Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-04
A GERRYMANDEaEp DIsTRIcT

In the Seventh Congressional District of
South Carolina Thomas E. Miller was
elected to Congress, receiving two-thirds
and over of all the votes cast. But Mr..
Miller is a Republican, and therefore the
State Board of Canvassers, which is Dem
ocratic, have done their utmost to defeat
the will of the people. They object that
the word "for' was prefxed to Congress
in the title of the tickets or ballots; that
the tickets were shade off color, and
mere fraction under-sized. They have
been infinitely troubled, however, about
throwing out the Miller vote and certify
ing his Democratic opponent William
Elliott, as elected. 1t appears that the
Democracy, contrary to law, had the
words ''Fifty prefxed to the word
Congress" in the caption of their ballots.
If they should hold the one irregularity to
be fatal, they must also declare the other
equally so.
But the entire Board is Democratic, the
district is a gerrymander, and the likeli-
hood, at last reports, was that Miller would
be refused certificate and a man sent up
with the document in his pocket who re-
ceived less than one-third of the votes cast.
OF course, contest before the House
would be folly on the part of Miller 1t is
such action as is anticipated in South
Carolina, for one thing, that gives emphasis
to the demand that the State should print
the tickets for all elections, thus utterly
removing all possibility of objection to any
ballot for irregularity.
But returning to the case noted, it is re-
called that in 1888 Mr.. Miller and
Mr.. Elliott were candidates for Congress
in the same district. Mr.. Miller was
elected in that year, but the Board of
Canyassers gave the certificate to Colonel
Elliott. Mr.. Miller made contest and
secured his seat. The district is the most
wonderfully gerrymandered section known
in the United States. 1t is a veritable
shoe-string. County and geographical
lines are ignored in its boundaries. It is
SO carved out that the mass OF the Repub-
lican vote is thrown into it. Parishes and
towns are cut through by its lines; it
takes in the whole sea-coast, except
Charleston and a short bit of land in the
northeast and at the south end where it
runs in a narrow belt far into the interior
and almost to Columbia.
Just after the election in November the
World, of Charleston, Democratic jour
nal, said that Elliott was fairly beaten in
the black district, as it is called, and
added:
When we reflect that this district was put
aside and so arranged that it would contain the
tremendous colored majority, it is truly re-
character and great personal popularity that
he should have received the heavy vote cast for
him. 1t seems TO the World however, that in
asmuch as the district was apparently set aside
and arranged as black district, the election OF
a colored representative is the most natural re.
suit which could have TRANSFERRED and If the
heavy vote which the whites can control in the
black district is hereafter held and used
simply to influence the colored people in the
choice of safe and conservative represent
alive, that would be the best use to which that
vote could be put in the future.
Many of the South Carolina press spoke
in like strain, and the Ne,rs of Green
vile, the Herald of Spartanburg and the
World have had the courage to protest
against the attempt to count out Miller.
The value of the matter is in placing the
infamy of the gerrymander in a stronger
light, and secondly in the protest OF
Democratic journals which indicates the
capitalization of sentiment in favor of
fairer play than has obtained, and Of IN
willingness to remain silent in presence Of
an attempt to steal Congressional dis
trinf