Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1894-12-11
Mr.. BUTLER LOSES FRIENDS.
Ills Plan to Attack Election Laws ArOuses
EnmIty Among His Adherents.

| A Charleston special 10 the New York
| Herald says: OF all the remarkable po-
| litical spectacles which South Carolina
has contributed for the public amuse-
ment recently. perhaps The most striking
| Is that of United States Senator NJ. G.
| Butler attempting to impeach the con-
| stitutional integrity Of The States regis
| tration laws. In consequence of the sue
! cessful operation of these same laws Gen
| eral Butler has occupied his seat upon
| the floor of the Senate for almost eighteen
years During that period he was never
| heard TO question their validity, but the
| instant they have operated 10 his OWN
| personal disadvantage he becomes excited
in his denunciatiOn Of them
Persons prone TO evil speaking and
thinking might imagine that as soon as
there was no longer any hing to be gotten
by il, General Butler as unwilling 10 be
party TO political fraud. However this
may be, Senator Butler announces his in
tCntion of attempting to obtain an in
junction TO restrain the proper authorities
from paying off the managers Of the re-
cent election. on the grounds that the
election was invalid, In consequence Of
the operations of the States registration
laws. In a word, Senator Butler would
like TO retain his seat in Washington by
virtue of the fact that the Legislature
chosen 10 elect his successor is not legally
entitled to do 50. Should this proposed
injunction prevail he would hold over.
by virtue of no one being ady to take
his place.
PECULIAR LAWS.
The registration-laws which Senator
Butler has attacked were first placed
upon the statute-books in 1852. and there
10 &C. haf
liar. They were conceived and enacted at
a time in which the white people Of the
State were resorting to every manner or
eXpedient TO permanently surmount the
overwhelming negro majority. The
famous eight-ballOt-boX system of voting
had proved successful as means of
practically DISTINGUISHING the colored
voter, but IL was considered best 10 rem
der assurance doubly sure by other
means. The registration laws were the
consequence. The act is long. and rather
involved in structure.
In substance, ii said that every citizen
had to register in 1852 or forever be dis
franchised a certain period was given
within which voters were to obtain their
registration certificates, and If they failed
10 comply. they were debarred from ever
doing 50. The consequence may be readily
imagined. Ten white men to every negro
got the tickets and. to render the white
people more certain of the supremacy
which they had thus acquired, means
were resorted to to make the negroes rid
themselves of their tickets
QUEER ADMISSION TICKETS.
Upon one occasion, when big circus
came to Charleston. the politicians had
an understanding with the show people
by which registration certificates were TO
be accepted at the gate In lieu of the
regular coupons. The result may be
imagined. The colored citizen loves n cir
Gus only little less than his life The
trihing privilege of voting was as nothing
compared to the joys inside the big tent.
Literally. thousands Of certificates were
handed in at the gate, and duly redeemed
by the political managers. Time went on,
and tho negroes lost their tickets or
otherwise disposed of them, until. at the
present time, there are not thirty thou
sand legal colored voters in the State. out
oc something more than one hundred
thousand negro adults.
This is the law which Senator Butler
will seek 10 annul. The action which he
has taken In the matter has aroused
against him the most bitter anmosity
lie lost many friends by the course
which he pursued during the last cam
paign, and those that Were left him are
falling away since he took his latest step.
The white people appreciate the fact that
his success in this instance might obtain
for him brief continuance in office, but
II would precipitate political anarchy in
the State, they say. not whit less ruin
Gus than that which existed in the dark
est days of the reconstruction period
Unless some new expedent were devised
to prevent it, negro supremacy would
return, accentuated in all of its worst
features, they declare.
WOULD PREFER TILLMAN.
There are thousands of men in the
State who hate Governor Tillman with
a fanatic intensity. and though Senator
Buffers success would mean Tillman's
defeat, they will cheerfully accept Till
man. with all his vagaries, rather than
fly TO what they consider the far worse
disaster to which Senator Butler would
lead them.
At the general election the people voted
in favor of holding constitutional con-
vention, one of the prime objects of
which will be inserting into the statutes
of the State something very much in the
nature of an educational qualihca ton.
The present system of election-laws will
most probably be done away with any
way, and this is pointed out as an illus