Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1858-10-29
From the Baltimore SUM-
The Degradation of Political. Fraud--
On Whom does II Fans 49,

political condition. We care not what
political party a man may be identified
with, if he has q proper estimate of our
Institutions and decent respect for the
rights 6EcitiSsnship, he must be suscep-
tible to emotions of shame. We have
spoken of the outrages by which men
have& been deprived Of their political
rights,-e4These outrages are, of course,
offensive and humililatipg to all who have
suffered from them, but they only de-
10. perhaps. not so readily perceived that
no man can be in any way identified with
them without being degraded by them.
We do not. now. refer to those who obtain
place and official authority by such
means. The degradation there is too
Pslpable to be mistaken, but even there
the depth of infamy to which it will ulti.
mately consign then is not now appreci
sted. We speak of those who, we rs
sumo. unwitIingly submit themselves to
servile degradation under the stringency
OF Tufianism in the ascendent.
Take, for instance. the fact that under
the letter and spirit Of our laws the ce.
cret ballot is one of our most sacred in.
situations. This principle of our secrecy
is deliberately violated by body of men
prssuming to act for their fellow citizens.
There can be no question that SO serious
and significant an infringement of this
great principle has definite purpose,
but, as against whom? At fret sight it
may appear to be exclusively against all
men avowed opposition to those who have
conceived this degrading device. 1t is
against all such, truly. 1t is like the
shibbolth Of old, though an utterance on
y TO the eye. by which brutal assaults
may be directed with certainty against
those who successfully reach the polls
with an opposition ticket. While such
- arc earlier detected arc shouldereo,
thrust or punctured from the scene
Lawlessness of this sort, setting out with
. dishonest device, must. to be consis-
tent, pursue its dishonesty to the end;
and that is to any extremity of cruelty,
brutality, or even murder, as the necessi>
~ which honesty and courage in opposi>
ton imposes.
But the positive degradation which the
checkered ticket involves is confined en-
tirely to those who avail themselves of
its use. The man who, with such tick
ct in his hands. goes up to the polls in
eomplacent safety. is the veriest slave of
- that rufhanism which pats him upon the
back and vouchsafes its protection. He
is the man whose self-respect, whose in
dependence, whose party "fealty," whose
dignity ds>Nan American citizen is most
directly. though insidiously, assailed.-
Such a ticket is nothing more nor less
than permit to vote; and we have per-
sonal knowledge of the fact. that many
of our citizens sufficiently realize the de-
graduation thus involved to refuse submis.
sion to it. We are, moreover, quite cons
fdent that the time has been, in Balti>
more, when such ticket would have
provoked the utter scorn OF the entire
community to whom it was offered, and
have exposed to universal contempt the
man whose name it bore. In honest
times no honest man would have suffer
ed his name to go on such ticket
Those times will come again, and such a
device will be characterized by one word
Infamous
Beside the eheckered ticket degrada-
ton. that rufianism at the polls which ex-
cludes one class of men while it admits
another has its debasing pecnliarity. A
man walks to the polls with his cheokered
ticket, under the favor and patronage Of
. lawless force, which, after he has voted,
instantly excludes his neighbor. Can
man who does this fail to realize the fact
that he only votes by sufferance? Does
he not feel that he is bound even to the
very suffocation of his personal liberty,
his political independence, his seIf.re-
spect, by the violence Of the construction
which shuts out his fellow-citizen This
fact alone constitutes an honorable dis
tinction between the two men. One isl
violently dispossessed Of his rights; it is
his misfortune, that he has no power to
help himself, and no official authority
willing to accord him redress. But the
other voluntarily submits TO degrada>
ton from which, if he adequately appre.
eiated il, he would, as an honorable man
jealous of the dignity of an American cit.
izen. turn with utter scorn.
Does any ask, wherefore degradation?
Let him dare to change his views and
purposes with respect to the power that
Records him such vile protection, and
though he were one amongst the most
brutal instruments, or the most honorable
Of citizens, he would be taught to trough
it, upon the instant, at the peril of life or
limb.
In view of such plain principles as
these, obvious. from premise to conslu>
sion, We have a doubt whether one.fifth
part OF the legal vote Of the city was pol.
led on the late election day. We know
that many who have a personal respect
for the aVowed measures of the American
party did not vote at all. They would
not yield the sanction of their names or
presence to the transaction of the day.
Others felt and refused to submit to the
degradation which was involved in the