Worcester daily spy., 1851-05-02

Inc secret BalAOLs
The House of Representatives, on Wednesday,
passed the bill for the better security of the ballot,
which had previously passed the Senate. Itprovides
that all voters for Governor Lieut. Governor, Sena-
tors and Representatives of this Commonwealth, of
electors of President and Vice President of the Uni
ted States, and of Representatives TO Congress, shall
be deposited in the ballot box in a sealed enuelope
to be provided by the State.
By the passage of this law, there can be no
doubt that the Legislature has done wise and Just
act, the good effects Of which will not soon, pass
away. 1t is very bitter pill however, for our hun
ker friends to swallow, and some of them make very
wry faces about it; but it is of no use The people
have wled that the surveillance of employers at the
polls, is an inqusitoral act which employers cannot
perform without infringing upon the purity ofthe bal
lot and have taken this method to prevent such sur
veillance in future. Hereafter man who loves free
dom IN old Massachusetts, no matter in what city or
town he may reside, may cast his vote for the man
of his choice,-for those whom he knows will carry
out his principles which he believes to be right with
out any reference to what his neighbora may think
of it, and without the fear that his daily bread may
be snatched from his own hands and the hands of
his children, as the price of his temery in daring to
vote according to his conscientious convictions.
The Advertiser says that the law is an exercise of
inqusitoal power, altogether arbitrary and useless
and an uausl6able attempt to engraf upon the Con-
stltution condition which its framers never thought
Of
That it is an exercise Of "power,' is most certain,
but how the Advertiser can consrue that into an ac,
OF inquisoriaI poxer the very object of which is tc
put end to inquisilion into the acts of homes
men, is mystery to us. We think it quite likely
as the Advertiser intmates that such condition O
affairs as would make the passage of such law ne
cessary, was thought of by the trainers of the
Constltution;-but that is no argument against the
ia",-is is simple statement of probability. The
trainers OF The Consultation, ii is quite likely, never
imagined that such sheets as the Advertiser. would
INT the year Of our Lord 1851, be found openly adyo
eating slave catching in Massachusetts; that tht
Court House in Suffolk county would be converted
into slave pen;-that trial by jury would be denied
to citizens Of the State that Boston, which in Older
time, bore so conspicuous part in the struggle fo
freedom, would crouch in the dust before the slay,
power Had they done SO, it is quite likely thel
would have provided all the safeguards it was posi-
BILE for them to throw around the ballot box that sucl
things should not transpre through the all powerful
tyranny of money, brought to bear at the polls
against the right of every man to vote as seemed
good to him, without regard to the souless servants
OF Mammon by whom he might chance to be en-
ployed.
The secret ballot law will be a most effectua
agency ofreform. The popular vote even in Boston
will become in time true exponent of the popula
sentiment of the people, upon all questions in which
great principles interests are involved and it will
put an end to that domination of the rich over ,h,
poor, which has too often been exercised at the ex
pense ofrepubican justice.
The secret ballot was tried the other day. in the
House, for the first time, and was found to work ad.
mirable for honest men, but very dsadvantageousIy
Tor political knaves. No doubt it will operate in the
same way upon larger scale; and it is quite prota-
bic that this is the main reason that it does not re-
ceive the appreciation of hunkerdom.