Year: 1876




1t is very grave misfortune and peril to
the country that the Presidential election is
to be decided by the votes of the three dis
putsd Southern States. We have already. in
peremptory language. warned the democrats
that they must not in advance of the de-
cision, make the unpatriotic error Of STIR
ring upsuspicion and discomfort and firing
the hearts" of ignorant and inconsderate
people. There is no excuse for such Ian
guage as was on Wednesday used by dem
ocratic organ in this city, and we repeat that
it is not only blunder, but crime, for
democratic organs and leaders to use. at this
time, language, and indulge in threats, cal
culated to produce needless irritation and
suspicion.


While this is true we desire to-day to call
the attention of the republican leaders to
certain facts and circumstances connected
with their political course and their parti-
sans in the disputed States, which, unless
they are lost to sense of public decency,
and ready to condemn themselves to nothing
less than political oblivion, they must feel



ing on their part extraordinary care that the
public shall be entirely satisfied with the
result of the count in those States The
resume which we present below must make
the republican leaders aware that on them
rests the most serious responsibility of the
present crisis, and that, unless they nre
ready to incur the Just condemnation of the
Northern public, and to be retired to pri-
vate life at the next election two years from
now. they must successfully convince the
whole public that no injustice will be done
or has been done in the count of votes in
Louisiana and South Carolina, in spite of the
extraordinarily suspicious circumstances by
which the process is surrounded. The DEM
ocratic party has no such responsibility in
this case, and it can we'll afford to be de-
feated now if this defeat comes tainted
with the merest suspicion in the pub
lie mind that it has been brought about
by fraud or wrong The following are the
circumstances which seem to Us to make the
republican situation at this time conspicu-
ously awkward and embarrassing, and which
the leading men Of that party cannot afford
to overlook, because the public certainly
will not


l. We will speak first of South Carolina,
and we call the attention of the republican
leaders to the following facts, in relation to
their course and responsibilities in that
State bearing on the election and the count,
and showing clearly to everybody that the
election machinery has been constituted and
is used there by the republicans in suspi-
ciously unfair and partisan manner. Gov
ernor Chamberlain being candidate for re-
election he so managed the appointment of
the ninety-six Commissioners Of Election
in the counties that seventy were his
open partisans, many of them actually can
didates for election to the Legislature, while
forty are ofice-holders who hold their place
by Chamberlain's appointment. Such gross
and indecent partisanship in Offices which
are judicial will make it difficult for the re-
publicans to rebut charges of fraud in the
local count, or of tampering with the vote
after it is counted, if such are made Al
ready we hear Of one case where o republi-
can commissioner, being charged with de-
livering the county returns and ballots to
the Returning Board at Columbia has failed
to deliver them and has kept them in his
possession at Columbia for several days.
This man is not only election commits
sioner, but candidate for the Legislature
he is republican mulatto, hot partisan of
Chamberlain. Complaint Of his conduct
has been made by the democrats, but has
received no attention from Chamberlain or
the Returning Board. Is it not extremely i'm
prudent for the republicans to tolerate such
gross abuse of trust? How can they an
swer for it to the country hereafter?


But this is not oil. The State Return
ing Board, framed by republican au-
thority, consists Of five persons, all repub-
licans, and four of them candidates for
election, and assuming therefore to sit in
Judgment on their own cases, and without
permitting even a single member to the
other side. This Returning Board is
formed strictly according to law; but its
character is SO monstrously unjust, the in
decency of q final court thus constituted
is SO great that it will be impos-
sible for the republican leaders, not in
South Carolina alone, but oil over the coun-
try, to avoid the odium of countenancing it
if the conduct of this Board should not en-
tirely satisfy the public The whole course
of the election in South Carolina subjects the
republican leaders to the most embarrassing
suspicious Of fraud. They sent troops to
the State without public or satisfac-
tory proof of disorder; Chamberlain
has on his ticket men notoriously unscru-
pulous and corrupt; his own nomination
was brought about by an arrangement witha
corruptionist, who had threatened exposures,
and who is himself on the ticket. Moses
and Whipper. the judges whom Cham
betlain himself had denounced rs in