The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1907-10-31
Confederate Veteran Tells Reasons
For Fighting the Ring in Hot Letter.

| 'e'Rfh VIC thtlB ~ TOT LcIteT
The performances Of the Democrati,
ring for the last few years have proved
too much for Gen. Buckner, the old
Confederate commander and loyal Dem
ocrat, and in letter written in reply
to some Democratic campaign circu.
lars he makes an attack on the mach.
Inc as strong as any Republican could
make. The Citizen is sorry it has not
room to publish the entire letter, but
It gives few Of the strongest state
ments. Gen. Buckner says:
There is no question of national
policy involved. 1t Is purely contest
within the state between two classes
Of its citizens; the one composed of
citizens who have been associated in
political belief with different political
parties. but contending now for the
preservation of our republican institu-
lions; the other chiefly Of citizens
who heretofore affiliated with the Dem
ocratic party, but have now abandoned
It's principles and are following prac-
tices which threaten the very exis-
tence of our republic.
"The Democratic party in Kentucky
maintained for nearly century the
rights Of the people. II proclaimed
equal rights to all, exclusive
privileges to none; ballot free
from intimidation or fraud; a judic-
larry free from partisan bias; a rigid
enforcement Of the laws; the strictest
integrity in officials; and the practice
Of public virtue in all classes of the
community as the only true basis Of
patriotism in our republic. But some
ambitious men in the party seeking
to promote their personal ends have
succeeded in remodeling this creed.
They met in Frankfort and proceeded
to enact an election law so partial in
its action that it robbed the people Of
all right to fair suffrage. This act Of
injustice was followed as a natural
sequence, by the frauds of the Music
Hall convention, where the voice of a
large majority was stifled by intimida
ton and every form of iniQuity.
There the Democratic party was
overthrow and a constituencies ma
chine, warning upon every principle
Of Democracy, was reared upon its
ruins.
Tho it was exultanty proclaimed
by an enthusiastic Democratic orator
that after the passage OF the new cleo
ton law IL any stealing was to be
done it would not be done by the Re.
publican party, such was the indigna-
ton of the people that they overcame
all the fraudulent votes which had
been recorded against them and de-
ieated the candidates Of this machine
by a decided majority and the DEM
ocratic election commission, whose ma
/ jority were men of honor and integrity
awarded the certificates to the men
,hosen by the people and they were
July installed into office.
but the machine was not thus to be
.hwarted in its fraudulent purpose. A
contest was instituted. The returning
board was recognized and these
slaves of the ring recorded the will of
their masters by unseating the Officers
chosen by the people and installing a
usurping minority in their places. With
equal .subservience the legislative body
which first organized the machine, reg
istered the will of its creature by dis
franchislng without cause more than
one-fourth of the voters of the state il
order to defeat the will of the people;
CONTINUED on Page Eightl