The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1844-06-28
THE ACT TO PREVENT FRAUD IN THE

THE ACT TO PREVENT FRAUD IN THE
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
The New York Evening Post remarks on this
subject and justly concludes, that federalism by
solemn vote of its senators, has given evidence of
adesire to palm President on the nation by. fraud
From the Evening Post.
The occasion for the law is acknowledged; the
good effect II is likely to produce isnot denied We
are on the eve of presidential election upon which
its effect cannot be otherwise than beneficial and in
which it might prevent much spurious voting
The House OF Representatives passed, by large
majority, bill in which this measure was present.
ed in most unexceptionable form. The bill went
up to Senate, and there, by whig majority, it
was virtually rejected by laying it on the table.
When we recollect that prodigous frauds in the
election OF 1910 were charged upon the whig par
upon evidence so plausible, to say the least.
that many men, not hasty in forming unfavorable
opinions of their fellow men, fully believe the
charge, we would have thought that the leaders of
that one party, anxious to show that they, at least
were clear OF the iniquity, would have eagerly CO.
operated in closing the door against future frauds
and would have passed the bill from the House of
Representatives, with no other deberation than
was necessary to see that its provisions were prop
erly framed. and adequate to the purpose II any
man expected such an evidence of virtue in the
whig members of the Senate, he has been disap-
pointed The bill was lost in that body, and the
next election must take place with all the opportu-
mites for bringing armies of voters from one State
to another which existed in 1910.
What are we to infer from this. Simply that it
is expedientfor the whg party that the opportuni.
ty commit fraud should exist. 1t is necessary to
their success that no check should be put upon the
transportation Of voters from city to city-from
Philadelphia, for example, to New York. They
have declared this by formal proceeding in the
United States Senate. The vote of twenty-six to
twenty-five, laying the bill on the table, NAV be
translated thus: "Wanted, by the whig party, sew.
era thousand ppe-ayers for the presidential eec.
ton in New York and other cites.'
tits true, that the wings had pretext for voting
against the bill. Pretexts are of all things the
easiest things for an experienced politician to find
The excuse for not passing the bill is, that two or
three OF the State government would find il neces-
sary to call special legislative session to give ef
feet to the law. Not that there is not time enough
but the whig members Of the Senate were fearful
ofsubjecting the States to the expense.
When, last year, whig Congress passed bill
ordering the election of members of Congress to be
held by districts in the Several States-a measure
which, whatever might be its merits, was not one
of immediate urgency-the objection was made
that such States would be compelled to call special
sessions of the legislature to provide for giving it
effect The whig members treated the objection
as frivolous and passed the bill notwithstanding
They were not then disturbed by any scruples in
regard to the expense This fact is another indi-
cation that the argument by which they now OPP
pose the bill is a mere subterfuge, and that their
real object is the one we have imputed.