New-York daily tribune., 1858-04-21


disaster, 1857, originated. Owing 10 its triangular
division the Assembly was for weeks unable to
organize, and perhaps might a. well have failed
altogether The Session was stretched several days
hey ond its legal lmit-that IT, beyond the hundred
day for which only are members paid-and yet
came to nothing. No Registry Law was enacted,
though the need of it is universally felt aud very
generally acknowledged. As for the three or four
Republicans who voted squarely AMI defansly
against it, they have our heartfelt respect-the
respect we always feel for those who are boldly
wrong -headed-but for the hal.dozen dodgers who
skuked the vote, some of them on the pretense Of
having paired of with opponents, when they must
have known that this was exactly the same as vot.
ing Move regard them with the contempt and
loathDg which their tricky, cowardy course has so
richly deserved. Whatever the future may hold in
store, we trust that none of this class will ever
worm their way back into the Capitol as Legislators
That there are good men who shrink from en-
counteriDg the unjust clamor which will be raised
against those who shall be responsble for the enact
ment of Registry Law, we will not dispute; but
they show too weak faith in the intelligence and
virtue of the People to bear worthily the designs
ton of Republican. tis our simple duty as con.
servatOrs of popular institutions, to remove the fa
cilites for Illegal Voting which rapidly vitiating
our Elections and driving upright, intelligent citi
zens from the polls. Idly shall we longer entreat
our best citizens to neglect important business,
forego journeys or incur loss by hurrying prema-
tureIy home from distant points in order to vote,
l. b sko, hich
now renders such sacrifice of private interest to
public veal chivarous folly. Either interlopers
and professional ballot-stufers must be deferred
from putting in half dozen ballots each at an
Election, or it will not much longer be practicable
to induce worthy and upright voters to deposit
each his one.
There are those who pretend to believe Illegal
Voting as easy and general under Registry Law
as under our present system; but these are obliged
to take special pains to avoid discerning the truth
A Registry Law simply transfers the scrutiny Of
every claim to be legal voter from the crowd and
excitement of the polls to the calm and leisure Of
some ten to twenty days preceding. Il allows
every man who knows that a claimant of the Right
of Suffrage is false pretender opportunity to cha
leppe his claim and put him on his proof whereas
our present system confines the right to challenge
to the small number who are close to the poll at
the moment Of bis Offering to vote. To gain votes
men will say and swear in the heat of an election
what they would shrink from swearing fortnight
beforehand, subject to scrutiny and disproof by
any who might happen to know the facts; and we
are confident that ten thousand Illegal votes cast
last Fall in this city alone, would have been with
held if there had been legal Registration of Voters
And we know that such voting is not confined to
this city.
Now we are quite aware that rural township,
in which nearly everybody knows everybody, is sell
dom the scene of illegal voting to any great extent;
vet we believe illegal ballots gave the Votes Of Penn
sylyania and Indiana to the Buchanan party at the
state ELECTORS Of 1885, as they gave the votes Of
this State and Louisiana to Polk over Clay in lS44,
What consolation was Il to an Ontario County Whig
in "A, or Herkimer County Republican in 'o6,
that the illegal votes which defeated him In the gen.
efal result were not cast in his immediate district
or neghbOrhood Are these voters in the rural
districts so blind as not to care how many illegal
votes are shoveled in against them in this city or
Albany so long all goes right at their own poll
We will not believe so badly of our inland fellow.
citizens.
As to illegal voting under Registry, we say,
Make the Registers public records, aud preserve
them carefully and punish as felony any wful refu.
sal to register the name of legal voter as We'll as any
corrupt registration OF one who is not such. In
der our present system, the victorious party in an
IL, "a.
have no spirit for entering upon scrutiny of the
pol-lists, when proving three-fourths Of the vote
illegal amounts to nothing, since it would be NOR.
ally impossible to prove that a msjority Of the.e
votes were cast for the winning party. The obyi-
Gus and OILY effective mode of confning voting to
legal voters is by registration beforehand, and
mean never more to vote for legislator or Gov
ernor whom we do not believe favor5ble to such
registration. To suppose man honestly in favor
of Registration of Deeds, yet opposed to Regis.
tration of Voters, Is to deem him too muddIe-
headed ard illogical to be trusted with the making
of laws.
Our Public Works have Jared badly at the hands
of the Just disbanded Legislature. There is no
dispuiDg the fact that, even if the original under
taxing to enlarge our Canals was an error, or the
scale on which it was commenced too large, or the
prosecution Of the work too vigorous, it is still
manifest that now, when the work is all but done,
it should be ressed forwardto speedy completion.
We have spent sone Thirty odd Millots on the
Canal Enlargement aud its colls;eral', whereof at
least half are unproduc,ive aud of little use for
want If Fur or Five Millions more. To hesitate