New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-11-03
laULEss LoCoF0c0 ELECTION

T4cTTCS.
There are party proceedings which are Of
such perilous turptude, that when made de-
llberate resort and systematic object Of pre-
paration, they bespeak desperation that means
to stop at nothing and should, of course, be met,
by all honest men, with one general and.stren-
uous determination to put them down, at the
cost of whatever efforts To such interruptions
preparations for dsputng the approaching
election in this city, we warn our good fellow
citizens that the locofoco leaders are shaping all
the instruments that they can control and we
trust that the facts which we are about to set
forth will, by their daring iniquity, rouse up
every respectable man to aid, by his active per-
sonal exertions, in defeating and confounding
these audacious plans
They all look of course, to a system of frauds,
by which the will of the legal electors, as fairly
expressed at the polls by the majority of their
sutfrages, shall be smothered, on the one hand
by the exclusion of good votes, on the other by
the unchecked admission of bad ones. 1t is,
however, mainly on their devices for effecting
the latter that they rely.
| The first step towards it was taken as long
ago as at the late sitting of the Legislature
where, being in the majority, they defeated the
law which the 18th section of the Constitution
made it their duty, under OATH at once te
enact, for causing all the qualified voters of thi:
| city to be registered, before they could be en-.
| titled to vote. This law was directed to b.
passed, in order that one of the main avenues t
| fraud in our elections might be shut at once
and forever. Through the Constitution-that
| highest expression of the sovereign will of the
people which they so hypocritically profess tc
adore-they were bid to perform this duty
They set it aside, however, in contempt of the
Constitution, in contempt of the known neces-
sity for REFRESHING these fragrant mischiefs, and
in contempt of their oaths Why did they SET
it aside Because they did not choose that an
end should be put to these frauds because they
intended to employ them largely in the present
election.
Their second step was through Judge whose
proceedings we have already noted and exposed,
to introduce under the naturalization laws AZ
qualified voters, what may be almost called a
swarm of foreigners, probably little known
to those who swore to their papers as to any body
else For they were to all appearance subornet
for the mere purpose, and were in some instances
police officers taken from their legitimate bust
ness for this service, and performing it with
zeal and to an extent which usually imply pay
But these things we have already more par,
ticularly detailed and reprobated heretofore
we will here only add a solemn apprehension OF
this abominable practice Of prostituting to such
a criminal purpose the sacred tribunals Of the
| law itself, which should be the firm guardian,
Of morals as well as refuge of justice.
The third step was most arbitrarily and in
ueeen'iy' having the power, to appoint commits
sloners oil election from their own party alone
; Inns must be held upon its face to be pledg,
mat 'hey selected among their own men by ne
means the most scrupulous No where has thu
edl'or OF this paper ever seen practieed the in.
deceney--we may even call it the audacitv-o
thus constituting one side the sole insnector,
of elections. Here they are, in number. tire,
at each pole Two of these could have decided
every question SO that third, even if he has