The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-07
A Longer Residence Necessary.

/ - Longer residence necessary.
1t is evident that the leaders of the Repub-
| lican party of Alabama do not know much
! about the laws of that state. Many of
them have only lately settled in the state.
and therefore are hardly prepared to charge
their democratic fellow-citizeas with doing
all sorts of illegal acts in connection with
the elections. Indeed, they are so ignorant
of the state constitution that at their state
convention the other day they nominated for
governor and for secretary of state men
who are ineligible. The constitution pro-
vides that no man can be governor who
has not resided in the state seven years, and
also that no man can be secretary of state
who has not resided in the state five years
The republican candidate for governor has
been resident of the state for less than
| four years and the candidate for secretary
of state for less than eighteen months The
candidate for governor is from Tennessee
and the candidate for secretary of state
| from Ohio.
The convention which thus disregarded
the state constitution adopted platform in
which it denounced the Democratic party
for its fraudulent manipulation of the
ballot" and condemned in the strongest
terms the political methods and frauds by
which the Democratic party of Ala
bama suppresses the voice of the
opposition, stiles all criticism of its
unlawful acts and deprives large number
of qualified citizens of their right to vote
and have their votes honestly counted" 1t
is fair to inquire where the information
was obtained upon which these charges
against the Democratic party are based.
Did those who made the charges have any
information whatever to support theml
1t is pretty safe to assume they had not.
They showed that they knew nothing
about the constitution of the state by
nominating for the highest state offices
ineligible men. If they are wholly unac-
quainted with the state constitution there
is no reason to doubt that they are entirely
without information respecting democratic
election methods. They made charges
against the Democratic party, not knowing
that there was any truth in them. They
thought probably that by denouncing the
Democratic party they would find favor
with northern republicans. They were as
Indifferent to the truth of the charges as
they were to provisions of the state consti-
tuition.
Would it be safe to entrust the control of
state government to those who know
virtually nothing of the states affairs? 1t
would hardly seem TO be. The ticket and
platform of the republicans of Alabama
recall the carpet-bag period. when adj
venturers sought political preferment in
the southern states with tho purpose of
enriching themselves at the expense of the
people. Doubtless there are some very re-
spectacle republicans in Alabama. II any
of them take part In politics it would be
wise for them to tell their fellow republicans
that If the republican party of that state
hopes to gain respectable standing it will
acquaint itself with the constitution and
laws of the state before undertaking to en-
tighten the world respecting the election
methods of the Democratic party.