Year: 1876

Of politicians in these times of which no
one precisely understands the meaning.
What is intimidation? How much i'll
timidatiOn does it require to render
void an electiono


We are inclined to think the answer to
the last question may be found in sim
gle sentence which we extract from a
long editorial OF very ardent partisan
contemporary, and which is the cream of
the whole editorial. This is the point


If men swear, for example. that they
'werc ut the polls all day and saw no vio-
lence," how does that prove that wild mid
night riders had not so warned and thrent-
cned the scattered colored voters in their
cabins that few Of them dared to approach
the polls?


Intimidation" according to this idea,
is one of those charges to disprove which
requires one of those impossibilities
known to the law as "proving mega
tive" 1t is convenient charge for
either Democratic board of supervisors
in South Carolina, or Republican board
in Louisiana. 1t is only necessary that a
supervisor should attach to the returns a
certificate that there was ''intimidation"
in his district, and though his opponents
furnish abundant proof that the election
was peaceful, quiet, and free frsm all ap-
pearance of violence or wrong, that does
not prove that there was not ''intimida-
ton" by those ghostly objects known to
all countries and times, and in which
every civilized child believes-''wld mid
night riders" 1t is moral impossibility
TOT prove this negative proposition. Hence
it becomes the object of partisans on both
sides to take advantage of this new word
and new element in politics and we hear
it charged and reiterated that colored
Democrats staid away from the polls be-
cause of intimidation, and that colored
Republicans did not vote because of in
timidation, and the charge being made, a
returning board is at liberty to say {:
"Y Your proofs to the contrary amount to
nothing, for you cannot prove a mega
tive"


But in this, as in other circumstances
attending the present state of affairs,
there is ample opportunity for the exer-
else of intelligent judgement by non-par-
tisans. There has been so much Of this
attempt to affect the public mind at the
North that sensible men are wary, and
do not rely on the sensational statements
of partisans on either side. They weigh
evidence as men of sense and independ-
ence, and from judgements with consid-
cradle accuracy ofperceptible. The affi-


davts of timid negroes that they were


afraid to vote the Democratic ticket be-
cause they had heard other negroes in
fierce political heat threaten dire punish
ment on all who deserted the Republican
cause, and the affidavits of other negroes


to the opposite effect on the opposite side
| would strike most mon as arp1linU st rOnp-
lly against the courage of the new race oi
voters, and the only way of determine


who were the most scared would be by


inquiring who had the Government ant
the occupying military forces to fall bach
on.


Since, then, this vague word ''intimi


dation" seems now to be relied on as in.


volving the final question in the determi-


nation of great Presidential election,


it remains for the intelligent men of both
parties to see to it that its definition be


made so clear that no suspicion offraud'


can attach to the acts ofRetllrning Boards
who count in President by their judge


ments on it, If there be cases of conflict
ing testimony as to the peacefulness of an
ELECTION, and the amount of invisible in
ltimidation surrounding it, and if in such
| cases the Board throw out the votes of all
those citizens on both sides who were not


so scared as to stay away from the polls,
the public opinion Of the country, Repub-
lican and Democratic. will hold such
throwing out of votes to be a fraud ol
the kind which President Grant declared
against some weeks ago in dispatch We
have so often quoted.-JOuTHdi Of Com
/ mcrce.