Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-06-06

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has not legal residence In the same
ward they refused to take the votes of sixty.
Ave citisens who were unquestionably en-.
titled to vote under formal decisions Of the
United States Circuit Court, some of them
made on the very day Of the election, Of
which they were formally notified. The
refusal to respect the rights Of their opponents
az thus adjudged by GU, highest court, was
pre- arranged on the previous Saturday night,
as explained above, and was general in oil
the wards Of the cities. 1t amounted to a
bold assumption on the part Of the secret pro.
scriptive political organisation, Of authority
in and over this city, superior 10 that Of our
courts Of law; a circumstance. until then, Ell.
tirely unheard of in this community. 1t turned
out that the asse ssor had made error, in re-
turning the ma IS of more or less voters on
The other aide, and none in the names az Know
Nothing voters, and in zee face 0. the law
these commissioners deprived those in whose
names such e rors had been made, Of their right
OF cinzenship, in more than one case with a
positive and Extensively announced refusal to
assign any reason for so doing. The court
asst yssi decided that legal voter whose
name had accidentally been omitted upon the
poll list was not deprived of his right to vote
by the laches or fraudulent design of the as
SCISSOR. In the First and some other wards
this decision of our highest court was treated
by the election boards, as though it was Of no
more authority than the opinion Of any pair
OF professional GROCERY rowdies who got
bOarse On Monday night last on execrabIe
whisky and huzzas for "Snm." So also was
the courts subsequent decision, that all cit
Izsps naturalized up to the time Of Offering
their votes are fully entitled to exercise the
elective franchise here set at defiance In their
ignorance and improper psrtisa nship they also
refused the votes of hundreds, whose votes their
| friends had taken year ago, when they were
given for their candidates of that occasion
They also assumed the night, 10 some wards,
to reject the votes OF all foreign born citizens
| whose naturalization papers were taken out
elsewhere than in the District Of Columbia,
and also to reject, on frivolous grounds the
votes of persons (native and foreign-born) of
heavy business interests among US, and ON ners
of large real estates here, accumulated by
| honest industry and distinguished intelligen nee,
| who had VIGOROUSLY been voters in Washing
ton for from ten TO thirty years, among them
being men who had long served as members o.
the Washington Councils. In the Third Ward,
while voting their own friends with CELEBRITY,
they SO delayed the reception of the votes Of
thair opponents as that when they closed the
polls there wore from 100 to loo voters still
in the lins to deposit their ballots, hardly one
Of whom was their own political friend
They received the votes Of mors or less OF
their friends there a. point different from
the regular voting place, and Of course out of
their tarn; thus securing az many as possible
for their candidates 10 tho exclusion of those
who were opposed to them. In this ward par
ticularly they received the votes, Oh certi6
Gates, of number of persons unknown to any
one in the ward on the ether side, all of whom
were rushed through the process, in striking
With the Ianns y5 IL Which h a E BfasR
up there in an instant, and, We presume
have disappeared quito as suddenly. IL
this ward the number Of vstes polIed was
some hundreds less than in the Fourth Ward
WY was this the case, with from one hundred
to one hundred and fifty anti Know Nothing
voters demanding their right to deposit their
ballots when the window was closed on Thorn
by self evident pre-arrangement? We're they
not as competent TO receive, determine, and
record the votes proffered, as the commissioners
of the Fourth Ward,
We mention these facts TO illustrate the
means through Nhich the reported result
was brought about, and to prove to our citizens
that the secret proscriptivc political associa-
ton has deliberately essayed to DESTROY I cir
rights, in usarPing in their midst superiority
OF authority to that of our regularly constituted
and heretofore always respected court of law,
whose decisions il spurus as not worth a rush
whom standing in the way of their efforts to
control our municipal affairs by fraud, violence,
and Illegal means
France il the days Of her first rsyolutich
was under the control Of secret political sooiSP
hss-JscObin elubs-at FIRST identical il their
aims and acts with the American Know NoNQ
ing lodges Indeed, those clubs respec led ge
lega rights Of society much longer than they
have been respected by those who are thus
carrying out the secret resolves Of the lodges
In our midst; for they were originally cen
troiled by men Of q much higher order of in.
tsilect, greater experience in public af.irs,
more adroitness, and much more true public
spirit than are possessed by the preachers of
ruined personal regulations, professional
gamblers. and GROCERY Ioafers, who form the
ruling nuclsus Of the lodges in this region
Ihe clubs however, eventually went from one
illegal step 10 another, until they irenched all
France in the blood Of her best citizsn,, com.
hitting more atIocious violations of pub,ie
and private rights and murders in e single
year, than had occurred in the kingdom bv
nominal authority of law in any hundred years
OF he. previous history as a State governed