The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-08 00:00:00

THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.

The bill which has passed the United States Senate to
enforce the fifteenth amendment is a bill to protect honest
voters and to punish perjurers, repeaters, ballot stuffers,
and forgers in our political elections. It is a good bill for
honest men, but a bad thing for knaves. Some general
law of this sort from Congress is very much needed, and
especially for the restoration of passably honest elections
in this city. From all that we have heard of it our late
election on this island was a grim joke, and an amusing
farce to the repeaters from beginning to end. According
to the free and easy system of this election the democracy
have only to say the word to the repeaters, and they can
roll up any majority in this city that may be called for to
carry the State, and we believe that even honest Republi-
cans consented to this repeating in order to make up a
clear case for Congress. At all events, so notorious is it
that our metropolitan elections have fallen into the
control of gangs of repeaters, and so notorious
is it, too, that our State laws and city ordi-
nances, by general consent, are disregarded and treated
with derision and contempt, that only a United States law
and the national authorities in its enforcement are com-
petent to reach and remedy this demoralizing state of
things. The New York Republicans are so bewildered
by our elections of the last three years, and so corrupted
and demoralized, that they are powerless to help them-
selves ; while the democrats are very naturally satisfied
with a system which still increases their majorities. Nor
are these election frauds limited to this city or the Demo-
cratic party. The party which has the power and the ma-
chinery in this State or that State, here or elsewhere, no
longer scruples at any means whereby an election may be
carried. Here it happens that the materials, the appli-
ances, and the temptations for fraudulent practices being
most abundant, these practices are more glaringly de-
veloped than anywhere else. It is only the old story,
that " where the carcase is there will the vultures be
gathered together ;" or where millions of spoils are in-
volved thousands of votes may be manufactured. A gene-
ral law of Congress and the United States authorities to
enforce it, embracing the President and the exercise of
his power to call in the army and navy when neces-
sary to execute the law, will, we believe, be a good
thing for the whole country. As for State sovereignty,
that absurdity went down with the rebellion, and as for
State rights they will not be damaged or endangered by
a national law providing the ways and means for en-
forcing the simple rule of honesty in our political elections.
Railroads and telegrp,phs, indeed, have brought the re-
motest States of the Union so near to the common centre,
and have so interwoven all the States with each other,
that nothing but the generel regulation of our elections by
some uniform law of Congress will preserve to the people
that great power of last resort which they hold in the elec-
tive franchise. As our cities and States, too, become
more and more densely populated we see that the neces-
sity of a generallaw for the regulation of our electionsmore
and more increases. We live in a new age of steam and tele-
graphs a new age of concentration of thought and cen-
tralisation of material and moral forces, and the action of
our national government must be shaped to meet this new
order of things. We are no longer and can be no more a
loose confederation of discordant States but we are a
nation of States, the common sovereignty over which lies
in the people and in their representatives in Congress.—
New York Herald.

RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN SWITZERLAND.—Another
railway accident has taken place in Switzerland on the
Geneva line. As a train was passing by Monthous, a
block from the glacier fell upon it and crushed the last
three carriages, which were reduced to fragments. Three
passengers were killed and five others seriously wounded.
The accident would have been more serious but for the
presence of mind of the engine driver, who increased the
steam when he saw the glacier giving way.