Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-05-12
DISHONEST ELECTIONS.
Sectional Lines Sharply Drawn In the
House Saturday.

TlOuSC SdluiOoJ'
Sectional lines were sharply drawn
in the house of representatives last
Saturday and for a time charges and
counter charges of dishonesty in elec-
tions by both political parties were
heard. Interest in the proceedings
was all the more keen because the
two floor leaders, Messrs. Payne of
New York and Williams of Mississippi,
were the principals in the stage set
ting.
Mr.. Payne criticised the minority
leader for having had the hardihood
TO say he was in favor of honest elec-
tiOns. Since when was the Demo-
cratic party in favor Of honest cleo
tiOns" he inquired. WAS it, he ask
ed, when it was depriving a certain
class of citizens of suffrage by every
means, by perjury, fraud, intimida-
tions, murder, riot and everything else
under the SUM-" He wanted to know
if the Democrats favored honesty in
elections in the state Of New York,
when time after time they carried
the election not by honest ballot but
by fraudulent votes deposited in the
ballot box and fraudulent counts" He
said it was we'll known that in Troy,
Albany and the city of New York the
Democrats sent around repeaters
from poll to poll in gangs of five, who
impersonated we'll known citizens
and swore they were the citizens reg
istered; who were allowed to vote by
the Democratic officials, who when
the honest voter came around depriv-
ed him of his ballot"
The Democrats said Mr.. Payne,
were in favor Of honest elections only
when they got a majority that way
rs it necessary for the Democratic
party in Maryland to disfranchise the
black man." he asked. Maryland, he
said had gotten in the habit of going
Republican now and then" The peo-
pie were getting educated, he said,
and by the Republican ideas. He de-
clared that the Republican party had
an honest majority in Maryland, and
in order to overcome it the Democrats
were bending every effort to deprive
every citizen Of the right of franchise,
"and thereby make a Democratic
state out Of Maryland"
Mr.. Williams Reply.
Mr.. Williams replied that he had
to the lecture upon honesty in
elections from the leader of the Re-
publican party, the party of fresh
new crisp 50 bills, the party Of blocks
of five, the party of the city of Phila-
delphia, the party of returning boards
back in 1876, the party that carried
the election in 1896 by wholesale bri-
berry, the party that even as late as
1904 denied that it had been receiving
money from fiduciary corporations
for political purposes and whose Off
cials were convicted of falSehood in
the denial, the party Of Herods."
If there was anything that was a
stencil in the nostrils Of all humanity,
he said, it was the city Of Philadel-
phia. ut has such n bad SMELL" he
declared, that even the Republicans
themselves could not stand II all the
time"
Mr.. Williams admitted that at times
there were intimidation and fraud in
his section of the country, but there
was some eXtenuation for it when
great race was engaged in saving its
civilizations"
There never was, however" he ex-
claimed, "any excuse or eXtenuation
for the Republican party in its pro-
gramme of wholesale bribery in 1895,
1900 and 1904, when that party took
the money belonging to widows and
orphans and never had the manhood
nor the justice to return it"
"At one time" he said. "President
Roosevelt had the manhood to say
that the Republican campaign COM
m ttee ought to return the money
"tnat had been filched from the wild
ows and orphans and beneficiaries
and policy holders of the New York
Life and New York Mutual insurance
companies"
Crossing the aisle, and pointing his
finger at Mr.. Payne, Mr.. Williams
fairly shrieked: Yes" said he
there was time in the history of
tie south when a revolution stood in
the saddle" but, he added, ''since
tt en- those states have adopted new
constitutions" The disfranchisemen
laws, he declared, "were passed for
the purpose of preventing fraud, and
the supreme court of the United
States has upheld them" Mr.. Will
soul revOlts at the idea of the Demo-
liams remarked that "the gentleman's
tions." Mr. Payne, he said, was from
the party of the whisky fraud, of
the credit mobilier, of the star route
fraud"
"Ah." he exclaimed, II can handy
history with him all day, but don't
want to handy history" He believed
in letting the dead past bury itself on
both sides. What do you say now?'
he again shrieked. What do you
say? Here I stand. I stand to chal-
lenge you that every dollar that goes
into a campaign fund shall be pub
lished the day after it is received so
that the world may know the motive
of the giver and the world may judge
the means of corruption in the hands
Of the recipient"
Mr.. Williams exclaimed as he took
his seat, What do you say for the
future? Let the dead past GO