San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-02-11
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Evarts on the Washington County
Memorial--Statutes Concerning
Federal Elections--Carefu
Revision recommended.

Daily LIGHT
Senator Hoar yesterday gave me &
copy of the report on the Washing
ton county election case. Mr.. Evarts
who drew it, says of the memorialists
These citizens of Washington county
have been made the subjects of much
criticism and contumely by the prin'
cipal actors and their abettors in the
political outrages, which the petit
TONERS have denounced to public
condemnation and have exposed be-
fore the committee of the senate.
1t has been pressed upon the atten-
ton of the committee that, as a mat
ter of fact, these petitioners were not,
subsequent to the election, in peril
among the population where they
lived; that they were not driven from
their homes, their property sacrificed,
their honest livelihood broken up and
their exile cruel and brutal banish-
ment by violence and fear for their
lives.
The committee is unable to attach
any Importance to the efforts, in the
testimony, to disparage the characters
anu lives Vi UlltSt DcUlUlOhOlS'
But for the political agitations, the
fierce passions, the violent and cruel
and bloody incidents which mark the
election of Washington county and
its sequel, the committee is pursuad-
ed that the people of Brenham, where
the petitioners had long been resi-
denis, would have found no occasion
for any reflections upon them other
than such as belonged to the head of
political contests for place and in
tluence between opposing parties.
The writer, though not one of the
memorialists, has felt that "cruel and
brutal Punishment" and the follow
ing part of the report, relating to him,
is very gratifying: "In connection
with Mr.. Disqualification in the effort
to obtain the release of these cOlored
men it is deemed relevant to cite the
following testimony, and to say that
in the entire testimony not a single
charge is made detrimental to Mr.. IS
character. He appears always to
have been an exemplary citizen and
a faithful and competent lawyer"
What follows is taken from the
summing up of the report. "This ex-
tensive survey and patient investlga-
ton the committee has thought justi-
fled by its convection that the actual
case presented not unfairly the feat
ures that illustrated the political
disorders which effect portions of
our country when the popu-
Iation is at all nearly di-
vided between white and colored
citizens. These disorders do not alone |
Il i,Er 70, 90
and security of the neighborhoods |
where they occur, nor of the states
within whose borders these disastrous |
pass unchecked, unredress- |
ed and uncOndemned. They tend to |
weaken and set back the sincere de- |
sire of the country at large to Obliter-
ate all distinctions as between geo.
graphical or political divisions. in the |
prevalence ofjustice, peace, good will,
and equality of right in discussing |
and solving all the problems which
affect the welfare of this great people. |
The moral, social and political bear
ings of such condition of things, as !
is displayed upon the evidence taken
by the committee, upon the cOmmuni- |
ty in which it exists, address them
selves to the calm judgment of the
thoughtful and patriotic minds in |
these populations. Not less do tn ey |
engage the earnest attention Of the |
great body of the American people. |
which are removed from the environ |
ment in which these occurrences take |
place.
The statutes of the United States
have treated with circumspection and
vigOr the difficult province of regula- |
ting federal elections when the con-
stitutional rights of voters are not &C
ceptable to the general sense and in |
terests of the communities as they I'M |
derstand them. These regulations,
however, depend, like all of their
laws, for their efficacy upon the zeal,
activity, intelligence and persistency
of their execution. With all |
these the executive part of the gov
eminent is wholly charged under |
the constitution. The selection and |
supervision of all subordinate officers
throws upon the chief magistrate, the |
president, the responsibility of seeing
that the whole weight of government !
is to be thrown in the protection of
the elective franchise, and the punish
ment of all viGlatOrs of the laws that
nave oeei passeu 10 guaru III.
Beyond this, every just, every
possible authority and influence
that attend upon official sta
ton should show themselves in
every neigh borhOod as a terror to evil
doors and a praise to them that do
well. Many miscarriages, many short
cOmings in reaching complete success
in these efforts of the executive gov
eminent may be looked upon by the
people of the country with an in
dulgent temper. But the absence of
such efforts, or languid prosecution