Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-01-17
AFREE ANDFAIR VOTE
Will Be Demanded by President
Harrison in His Inaugural.
ALL FRAUDS NOT In THE SOUTH.
But the Suppression of the Southern
Colored Population
HAS KEPT OUT THE TERRITORIES.
Purity Of the Ballot a Question Which Must Not be
Decided by Ex-Rebels


ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE pIsPATcHl
INDIANAPOLIS, January 16.-General
Harrison has completed that part of his in
augural address that refers to the South. 1t
is not very long nor yet very sensational,
but it is to the point. In the address it will
be combined with the Territorial subject
and the election reform subject, and the
underlying theme of the whole matter will
be the necessity for free and fair ballot.
The principle of control by the majority,
General Harrison says, is the bottom prin-
ciple, corner stone or foundation of the
structure of development of the American
people. Everything else about the govern
ment he calls mere fermentation. The ques-
ton of free and equal ballot he declares is
dominant one embracing all others, be-
cause it involves the question of free and
fair tribunal to which every question shall
be submitted for arbitration and final de-
termination.
He warns the people that this principle
of Government by majority expressed by
a free and equal ballot is not only
tuiSdICuCu, Uut hdS DCCu W a SICa1 OAbShU
overturned; that not only have the rights of
free citizenship been abrogated to a certain
extent, but that the matter has gone so far
that the industries of the country and the
welfare and prosperity of the workingmen
dependent, to an extent, upon those in
dustries, have been threatened because the
laboring vote in a large part of the country
is suppressed.
SURPRISING THE coLoRED VOTE.
As to the South directly, he says that no
one wishes i'll to that section; that, on the
contrary. it is the desire of every good citi-
zen that her prosperity shall not only be
maintained but shall increase, shat the
stream of her prosperity shall run full, +" as
the President elect once expressed it public
ly. 1t is not question, he insists, of what
has occurred once upon time, but of what
is occurring now. This is, he states, the
almost entire suppression of the colored Re-
publican vote at the South upon national
questions, by which is manufactured ma
jority that has kept out of the Union vast
community of free, intelligent and local cit
izens who have been for years petitioning
for admission to the privileges Of full citi-
zenship. the question is not a Southern
one, he alleges, but a national one.
He finds especially deplorabie the evil |
dence on every hand that the persistent sup |
preston of the votes of the workingmen in |
one section of the country has demoralized |
the trust in the sanctity Of the ballot. The |
general belief that corrupt and improper in |
fiuences have come to have great influence |
in determining the results even of Presi |
dental elections, the tally sheet forgeries |
and similar crimes in many States outside |
of the South, the revolutionary proceeding |
in other States whereby duly elected officers |
have been prevented from exercising the |
functions for which the people had chosen;
the evidences of the danger that threatens |
free institutions through the failure of gen.
eral faith in the fairness of the ballot.
OPPOSED TO GERRYMANDERING.
The practice of gerrymandering States in
Congressional and Legislative apportion-
ments for the purpose of suppressing the
majority and giving to the minority a
power and influence in legislative bodies to
which it is not entitled will also, probably, |
he referred to in this connection. although
this part of the address has not yet been
fully considered.
A previous reference of the President
elect to this subject, which embodies the
idea that he will put into his inaugural ad-
dress, was: "The equality of the ballot de-
mands that our apportionments in States for
Legislative and Congressional purposes
shall be so adj justed that there shall be an
equality IN the influence aud in the power
of every elector, so that it shall not be true
anywhere that one man counts for two or
one and one-half and some other man
counts for only one half"
In the same line were some remarks he
made only short time before he was nomi-
mated, which, although of a nature i'm
proper to be put into an inaugural address,
yet, will better than summary of the
language of the inaugural itself indicate
the spirit in which the General Harrison's
references to the South and to election re-
forms generally are conceived.
REMEDIES SUGGESTED.
He said:
"There NAV be legislative remedies in
sight when We can once again possess both
branches of the National Congress and
have an Executive at Washington who has
not been created by these crimes against the
ballot Whatever they are, we will seek
them out and put them into force. Not in
spirit of enmity against the men who
fought against us.forgetting the war,
nearly quarter of a century after
it is over, free ballot shall not be denied
to the Republicans in those States where
rebels have been rehabited with full citizen
ship. Every question was the settlement of
this. The tariff question would be settled
already if the 5000, 900 of black laborers In
the South had their due representation in
the House of Representative"
There will be other references to the South
in the inaugural address in the part that
deals with the tariff question, and they will,
it is understood, be of a nature to please
what has come to be known as the "business
element" of this section, but they have all
to be perfected.
THE INAUGURAL UNFINISHED.
None of the address will be absolutely
finished until few DAYS before it is deliv-
cred, certainly not until after the President
elect has gone to Washington. What is
being done now is the drafting of the vari-
ous sections separately. They will be Joined !
together and the verbiage smoothed out and
perfected afterward. Another part of the
part dealing with civil service reform, and,
contrary to the views of his friend, Lew
the President-elect, will firt gid .
dily with the Chinese goddess of whom the
are the high priests.
Whatever he may do in practice, in his
address General Harrison will give utter
ance to sentiments upon the subject of office
and Office holders that need not call the blush
ofshame to the cheek even of George William
Curtis. Hoosier politicians who are close /
TO him affirm, however, that his affection for
the almond-eyed first cousin to the famous
,tar-eyed dame of Kentucky is purely pla-
.onic, and will not worry him any after the .
address is tied up with red tape and laid
away in the executive archives. t
Joined by Rabbi Meyer. {
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH
ALTOONA, January 16.-Banns in the !