The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-02-28
THE CAREER OF GENERAL CHALMERS.
He Is Now contesting a Seat as
Republican Representative.
John r. Lynch Contested His Seat
When He Was a Democrat.
cIimpses of the Game of Politics as
Played Down South.
Especial to the Press.l


contested election case to come before the
committee will be that Of the Second Missis-
sippi District, the seat which Gen. James r.
Chalmers contests with James B. Morgan,
who is the sitting member and Democrat.
The case will be heard ON Friday of this
week, and the committee will probably hear
it thoroughly and consider it carefully.
There has been much Democratic fraud
there no doubt, and If this can be proven to
sufficient extent to overcome the majority
returned for Morgan, Gen. Chalmers will be
entitled to his seat, and of course ought to
haveit The committee on elections has no
right to take mans political record into
account in deciding a case Of this sort. If
1T did there might be considerable diversity
Of opinion about seating Gen. Chalmers,
even though he might be able to prove his
rlghtto the seat. If he has been counted
out 1t Is as clear a case of a man who has
lived by the sword dying by it as ever was
seen. For Gen. Chalmers was not always a
Republican. His name was unpleasantly
connected with the massacre of negroes at
Fort Pillow during the war, although he
strenuously and perhaps truthfully denies
that he was in reality responsible for that
most cruel outrage. His political career
began about 1876 when he was elected to
Congress from the Third Mississippi dis
trict, called the ''Shoestring District" He
was Democrat then and his opponent a
colored Republican. one of the most able
and famous of his race, John R. Lynch. He
was again elected to the 46th Congress, and
was commissioned to the 47th Congress, but
Lynch, who was his opponent, contested his
seat and ousted him. During all this time
Gen. Chalmers was a Democrat, and was
elected each time by that party. During
those days Gen. Chalmers made some foolish
talk that makes his contest at the present
time highly amusing. He is represented as
saying in 1880, after his campaign against
Lynch, II think about 5000 votes for Lynch
were thrown out in the district out of
is the first law of nature, am in favor of
using every means short of violence to pre-
serve the intelligent white people of Missis-
sippi in supreme control of public affairs"
Since then General Chalmers has changed
bis opinion, and he is entitled of course to
10 so; but the fact that he is now complain
ing of suffering from the same trials that he
inflicted upon poor Lynch makes his case
very interesting to the student of compensa-
tions in human affairs.
The testimony in the case Of Chalmers VS..
Morgan in not very different from that given
In the other Southern cases. The negroes
were either prevented from voting by obsta-
cles put in their way by the election officers,
or when they did vote their votes were
thrown out. United States election inspec-
tors were not allowed to see the counting of
The votes, and in many cases the ballot boxes
we're taken in charge entirely by ssome good
Democrat who feared that the vote might
urn out wrong If the votes were counted in
he light of day. But in the course of the
aking of the testimony for the contestee in
his case the following edifying dialogue took
place between Mr.. A. S. Buchanan, Mis-
'issippi Democrat and one of the witnesses
,or Morgan, who now has the seat, and Hen
~ Wood, Esq, attorney for Morgan.
Question-As a Mississippi Democrat,
which do you think preferable, the triumph
of Republicanism or the suppression or par
tial suppression of negro suffrage?
Answer-Well, as Mississippi Democrat
would say that regard either of those al
ternatives as very unfortunate one. l think
That anything like wholesale ballot box stuff
fling, or frauds in elections, is almost, if not
quite, as greatly to be deplored as Republi-
can rule would be. hardly know which of
the two would be most to be deplored.
Questl0n-Then do you not think that a
little retail ballot box stuffing here and there
in Mississippi preferable to republicanism
the two alternatives were presented to me of
being ruined by. taxation or having some
other fellow besmirch his conscience by bal
lot box stuffing, would not interfere to pre-
vent the success of the Democratic party by
that little game on the retail plan. But if
had to take the oath Of office and perjure my
self in order to procure the triumph of the
Democratic party, I'd let the party go to the
devil.
Mr.. Chalmers claims that he has been
cheated of his seat both by the retail and
plan. If the above dialogue rep.
resents the state OF the public conscience in
disinterested person weighing
the possibilities, would agree that he proba-
bly, had. 1t must not be understood that the
best people in Mississippi stuff ballot boxes
An old negro, one of Chalmers's witnesses
describes the workings of the plan adopted
by Southern society in this way, "No mon
eyed man amt never around there the ballot
boxes when they are to be stuffed.) They
get few bulldozers to stand there; gentle
man never does nothing dirty, but he puts
his hands in his pockets for the money and
gets these dirty handed men to handle the
dirt for him; he never does nothing dirty
himself"
But whatever justification the Democrats
may find for manipulating the negro vote in
state and municipal affairs where the ques-
tion of taxes is involved, and many Northern
people would undoubtedly be disposed to
look upon the situation of the Southern peo-
pie with sympathy, if not with approval of
the means of relief. the same justifca ion
cannot apply to the congressional elections
where national issues are involved, and
where Republican triumph has nothing to
do with the question of local government
and taxation. So it happens that most of
the Democratic arguments are irrevelant
when brought in to congressional investiga.
finpc