The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-10-15
HONEST ELECTIONS.

The question of onest elections in Vir.
ginia is one of.the most important that
confronts the people of this State, and
while the Mckinley administration from
a mistaken sentimentality or partisan
zeal may, by appointing negroes to i'm
portant federal positions in the South,
do great harm to the best interests of the
colored people and muchto solidify the op-
position to the Republican partyssit is evil
dent that the moral and"laM abiding vot-
ers of this commonwealth are being fully
aroused to the dangers of corrupt or
unfair ballot and will not much longer
tolerate any practices in this connection
that are not fair and just. This is shown
in the increasing strength of the indie
pendent movement in those sections of
the State where the white people have a
majority, and if the Democratic party of
Virginia does not take warning and enact
such Legislation rs will remedy the evil
it's supremacy may be overth-own.
A voting system founded in fraud,
whatever may he the plea for such prac-
tees, must tend eventually to under
mine and corrupt the morals of the State
or community in which it is allowed.
For long time the cry of white supre-
macy siIenced the protests of many who
realized the dangers in dishonest election
practices, but so far as this danger is con
cerned it no longer exists in Virginia
if it ever did, and it is evident that the
moral and religious sentiment Of the
State is being aroused as to the conse-
quences that are sure to follow sooner or
later. The people, too, are beginning to
realize that if they permit one class of
citizens to be cheated out of their ballots
that the same practices may be resorted
to III regard to themselves and that
though the moral question involved may
ut present affect them remotely the time
will surely come, il this be allowed to
continue, when the very foundations of
society will be corrupted by the curse
that is thus entailed
The studiness of character and the in
herent force of the Anglo Saxon race, of
which Virginia and the South are ac-
knowledged to be the best Representatives
on this continent, have always heretofore
been found to rescue it from contamnat.
ing influences by fair and open methods,
and it is this characteristic that has
given it the st periority which it holds in
the world to day. All that the race has
done. in its dealings with other people may
not have been right and proper, but it
has acted openly and above board, and it
Is to-day acknowledged as the greatest
and most succe ssful colonizer of the mod
ern world. The religious instincts of the
race and its love of tair play are among
wherever the latter is denied to those
dominated by it there is sure to be insur-
rection and bloodshed, or, as the case
with the American colonies, revolution
and war. The principles of right are not
founded on questions of expediency, and
for people to ignore the former while
b,indly following after the alter can only
under the eternal fitness Of things lead to
ruin and disaster
The white people OF Virginia are how
ever, toointelligent, justand liberal mind
ed to submit much lorg to the DONNA
ton of any set Of men who would urge
them to commit wrong upon the plea
that the end justified thu means. They
have consciences of their own. and though
the whisperings may be temporarily ST
fenced by the shouts of danger that does
not exist, the right is sure to assert itself
and their minds and the wrongs is Ger
tain TO be rghtea. 1t would be well for
all who legislnte for the people of Vr-
GINA to bear thesestac well in mind