Year: 1878

In our Washington correspondence may
be found recitals of the methods pursued, or
alleged on respectable authority to have
been pursued, for carrying elections by
fraud and for protecting the perpetrators
Of the frauds against the legal PEN
aities to which they have made
themselves liable We had hoped never to
witness revival of such stories, trusting
that the Southern people, after recovering
the right of self-goycrnment, would avoid
from motives Of policy, if not from
n sense of justice, repetition OF
the scandals which have been so
damaging to the good repute Of their
section. The past would have been over
looked and forgotten, or attributed to
great provocation if reraemb mbered, if their
recent conduct had not made forgiveness
impossible. If this thing goes on the
North will again be as thoroughly united
against the South as it was during
the period Of reconstruction. In the
late elections there was no provocation to
treat the negroes badly and deprive them
OF their rights, and the Northern people
will not be insensible to outrages perpe-
trated in pure wantonness or from
settled and ineradicable hatred Of
the negro race. To be sure, the re-
cent complaints relate to but three States
and only few counties of those; but they
are nevertheless certain to arouse an in
dignant feeling against the whole South. If
the democratic party had true sense
of its own interests and its own
honor it would be foremost in expos
ing denouncing, and uprooting these
practices which are likely to blast its
prospects, which seemed SO fair and prom
ising few months since. We call particu-
lar attention to the statements relating to
the disgraceful lunacy of Governor Hamp-
ton and the South Carolina demo-
Gratis. The election laws of that State
have been deliberately altered with
the intention of depriving the colored
citizens Of their right to vote The polling
places in the low country, where the negro
population is most concentrated, have been
put at such distances, and the hours Of
voting have been SO abridged, that it was
impossible for the colored vote to be polled.


Besides this there has been ballot-box stuff
ing and false counting to an extent unparal-
| leled since the overthrow Of the Tweed ring
in New York.


| But the most shameless thing Of all is the
new method of bull-dozing which has been
| invented and put in practice in Virginia.
Instead Of intimidating voters it has been
! found easier to allow free access to
the polls, falsify the result in the counting
and then bull-doze the witnesses who
offer to testify to the facts. Prosecutions
have been begun against the ballot-box
suffers and the false counters of votes, and
thereupon the complainants upon whose
testimony the proceedings were instituted
are caught up and lodged in Jail on accusa-
tions Of perjury. If the perpetrators
Of the frauds appear in court to
swear against the complainants there
will be false testimony enough to
convict them, and Virginia juries may
find them guilty and railroad them to the
| State Prison. The intention is to terrorize
them against testifying to the truth and
| thus defeat the prosecutions If the facts
are truly stated and justice is defeated and
outraged in the courts the indignant people
of the North will try to find some other
remedy.