Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1851-11-21
The Wings and the Ballot Law.

The Wings and the Ballot Law.
Everybody has heard the story of the hermlt,wh
confohnded the honest sagr. by blowing both hot
and cold with the same mouth. We are sure
that the honest men Of Massachusetts, must be
amused, if they are not surprized, at the same
manifestations by the Wings. II is not fort
nigh, since all their organs teemed with denunci-
atoms of the Secret Ballot Law, and with in
dignant and vehement denials of the arguments |
used in its defence They declared emphaticdlly |
that rich men, and richer corporations, exercised
no undue political influence over their dependents
They repealed with apparent Indignation, the idea
that the votes of poor men were noted at the
polls, or that they liable 10 be subjected to
any suffering or lnconvenie nce for the manner in
which they exercised their right Of suffrage.
They went one and all, for open voting, which
they declared to be honest voting, manly voting,
dignifed voting, the good old mode OF voting,
and the pure way Of exercising the right OF free
suffrage, which had been so purely practised,
long indefinite Time in Massachusetts,
Since Election, however the tune has changed,
| and those wings, who denounced the Secret Bal
e. utterly uanecessa LA1rHe xa2liilaH fs and
purity OF the ballot, iiiea purity was ts
own protection, now open against the law, like
pack of hounds in fhI cry, because of the
bribery, corruption, tyranny and other inqui-
ties, which they aege to have been perpe,rated
under the g envelopes
The Atlas and Springfield Republican lad off
o-.t this course; the former darkly mining that
| ID IL nd ,cc
the Secret Ballot to coerce voter, and the latter
showing how successfully a wing had commit
ted robbery upon a democrat under it, in
snatchng from him his own sealed envelope
concealing it, and then giving him another, pre-
tending that it was the one he had taken, when
it was really wing ballot, which the democrat
voted.
The gluten organ of this city, which some
times as lying jackal for its more leoniue
co-adjutors, and which always yeps when they
growl, takes up the talk where lis betlers left IL;
and yesterday INDUCES in tissue Of characteristic
fasehoods, Of which the following specimen
Sc 1t is beyond all cavil, that Massachusetts neves
saw so humilating and dIsgracefua scene OF fraud
and corruption, as witnessed at her haioi-boxs:
on the tenth day Of November, 1851. In proof %
our assertion, have only to refer to the coaXing
the brow beating the bribery, aud the compel
ling of the poor and tmid, to go to the polls will
votes enyeoped and sealed by coataonists for coalition
candidates. All this we know to have been bodly
and desperately practised by coatonsts in this cry
and reports from every quarter show that the Sam
shameful proceedings in other parts of th
State-and all, as is hypocrcaly alleged, 70
r 1.-THE 6etter security Of the battotr
2 Our readers will discover, amidst all this sputie
of the gingerbread Sheet" the that thu
liberty Of the voter has been interered nth, and
as consequence, will assume that il is necessa r,
that that liberty should be secured far possible
This is exactly our position. This is what we con
tended before the law into operation, and il i
for the reasons here stated that we heartily approv
Of the law now, which we know operated well, il
snite Of the open attempt of some Of its enemies L
q render it Intellectual
r The frst course of the Wings was, TO denounc
/ the law as thing not needed, and now they de-
n nounce it,upon the ground that something even NOR
!, secret is necessary to prevent voters from being
!, .sbought and sold like cattie' Well, we are read
to support any measure that will most efficiently 1e
cure the freedom and purity Of the ballot. VIII tn
VIII propose such measured
But, there is one thing that very much surprfe
U.S. in relation to this question: and that is the Tor
n bearance Of he Wings Ifthey know of cases sc
a fraud, corruption, and bribery" why do they nc
d bring the guilty parties TO justce9 They cann'
plead any reasonable excuse for not doing So Pol
IS lie opinion would support them in dragging Ii
D. criminals before the bar ofthe country; and publ
e Justice would punish those criminals when convicted
! We should rejoice to- the purity OF election
:" yindicated, no matter whether The guilty patty cal
:, ed himself swing, Democrat, or Free Soiler.
~ But the fact il, the enVeiope system Of voting is
III neat, clean, and mode Of voting, let the Whil
v. say what they please TO the eoaHary and their co
w Trajectory argumeuis. both before and alter eec'o
es are alter ALL merely used in blind hatred to me"
nre, which has prevented, and will prevent, the
higher ranks from directing the IoUa, aad "person
!, ges of eminent gravity" from restraining the work.
m | classes.
A. I...,.