Year: 1875

SOHnern OVaWs out JneTe WcTb many cAOoi-
| lent men who looked upon it as just and
benevolent provision for the benefit of an op-
pressed and helpless race, and for the subjec-
| ton of the unrepentant rebels" Hence we
| find in the Enforcement acts an elaborate at
tempt to do what legislation never sought to
accomplish before-not merely to protect the
negroes against violence, but to emancipate
the moro ignorant half Of the community
| from the moral influence of the educated.


| A discrimination was accordingly made by
these statutes in favor of the negro. Punish
ments were provided for any infringement of
his political rights if it could be shown or
presumed that the Offense originated in the
prejudice Of color; but if q white man was
| the victim of such wrongs Congress ana not
| help him. Assuming that an cxcltaDle ana
weak minded race could be virtually coercen
without actual violence, extraordinary pro
visions were devised against what was caiieu
intimidation" of the cOOred people, ana IL
was made penal 0ffenso to prevent OF al
| tempt TO prevent any freedman from voting,
by threats or bribery, or by meDaclng HIM
with loss of occupation, election from house
or land or refusal to renew lease. The
crime Of intimidation" having thus been
magniied by Act of Congress, was made
the pretext for throwing out the returns of
elections where it was alleged to have been
practiced, and canyassers took the liberty of
estimating how the negroes would have voted
| if somebody had not frightened them, and
declaring the results rs they thought they
| ought to have been instead of counting the
votes as they were actually cast 1t needed
no great political sagacity to foresee that after
system like this had been once adopted
genuine election in the Southern States would
soon become a rarity


The report Of the b-Committee which re-
Gently returned from NewOrleans shows how
the intimidation clauses of the Enforcement
acts are Interpreted in Louisiana In the
Parish Of Rapldes the Clerk who had been
ou5ted by the McEncry government last Sep
tember never reclaimed Office after KellOgg's
restoration, simply because his Office was not
worth anything the fact that the Conservative
Clerk was still acting was construed as an
evidence of intimidation" and the vote of
the parish was accordingly reversed In the
Parish of Iberia several persons had been ar
rested under the Enforcement acts, and
procession of white citizens marched to the
Federal Commissioners Office to offer bail fol
them. The Commissioner gravely declared
this to be an act of "intimidaion," inasmuch
as it tended to throw ridicule upon his pro-
ceedings and the vote of Iberia was reversed.
In great many parts of the South the colored
people were led to believe last November that
they would lose their situations if they voted
the Republican ticket. Som times they wero
actually threatened with discharge; in most
instances there were no menaces but the field
hands and servants knew how their employers
felt. But threat or no threat, it was enough
to alege wherever the Conservatives pOlled
majority that the result would have been
otherwise if the freedmen had not been afraid,
and the Returning Boards made up their lists
in accordance with that presumption.


1t is unquestionaby most improper that n
laborer should be discharged for voting against
his employers wishes. The theory of the
ballot is that every citizen judges tor himself
and casts his ballot without fear. But the
| theory of the enforcement laws is that the
freedmen are incapable Of doing this. White
men may lawfully be influenced and intimi-
dated to any extent. Every year the Admin
stration puts some hundreds of laborers into
the navy yards and agrees to pay them wages
for their votes. 1t has between $4,000 and





controls nearly as many more by their con-
nection with these ofiice-hoders, and all
of them are constantly threatened with
loss of occupation or refusal to renew
contracts if they vote for the anti-Adminis-
traton candidates. White men in the South,
as the report of the subcommittee shows,
have been extensively intimidated by rading
marshals, with troops of cavalry at their heels.
| No one pretends that such things ought to be
| stopped by Act of Congress. because it is pre-
sumed that white men are responsible and
reasonable beings with wills of their own, and
that they can resist such influences if they
choose. Bat if it be pretended that black
men require n different rule of treatment, be-
cause their intelligence is less, their wills are
weaker, their childlike nature is more amenabe
| to fears, we may ask with some anxiety what
is to be the issue of policy which turns
| over the whole government OF the recon-
structcd States, the making and the execution
of laws, the management of the public finances
the levying of taxes, and the expenditure Of
| the proceeds to that part of the population
which is declared by our Washington states
men to be not capable of even casting a vote
without assistanceP The South will never
have peace, order, prosperity, honest govern
ment, and fair elections until this method of
cheating and intermcddling under the pre-
tense of benevolence, this treating the freed
men as moral infants and imbeciles who need
q guardian comes to an end, and one Just
law prevails for black and white alike.


APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE DISTRICT.


The House Committee on Appropriations
has done well in Withdrawing its proposal
IL a - I.cC Z, 1