New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-04-08

townships of our State who may on the day
of our next and of any subsequent General
Election, be absent in the Military or Naval
service of the country, shall be entitled to vote
by proxy. still fingers somewhere in or about
the Assembly. We ask that it be put ahead
of all local, personal or party jobs or projects,
that day and hour be assigned for its third
reading. so that no one can fail to be present
thereat through ignorance or inadvertence, and
that at the time specified it DO taken up
and passed. We know no other ten PROPOSE
tons before the Legislature of equal import
ance and urgency with this.
The Democrats of New-Hampshire and Con-
necticut vehemently complain that some soldiers
were allowed to come home and vote at their
recent State elections, while the great mass
were withheld; and that this discrimination OPP
Grated. and was intended to operate, to their
prejudice. Whether the facts were or were
not as they assert, it is manifest that they
might have been and this sutiices to show the
necessity OF such an act as Judge Low pre-
poses. 1--WE do Mt object to the soldiers vos-
ag," said the Seymourites in Connecticut. " II
you will let them all vote" Very good, we
challenge our Seymorites to abide this ordeal.
Let the soldiers vote ri,hom coming home, and
there can be no Partially no iavoritisin, no
hardship, no exclusion.
Again, it is|urged that camp ought not to
be turned into a caucus. That is valid OBJ
lection to holding election, in Virginia or South
CsIolna for officers Of tho State of New.fork.
We'know that an election in camp must be
sort of saturnalia--that there will be conten-
ton, and ll-fseling, and intrieue--pOssibly
bribery and dissipation-and that temporary if
not permanent decentralization will naturally re-
suit. Officers may exert, or seek to exert,
undue influence, and men may be permitted TO
vote, in camp where all are of one party
who are not electors in the townships or wards
which they claim as their residence. In this
way, candidates may be foisted on county or
district as its officers or representatives whom
it never chose as such. But Judge Lows bill
precludes all this. Ii provides for no camp
elections, guards against Illegal voting, and
reduces camp influences to q minimum. The
private soldier hears what bis officers have u
say, as he listens respectfully to others; but
be votes as no sees nj, and NO one knows how
but tho relative or bosom friend at home to
whom he ntrusts his ballot.
In the stiffness of night, or whenever OIL
duty he writes out his ballot. or chooses one
from among those which may have been offered
him, grasses and adds names 10 make it conform
to his personal wishes, and incloses it ia a
letter, with the requisite formalitles, to his
trusted friend ct home. Let us suppose him
to be John Tompkins, whose home is Liberty, !
Sullivan County, Hew-York, and he incloses
his vote TO his brother, William Tompklns, who |
also lives there. At the poll of the ensuing
election, the, latter presents himself and having
cast his own vote if entitled, offers also the |
vote of his brother, William Tompkins, now
soldier in Virginia, serving out his term of en-
listment, say in the lI2th New-York Volun-
teers. The questions to be answered ahirma-
lively are" Is there such a man as John
TOmpkins Is no a resident and legal
tricti Is he a volunteer now serving
in the regiment aforesaid or suffering
ia the hospital by reason of such seryicel Has
he duly authorized this man here present to
cast his v0tel And is this that vote" The |
person offering the vote may Of course be
challenged and made TO swear on every point |
affecting the validity Of the vote; but, this
being established, trho nants, to deprive that d6-
sent soldier Of his right Of suGrage' That is
question which members of the Legislature
must face, and We beg them. to ponder it well,
for they cannot evade it. Shall deserters, and
men who have procured discharges because Of
spre toes or a lame back, and officers who
have resigned because they find the work
rather rough, be entitled to choose our rulers, |
and the brave men who stand by their colors |
DO deprived by 80 doing of oil voice in shaping
the National policy wherein their lives and
our existence as people dependl Let US sec
who votes that they shall not vote
The alternative of Peace or further War
may hang on the result of our Elections |
who have better right to vote on this ques.
ton than they who offer their breasts as a
shield for our country against her deadly
assailantsl Do you want Peace Who can
more intensely desire it than they who, far
from home and its endearments, spend their
nights on picket or in the chilly bivouac, with
nothing but blanket (f even that) to ward
of the binding sleet, the bleak wind, tie
pitiless rain I DO you say that we must con.
tinue tho War; Who is better qualified to
Judge on that point than be who 10 in daily