how
fragrant they were. The News and
Courier says:
Things must be in a very bad way in
West Tennessee, If what our contemporary
says be true, and we fear that there was
not that care exercised in the selection OF
the managers of election which Is so es-
sential to a free ballot and a fair count in
some parts of the South. Because of the
very complex conditions of citizenship IN
this section, it is absolutely necessary that
only the best men shall be intrusted with
the important duty of counting the votes.
In some of the thickly settled colored pre-
cincts of South Carolina, for instance,
strong arms, stout hearts and clean hands
tect the sanctity of the ballot and to see
that the votes were properly counted. 1t
has been chiefly through the honesty and
courage of the election managers that the
colored people rave been enabled to vote
~ thO
science. and have been protected In their
right of suffrage.
We are not familiar with the charges
against the ballot-box suffers of Tennes-
see, and are unwilling to accept the. state
ments of the Journal as true, but If they
nave been caught at the tricks with which
they are charged they should be punished,
in order that others may be deferred from
making the same mistakes: The business
of managing elections in these %troublous
times should not be committed to lnexpe-
rienced hands. With a box for this, and a
box for that, and a box for the other candl-
date-bOxes upon bOxes-it requires more
than ordinary self-pOssession to keep the
away their ballots on the wrong candidates.
Before the wal almost anybody could vote
right, but it is not by any means so easy a
task now, when there are so many more
large a part of their number require the
most careful and considerable attention. In
spite, however, of all that has been accom-
plished in the South during recent years to
teach the cOlored people how to vote, there
are ungenerous folk in Indiana and else.
where who decry the Southern methods or
conducting elections.
1t does not require any reading be-
tween the lines to see that all this is in
q vein of satire. Unless we entirely
mistake its meaning it substantially adj
mits that election frauds are systematic
ally practiced in the South, and justiies
them as a political necessity. The sly
illusions to the numerous ballot-bOxes
used in South Carolina and some other
Southern States-a device to defraud
illiterate voters; the satirical reference
to the mistakes made by voters; the
danger of committing the management
of elections 'to inexperienced hands,"
the necessity of having men with strong
arms and stout hearts to protect the
sanctity of the ballot" etc., all amounts
to an admission and defense of South
ern election frauds.
Such articles as this in the News and
Courier should arrest attention. The
fact that it runs in a light and f1ippant
vein and affects to censure the practices
which it really defends, does not detract
from the seriousness of the situation it
reveals. 1t demonstrates that elections,
as they have for many years past been
conducted in the South, are a stupen-
dous fraud. The question for the Ameri-
can people to consider and decide is,
what are they going to do about it?