The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1857-11-05

1
with the Clerk of the Board OF Commfs.
sioners, Of the proper county. st y
! Sd. As the vote of each eector was to
be recorded for each one of the twenty-five
candidates, and in more than a hundred ca
ses, for twenty. and that by uiva uoce
vote, it was physical impossibility that the
number Of votes pretended to have been ia.
ken on the second day, being more than
| fifteen hundred, with the name of the voter
written, and each of twenty-five candidates
properly designated, could have been taken
and recorded within the time prescribed by
law. .... t .-.. .... g.. b..
Alb. tits an extraordinary fact, tending
to throw distrust upon the whole proceeding
that of the sixteen hundred and twenty
eight votes, only one is given to the dele
gate elect to Congress; and only one hum
dred and twenty. four are recorded as having
been cast for the local candidates of the
township. ...,-. .. .,.-..
Influenced by these considerations, and
Impressed with the grave responsibility rest
ing upon Us in regard to the fairness of the
election, and its freedom from all fraud sus.
ceptble of detection and prevention with.
the scope of our duties; 1--WE deemed it essen
tial to truth and justice that we should as.
certain every fact calculated to refute or
couirm the conclusions derived from the
face Of the papers. Accordingly we went
to the precinct Of Oxford, (Which ia viii
lage with six houses, including stores, and
without tavern,) ard asceriained from the
citizens of that vicinity, and especially
those of the!handsome adjacent village of
New Santa Fe IN Missouri, (seperdted only
by street md containing about twenty
houses,) that altogether not more than one
tenth the number Of persons represented to
have voted were present on -the two days o
the election, much the smaller number, not
exceeding thirty or forty ben present on
the last day, when more than fifteen hundred
votes are repres nted as having been given.
the neghboing village of Santa Fe, were
astounded at the magnitude OF the returns;
and all persons Of all parties, in both places
treated the whCle affair with derIsion or in.
dgna.ion, not having heard the alleged re.
suit until several days after it had occurred.
In the course Of our journey to and from
Oxford We passed over much the larger
part of the county o! johnson, and we be-
came thoroughly satisfied tha: there is no
population in the whole county from which
more than one third the vote Of that single
precinct 'co1ld have been given. We learn
that some very few persons, having cabins
on the reserve in johnson county, and
claiming a residence therein, though gener.
ally absent, had voted at some OF the pre-
cncts in that county; but we are convinced
that very inconsde7abe number, not
reaching, we believe, one hundred, of Mis-.
sourians or other persons having no admit
ted right to VOTE did claim Oh attempt to
exercise that right, anywhere within that
country. The people Of Missouri cannot
be justly charged with any interference in
the Hate election nor are they in any degree
implicated with the evidently fraudulent
returns made from the precinct of Oxford
Those returns, beyond all doubt, are stlnu.
lated ard fictitious. r.] @.e~t
Under these circumstances, we DO not
feel embarrassed by any technical difficulty
as to our right to 60 behind the returns.--
We hold the returns themselves tc be de-.
fective in form and in substance, and there
fore inadmissible. We go behind them
and inquire into the facts, only frf the pur-
pose of ascertaining whether by these val id
objections to the mere returns, our rejection
of them will have the effect of defeating the
will of the people, sought to be fairly ex-
pressed at the polls. In the event of such
consequences, we might hesitate to reject a
vote upon any defect Of form, however es-
sentih in law. But in the present case, we
feel ourselves bound to adhere to the very
letter of the law, in order to defeat gross
and palpable fraud. The cons liberation tha,
our own party, by this decision, will lose
the majority in the Legislative Assembly
does not Ike our duty in the premises less
4 solemn a,id imperative. The elective fran
chisa would he utterly valneless, and the
i free government itself would receive dead
i ly blow, if SO great an oatrage as this coult
be shielded under the cover of mere forms
and technicalities. We cannot consent, ir
any msnner, to give the sanction Of our re
spective official positions to such q transac
: tion. Nor can we feel justified to reliev,
ourselves Of the proper responsibility of ou
office, in q case where there is no valid re
turn, by submitting the question to the Leg
islalive Assembly, and in that very act, Civ
ing the parties that might claim to be cho-
sen by this spurious vote, the power to de-
eide upon their own election. i.~
In view Of the condition Of affairs il
Kansas for several years past, Of the effort
SO long made to. putin operation here rev,
dictionary government, and of the fact tha
f this effort was suspended under the belle
, that the political difficulties Of this territor.
might at length be fairly adjusted at tn
polls; if that adjustment should now be de-
feated and the people deprived of their right
ful mower under the laws OF Congress, b,