Port Tobacco Times, And Charles County Advertiser

What Shall We Do to be Saved.

Only three weeks now remain before the November election, when the board of county commissioners, orphans court, the State's Attorney and sheriff of the county, as well as members of the Legislature and State officers will be elected. Notwithstanding the unusual importance of the State elections this year as foreshadowing the Presidential election of next year, and the alarm with which the tax-payers of this State naturally regard the possibility of a return to power of that party which so badly and recklessly misgoverned the State during its former short lease of power, still the paramount question which addresses itself to all who are interested in the true welfare of this county is what shall we do at the coming election to free her from the ring by which the local offices are now controlled.

As we have heretofore pointed out, the practice of setting up county tickets by partisan conventions is one which was originated about the time the colored population was enfranchised, and was adopted by the junto which conspired together to appropriate the local offices of profit and trust by means of the ignorant colored voter as the only method of effecting their nefarious scheme. They have clung to this practice and artfully imposed upon the credulous colored voter that a failure on his part to support the ticket they set up for him, would not only be a piece of base ingratitude to the party that liberated him, but would jeopardize his freedom and political rights.

By this false and flimsy deception of the black man's ignorance has this junto, composed of men not one of whom voted either to emancipate or enfranchise the blacks and the majority of whom fought in the Confederate armies, rotated themselves in the offices of the county, which, with a few notable exceptions, have been filled with grossly incompetent men. Ten years duration of this bad state of affairs has witnessed a steady and notable retrogression in the material interests of the county and the well being of its people, black and white. Large sums of money have been annually thrown away on the public highways, which, instead of improving, have steadily grown worse under the inefficient management. The Taxes have been kept at an abnormally and unnecessarily high figure, while under the hammer of the tax-gatherer many a poor man's possessions have been sacrificed.

Many of our best young men, disheartened and disgusted at this wretched state of affairs, have shaken the dust of our once proud and honorable, but now degraded and demoralized old county from their feet and gone to the West and elsewhere to seek their fortunes. Immigrants from the East and the North and from beyond the seas hear of our desirable lands, pause to consider the question of settling here but being informed of the system of misgovernment that exists here, turn their backs upon us and pass on to the West.— The poor negroes themselves under the demoralizing influence of this state of affairs have grown poorer and poorer and more and more shiftless and indolent.

Thus has the bad domination in this county been gradually and surely sapping the resources of our county and blighting its material prospects by alienating our young men, repelling immigration, stirring up strife and discord between employers and employed and keeping taxes at an oppressively high rate. After ten years of this mal-administration, the affairs of the county have reached a deplorable condition. Here we have been constantly retrograding since the war, while in almost every county of the South where this bad domination has been broken down the course has been one of continuous progress.

The taxes here are higher than almost any county in the State, being kept up almost to the highest war rates. All the offices of the county, with a few exceptions are loosely and inefficiently administered, and there is a painful suspicion existing in the minds of the people that there is a chapter in the financial management of the county which has not been revealed. The last statement of the county commissioners is not in compliance with law, and the manner in which the books are made to balance is to say the least very unsatisfactory. There appears to be no account of the $5,000 which the county is known to have borrowed about a year ago, and other manifest irregularities are shown.— An investigation of the county books will probably make grave disclosures. Hence it is that the local election overshadows in the minds of our thoughtful citizens all other political considerations. All true citizens of the county regardless of political convictions, must admit the necessity of a change and all things now point hopefully to the fact that a change is to be made.

When we look back to the history of this state of our local affairs during the decade that it has existed, it becomes apparent that the Democrats of the county have been in a great measure responsible for it, by themselves taking up the bad example and nominating for county offices. This has kept the opposition organized, and color has been thereby given to the false pretense of the managers that in electing them to the local offices the colored voters were supporting the Republican party.

Now, for the first time, the Democrats have seen the unwisdom of their course, and by abandoning nominations have left the field open for an independent ticket, which is already in the field. The names thus far announced as independent candidates appear to be exceptionally good ones, and the success of this independent ticket depends, we believe, entirely upon a full turn out of those who have been heretofore supporting the local Democratic ticket. Should it be solidly supported by that element, there can be little doubt of its triumphant election. There are many well meaning colored voters in the county, who will be glad to unite with their white friends in electing a good county ticket and thus take the first step toward breaking down that barrier which selfish politicians have erected between them and their white employers and friends. There can be no doubt of the election of the whole independent ticket, if it is properly supported by all who have heretofore opposed the republican faction, and there can be no doubt that it is their plain duty to support that independent ticket. The opportunity to redeem the county is now offered and let us hope that all true citizens will not fail in their plain duty.