The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1857-01-06
nILLINoIs ELEcrIoN .-TRurH vINpIcArED."


In your valuable paper Of Tuesday morning your
respondent Vt the crooked letter S has presented
der the caption which have adopted for this article
elaborate effort to show show emphaucally the State OF
Illinois repudiaed the KansasNebraska act at the last
election and the writer puts it forth "rue statement
of facts" Your courtesy is crayed to permit those who
read this alleged "rue statement of cts in your columns
to read also something per contra.
1t is well known that while the four northern congress
sonal districts of Illinois gave the republican candidate
for President very large majority, the five southern dis
trcts gave Mr. Buchanan much larger one, and turned
the scale in his favor by upwards of nine thousand votes
While 49," does not pretend that the ratio of votes to
the population is greater in the south than in the north
he asserts that there fraudulent lega voting in
the SOUTH enough in his opinion have changed the re-
suit upon the presidential ticket if the polls could be
properly purged" He further says after admitting that the
republican papers first to raise the OF fraud that
the Buchanan party of Illinois, 'acng the stop-thief
principle in order divert attention from their own
frauds up the cry Of illegal voting on the part OF the
republicans the northern part of the State for which
there is not shadow of pretence Let US inquire little
how far these consderae and complimentary terms COM
port with "true statement of facts"
In order show fraud in the south he cites the vote OF
Pulaski county, which he says gave than one vote
for every four nhabitants He adds; No such as
this be found in northern Illinois anything like it,
Let Henry county gave s76 votes for Buchanan
LIZA for Fremont At for Fimoretotal, 2e47 votes The
population 9,2l9the votes being as one to every
three and o-tsntas Of The entire population Her vote in
1854 was 985; in 1856 her vote was 2647i
But he proceeds: "Nor is Pulaski single instance OF
strong voting in south Illinois Numerous counties in
that part Of the State show almost badly" Now the
figures prove that in the southern district of Illinois, he
9h which is by far the strongest democratic district in
the State out of eighteen counties there but two Pu
las and Aexander) where the vote greater than
to FIVE while the average is less than five and
half In the 9Th district also strongly Democratic the
average about to six And in the 18th district dem
ocratc by more than three thousand majority with the
exception of three four Of its most northern counties
not county oed than to FIVE the average
being less than one to five and half Yet in northern IL
inois there the counties Of Lee Ogle Carroll Stephen
son, Grundy Knox, Henry, and others, fifteen
twenty each of them giving vote for every four and
fraction Of inhabitants several barely under to four
"Nothing like it in northern Illinois" indeed
"Castigas turpiag
Lorpedem rectus derideat. Ethiopem albus."
But "Sn asserts that the increase of population for
the period from 1850 to 1856 greater in northern than
in central and southern Illinois, the true from
1856 to November 1856 This by means follows,
is it in fact But he adds "the vote Of the north
should rightly be larger in proportion to the population of
1855 than in the SOUTH account of the increase within
the last year and half since the taken" The
constitution Of Illinois prohibits one from voing unless
he shall have resided twelve months in the State that
all by immigration during the year preceding the
vote excluded and the of 1855 furnishes very
nearly the basis of the voting population of 1855 But
81 does to consider this at all and from the
in the north it would seem that this period of resi-
dence required by the constitution overlooked there
Just as it has been by as"
But before we leave this part of the subject let us recur
to the of Pulaski and Alexander counties the only
ones in the whole south where there any
fraud II is historical fact that the two towns of Cairo
and Mound City in these countless that the Illinois
Central railroad opened In the summer Of 1885, and
during the fall Of that year. and after taking the census
large increase of voting population added TO them
that the influx other parts of the State has continued
and is still going on. Hence no frauds need be alleged
against the people of those counties Of their
large at the late election. Those who know the ex
tent Of increase In these two counties from other parts Of
the State will be surprised only that the polled was
not greater than that reported.
Again: Except in the eighth district (where the vote is
ess than to six there is in southern Illinois much
smaller number of persons of foreign birth than in the
north and large numbers Of these emigants Of the last
five or six were not voters Yet we see no dminu
ton of the vote in the north this account as we do in
the eighth district If the persons Of foreign birth in the
north not citizens did not vote others did to make up
the full number. #t.. .}sI
as" of opinion" that frauds have been pepetrated in
the south part of Illinois gross that tho polls were
purgsd the electoral vote Of that State would be given to
nine thousand Buchanan men In southern Illinois Who are
criminals by the law and who cheating the State
out of the fines and prison labor which they ought pay
as the penalty of their offences This is charge Of some
magnitude and hardly excite wonder that the per
making should remain hid behind Initial and
certainly cannot be worth while consider the value Of
such opinion when its author show fact upon
which to base it, except the of county, while there
fifteen t,ocnty counties giving enormous maorites
for his party the vees of which about the same
notch with his cited county of Pulaski without the same
to account for III and when his theories about in
of population not only overse but the character
of that very increase leads to diminished rather than
increased number Of votes to the whole population.
But to yindcae truth" further Mr. uS cites the vote
in Illinois for James Miller the abolition -republi-
canknow or American candidate for State reasu
who elected COL John Moore, the democratic
candidate for the Office and he declares that Miller
was not and never had been know-nothing he
the candidate of the knownothngs but OF the antN Ne
braska republican party" Now, 1t Is true that Miller
has been candidate twice for that Office put forward by
the knownohings in advance of any Republican nom
nations and promulgated by their State council as their
candidate That order supported him in 1884 and they
first renominaed him, and then supported him in 1855
He said to them any one that he would be
their candidate. He never said word against the order
He their candidate and he selected because he
was know-notbng at heart and in principle az he was
Of the order and voted for SUCH Hsleer was never
heard of until it came from the committee Of the antNe-
braska convention that reported his nomination That
convention was fishing for votes Miller cut for bait
He had prestige aroma Of know-nohingsm about him
that would that ORDER but it would have been
useless to have roled him before the Dutch and Irish with
the know-nothing hook in sight. That letter was to
cover the hook, and it did it. His know-nothinp
friends let him play the game they knew they had moth
ing to lose by it. Under these auspices he ran and was
elected treasurer But how many of his 10000 votes
were cast for him because he the American candidate
and for other reason The average of the other
dates the American ticket for Sae officers was nearly
his vote below that of any of the candidates. except Hatch
on the republican ticket IL is also we'll known that he