Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-10-12
NOT UNFAIR.

Just after Judge Lewis made his
speech at Tazewell the Democratic press
was very critical of his charge that "gl-
gantic frauds had been perpetrated by
the Democratic party upon the people
of the State for the last twenty years,
and that "the strength of Democracy
today is fraud at the ballot box. The
Roanoke Times, commenting on the re-
marks of Judge Lewis, said;
1.-THE Times claims that this is an I'M
fair statement. 1t does not deny that
within the past twenty years, and in
some sections of the State, fraud has
been practiced at the ballot box by the
Democratic party. But this assertion
should never be asserted without anoth-
er closely related condition. The frauds
spoken of constituted a prima facie evil
t. be sure-but they assume another as
pect and an entirely different aspect,
when the other half of the truth is laid
bare, to the effect that this Democratic
evil was made necessary as weapon
of defence against a Republican iniqul-
ty, i. e., the grant of universal negro
suffrage"
Here we have again that same old
Democratic, hypocritical cry about the
danger of negro supremacy. This is
purely Democratic invention brought
into use after they had been forced to
admit that they had for years been
stealing both negro and white votes by
the thousands. In support of this con-
tention we offer an extract from the
platform of the Virginia Democracy
adopted in 1881, when they nominated
John w. Daniel for Governor. That
extract is as follows:
Resolved, further, That any intlma-
ton coming from any quarter that the
Conservative Democratic party of Vir-
ginia has been, is now, or proposes to
be opposed to an honest ballot and far
count is a calumny upon the State OF
Virginia, as unfounded in fact as it is
dishonorable to its authors. "
This resolution was written and put
in the platform of the Dem cratic party
eleven years after negro suffrage had
been established in the State by the
hearty concurrence of the Conservative
party. During these eleven years
the Democrats assert they had not
found the negro voter such danger
as to make the Democrats opposed to
an honest ballot and fair count.
Our readers will also notice that the
Democrats considered it an insult to be
charged that they had been, were then,
or at any future time proposed ito be
opposed to an honest ballot and a fair
count"
The enactment of the Anderson-Mc-
Cormick law and the Walton election
law within few years after the above
declaration of the Virginia Democracy,
shows clearly that they were either
falsifying in 1881 or that they are un-
truthful now.
From the time of the enactment of
the Anderson-Mc Cormick law down to
the last year Democratic frauds were
the rule in all the negro counties and in
most of the white counties. The most
vicious frauds practiced in the State
were practiced in white counties, such
as Scott, Buchanan and Dickinson. In
the two latter counties there was not a
single negro voter.
Judge Lewis was not only not unfair
but was justified in concluding that
the future strength and reliance
of the Democracy in Virginia will
be fraud at the ballot box. If
the professions made in the platform
n 1881 were so insincere, what reason