New-York tribune., 1891-12-28
A RAD CASE OF GARBLING.
HOW A rRrBlyE DISPATCH WAS MUTILATED.
wAxrov SUPPRESSION or FAOTs-TRYiNG To
FORCE \ PARALLEL.

my TELEGRAPH To IHE TkIBUSEJ
Washington Dec. GA paragraph in these dis
matches about the contested election case from the
Iyth Alabama District has inspired an editorial which
appeared in The Brooklyn Citizen Of December 1s
from which IL appear, that the editor IS Mortified because
the Republican voters Of that district have adopted
means-not wholly eficclal tO be sure, but tie only
one within their powcr-to check and prevent so FAR
as NAV be practicable. frauds upon the ballotbox by
Democratic election officials. who. In Alabama. as In
some states further North, stick at nothing In their
efforts % defraud te people and nuy the will Of the
majority. Here Is the paragraph which excited the
horror OF the Editor of The Citizen
Ticket Distributors and clerks appointed and on the
day election they take thc places at the nearest point
the polls that Onc j. allowed TO 20 except while
voting The coIored form In BODY behind these
men and 20 10 the voting window tine. The
voter ticket and shows 70 the clerk who reads
IL and puts down the voters name The voter holding
the ticket out his BODY IN hand that he can
be have changed H. then goes 10 the window
votes and returns clerk and tells him he has voted
II his ticket has been IN sight oil the time his name
checked the st aud another votes in the same way
The candid Editor was ms careful TO suppress that
portion of tie dispatch which explained the for
the practice above described rs an Alabama election
officer is to suppress Republican votes in making up
his election For example, lie suppressed the
first and last sentences of the paragraph which he pre-
tended 10 quote. The first read follows:
Owing the universal belief the part of the colorcd
voters will be counted cast 10 has
been years for the Republican clubs
in each precinct organize for the purpose of making
possible to prove the vote on contest
The last sentence Of the same paragraph reads as
follows:
When the vote is counted IL IS generally found that
from twoths nneenhs OF the voters who have thus
taken precautions TO be known voting the
Republican ticket are returned having voted the Demo.
cratic ticket.
with equal care and cahdor. the Editor Of "The
CITIZEN also suppressed other important facts pre-
scented I'm the same dispatch. sucll as the following
The judges OF election usually all Democrats or If
Republican is appointed he Is the most ignorant negro who
be found I'm the precinct Where there is Repub-
can United States supervisor he is kept out Of the room
practicable under nsconstucOn Of the law, and If
not bal obOX Is removed from his presence for AN
hour at dinner time. At the count of the votes, the
judges that is impossible for the super.
the time that the tickets are read
correctly and the tally fairly and honestly kept. Tho
evidence OF the contestants consists chiefly OF the testimony
Of the Republican ticket distributors and clerks recitng
the above presenting the lists kept by them 1t
would be out of the question TO cal the voters themselves
In the time allowed for taking testimony.
so notorious are the facts in regard to the WITH
Alabama Distric-which has furnished a contest In
every Congress except since the days Of recon
structiOnthat Democrats in Congress have ceased to
deny them. The district is Overwhelmingly Repubh-
The Republicans take active interest in poll
tics and generally allowed TO cast their votes without
Interference for the Democrats discovered several years
that IL is easier safer 10 falsfy the returns
than it is to prevent the casting of the votes Election
contests from this district have been rs rule decided
In favor Of the Republican contestants by Democratic
and Republican Congresses alike, the only exception
being the Lth Congress. In the contest in the last
Congress the Democratic members of the Elections
Committee, Of whom was Judge Crisp admitted
that gross frauds had been perpetrated by the Demo
cratic election officers but cOntended that not enough
frauds were proven to overcome the fictitious ard
frrud . ma tv1 Of mOre han
figured down to about 5000.
The foregoing are o few of the striking and pertinent
facts in regard TO elections in the lNth Alabama Dis
trct. and the impression which they have made upon
Democratic well upon Republican Congresses has
been faithfully described. The facts well the irnA
preston they produced faithfully suppressed by the
Editor Of "The Citizen" who, after wTcnching Por-
ton Of a paragraph from the dispatch as before de-
scTibed proceeds TO declare that the correspondent Is
furnishing proof Of coercion in its worst fOrm' aud 10
ask: I" II anything like this were done in New-iork,
BY Tammany for instance would there not be an ex-
plosOn of Republican wrath violent enough 10 shake
the city,
Indeed, have not heard In recent years most i'm
psssoned appeals made the good goddess Of reform be-
cause something Of this Kind very small scale
alleged have been donel Two years The Tribune
into moral Cnvusons discovering that certain
support OF the Democratic ticket were, according TO its
inOrnaGts required the polls with their tickets
held up in such should enable certain watch.
had been induced either by threats brlbes, promise
70 pu: I'm the boxes.
In other words the means adopted by Republican
voters in Alabama 10 protect themselves from fraud,
from having their votes counted for the candidates
against whom they have voted designed 10 corrupt
elections. 50 convinced IS the Editor OF the enormity
Of the offence thus committed by Republican voters in
their effort to thwart the Democratic scoundres who
stun ballot boxes and forge and falsity election re
turns In the lVth Alabama District. that he compares
Iammauy
who seek 10 dcbauch elections by compelling the men
whom they have bulldOLed bought tD deliver their
votes according 10 the OF the bargain, and
fully suppresses vital facts in his attempt 70 make II
appear that the two cases not only resemble but are
parallel with each other.
Naturally enough this Editor concludes with the
assertionan assertion which every southern Democrat
In Congress out Of II knows and which in private
conversation most of them admit 10 be falsethat
far they feel at liberty tD cont their desires,
the well to do negroes are, with few exceptions, Demo
crats.'