The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-07-10

other one, and, expecting to meet all of
them at the County Institute,
I am, as ever,
One of your teachers,
LIZZIE a. ANDERSON,
Federal Interference at The Polls.
The Federal election bill now before
Congress is. an attempt to hide poison
with ahoneyed words.
The Republican party must have lost
its grip on the common sense of the coun-
try if it can seriously hope to continue in
power by the liberal distribution of pa
tronage and the use of force if necessary.
This bill begins with piece of hypoc.,
risy and ends with piece of schicanery,
since il pretends to have general applica.
tion, but is aimed solely at the South. :.
When translated into cold blooded
Anglo Saxon it means that if the South
doesn'tyote the Republican ticket it must
be made to-. .ss..s5;.. s.! J.
To take the control of elections out of;
the hands Of the several States is an in-#
:tolerable insult to every self respecting
section of the republic. -
If the people are 80 debauched that
they can't be trusted to conduct: their:
own canvasges; if on the verge of every
election of Federal candidates is- is
necessary to send an army of political;
heelers who happen to be out Of q job or
who are hungry for government pap to
watch the polls in the interest of: the
party in power, we are not very far from
spontaneous combustion. 2
But it is CANNON, humbug and
buncombe in about equal proportions.
The law is not intended to apply to
Republican districts and.will mot interfere
with the general purchase Of. votes by the
party bosses. It's chief business will be
to urge Southern negroes to throw
Southern States into the Republican.
ranks.
That the plain English Of the meas. :.
ure,. however disguised it may be by the
plausible logic and lurid rhstoric of its
advocates. =:
There are more than fifty thousand
election precincts : in the United States,
according to the minority report. Several
hundred thousand appointees will make
pretty penny out of the elections under
that bill, at a cost which is reckoned at
ten million dollars.
The republicans insist that the measure
they are now debating will give the
country an honest count, but in order to
insureit;they would like to do the count
ing themselves. ,1..
It is a we'll known rule among
politicians that the party which counts
the votes is likely to win. The old saying,
ct care not who makes the laws of the
people if can make their SONGS" is
adapted thus ]. care not which side
throws a majority of the votes if7I can
have the counting of 'em.
For complete proof of this statement it
is only necessary to refer to those
illustrious Republicans, Colonel Dudley,
who has q patenton the blocks of five"
system of carrying State, and Hon.
Matthew Quay, the political vampire of
Pennsylvania and priyy counuellorto the
President
The measure is the last desperate
struggle of party which began its
existence with principles wholly good,
and seems likely to end it by methods
wholly bad.
It once commanded our respect, but is
rapidly falling into common contempt.
It has journeyed from it's ancient virtue
to firm belief that the only honest
count is the one that counts afDemocrat
out of Office and Republican into it,.
In the last generation it scourged the
money changers from their tables in the
temple, but It has since set up table OF
it's own and adopted the practices oil the
very men it formerly expelled.
No political party in the history OF the
country has so weakly yielded to the de-
mands of monopoly or oppressed the
wage Garner with such unyieldiDg tenn
per.
And now it caps the climax of greed
by bill which begins with the assertion
that the voters in every State are dishon-
est and corrupt thas tho whole country
is on the road to the devil and can only
be saved by Republicans who have bought
votes in Ohio, and who played the deuce
with honesty in Pennsylvania and Mon.
taua.
For ourselves ne are lockers on in Vi>
emma undisturbed by party deals and bar.
gains. We believe in the great body Of
the American people, their common
sense, their conscience, their love OF fair
play.
In the name of those people ne say that
Federal interference with State elections
Federal espionage and police supervision
of the polls, is contrary to the spirit OF
our institutions and gratuitoas calumny
that should be hotly resented.
If New York and Kansas and Georgia
have become so irresponsible that they
can't control their own elections the whole
case seems rather hopeless.
And from what we have aeen of the
methods of the Republicans they are most
assuredly not the teachers to whom we
look for examples of virtue in public of.
fee.
The bill may therefore be summed up
as piece of political strategy to keep the
Republicans in power few years longer.
-Ne,u York Herald.