Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1878 — The South in Congress. [ARTICLE]

The South in Congress.

Under the pro virions of the last Congressional Apportionment bill, the Southern States of Alabama, Arkansas Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, M'ssisrip pi, North Caroling. South Carolina Texas and Virginia are entitled to six ty-three Congressmen. Of this num her, at least twenty-five were allotted to the States named because of'the fact, set forth in thecensus, that 3,616,701 free colored people live in thofce States. In other words, were it not for the colored population, the South would be entitled to only thirty-eight instead of sixty-three Members of Congress. These statements will not be disputed. It is also a fact beyond question that the negro voters of the South almost to man are Republicans at heart, and, if allowed to freely exercise their rights, would always vote the Republican ticket. Democratic leaders, for their own purposes, would have the country believe otherwise. Wade Hampton, and others whose word is entitled to even less credit, have repeatedly stated that the colored men of the South were joining the socalled Conservative party by thousands, but each succeeding election only tends to disprove their statements ana to show that the Democratic voter has not been materially increased, unless in cases where such increase was to be accounted for by wholesale fraud.

All the facts, all the evidence, Is against the assumption that the negroes are less sincere in their Republicanism, less loyal to the party which gave them their liberty, than they were etght years ago. Republicanism now as then is, with the freedmen, a religion. If left to themselves, if allowed to exercise the rights of citizenship as freely and as fearlessly as do their white neighbors, ninety-nine out of every 100 of them would vote the Republican ticket. And in addition to these colored citizens who are entitled to representation in Congress, there are, of course, thousands of white men in the South who believe in the principles of the Republican party, ana who vote its ticket. It would be only fair to expect, then, that from the Southern States named at least twenty-five Republican members of the National House of Representatives would be elected. It apppears from the returns of the recent election, however, that from all the South there will not be more than five, and perhaps not more thanfour. Republican Representatives. Jtfflßgst will go into the than twenty Republican and more than half a milliolf Republican voters will thus be deprived of the representation in the councils of the Government to which they are entitled under the laws. So, in pll the Southern States, every white Democrat has virtually cast two votes, and will have twice as much representation in Congress as his fel-low-citizen in New York or California. We need not refer to the means which have been employed to bring about this result. With them the intelligent people of the country should by this time be sufficiently familiar. There are a number of obvious facts in connection with the recent election, however, which are worthy of more than passing notice. James R. Chal-. mors, the Democratic candidate, is declared to have been elected in the Sixth Congressional District of Mississippi by a majority of several thousand. Iffiere are, in the district named, 100,609 black and 30,650'white voters, and about 100 Republicans to every thirty Democrats. Chalmers, the successful candidate, is a typical member of the worst element in the White League. The negroes dislike him with a bitterness born of the knowledge that to his influence are due the many outrages for political effect which have in the past been perpetrated upon them, their relatives and friends in the district. It is not claimed that any of these black citizens voted for Gen. Chalmers; it is admitted that they desired his defeat, wanted to be represented by one of their own people, but in spite of them he is declared to have been elected by several thousand majority. Who will be foolhardy enough, in the face of these facts, to say that there has been no intimidation, no fraud, practiced in the Sixth District of Mississippi P- that-th©--elec-tion there was a fair and honest one, as it should be, under the National law ft Again, in the Charleston District of South Carolina, where the Republicans have frequently demonstrated that they have a majority of 19,000, it is announced that the Democratic candidate for Congress has been elected by a majority of 7,000. Of course, the parti-’ san House will allow him to take his seat, in spite of the fact that the Republican leaders of the district, most of them intelligent, determined and well-informed white men, are prepared to prove on evidence which would be satisfactory to any court in the land that fraudulent Democratic tickets were put into the ballot-boxes by the handful. Still again, it is declared, in the Selma District of Alabama, where the Republicans, according to the last registration, had a majority of nearly 17,000, that the Democratic candidate, Gen. Shelley, has been elected to Congress.

That such results as these are brought about by violence, intimidation and the grossest frauds must be sufficiently obvious to the most casual observer. The Democrats of the South, in consequence of the increased representation to which their section of the country is entitled because of the negro vote, and by the violent and unlawful suppression of that vote, have a majority in Congress—a majority to which the Republican party is clearly entitled. There are Democrats in the cotton States, men of the Gary stripe, who in their public utterances have been candid enough to substantially admit these facts, and having done so, they ask significantly what is the North going to do about it The Republican leaders throughout the country should be ready in the next general election to answer this question. It must now be sufficiently clear to them that, unaided, neglected, as they are, the colored men of the South are unable to support the party to which they still declare their allegiance. Wade JHampton has sugKted in several of his recent speeches, t, •becoming convinced of this, the men of this section of the country would be the first to demand that the negroes be disfranchised and the cotton States deprived of the increased repreJentation which is given theith because r their colored population. Gem Hampton can hardly bq regarded as an authority on the prospective policy of the Republican party, and we give hjß significant suggestion only because it indicates the general anxiety which exists in the Southefh 'Blind as to what course the people" of the North will take when they become fully alive to the fact" that the colored vote, under the the White League, is simply a means to-Democratic suprem-1

acy. That they will .ever seriously consider the propriety of disfranchising any man because of his color Is, of course, absurd. They gave the negro a vote, and thflv desire to protect him in it. Of this the Southern Democrats may be assured. There are indications that the Republicans of the cotton States have gone through the last contest which they will be obliged to go through unassisted. The result of Tuesday’s election can hardly fail to open the eyes of honest, law-abiding Americans to the fact that it is theif duty to aid the colored voters in' the efforts which they make to secure their rights. It is safe to predict that the best speakers and organizers the North can afford will, two years hence, do their full duty in the Southern canvass. —N. Y. Timev.