The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1867-10-11
The Duties of Electors.


s The great mass of voters of the State
to whatever party organization they may
belong, whenever called upon to exercise
the privilege Of the franchise, must I'm
doubleday seek the promotion and protec.
ton of their interests as citizens and tax
payers. But too many of them are
apt to forget or ignore the fact, thai
these aims and purposes can best be at
tanned through the preservation Of C9nsti
tutional Government and Civil Liberty.
1t is true that ia times of high party ex-
citement-such as have been witnessed dur
ing the past few years-men have ignored
their own convictions of the duty they owed
their country, and under the whip and
spur" applied by a partizan press and par
tizan leaders, have voted to sustain the
party where they knew or believed the
tendency of its measures and its avowed
policy would prove most destructive to the
best interests of the people Of their own
State
This proposition needs no other Or
stronger illustration than that Agricultural
Wisconsin sends men to Congress who at
the dictation of New England from whence
they draw money to secure their own cleo
tom and against the known opinions and
wishes OF large majority of their own
constituents vote for measures that exclu
sively favor Eastern capitalists and credit
ors of the National Government, and di-
rectly oppose the interests of the tax pay
ers and producers Of their own State.
There is no doubt that very large ma
jority OF the voters of this State-of our
active, intelligent men-are opposed to the
present financial and tariff systems of the
United States, and we hold it to be their
duty as good citizens to assert their indie
pendencc of party domination which so
long as it be permitted to last will prevent
any change that will lessen the present
heavy and now accumulating burdens of
our people.
We are aware that thousands Of our pat
riotic citizens whose opinions upon these
subjects accord with those laid down by the
Democracy, were, during the late war
of the rebellion made to believe by
a partizan press or to act as though
they believed, that it was trea-
son" to talk Of the "powers that were !"
being under any Constitutional obligations
that it was "disloyal" to question the
policy or propriety of any measure propos-
cd or act done by those who were charged
and ordained to be charged with the ad :
minstration Of National affairs, and now
where they protest against and seek for a
change Of the present Governmental poll
cics inaugurated and being ruthlcssly pur-
sued by their party they are told by the
came partzan press and partizan leaders to
wait and grin, and bear their burdens until
the South is reconstructed and New Eng
land has obtained, through the supremacy
ct the black race, complete domination over
King Cotton " throughout all of the late
Rebellion, and then we will discuss aues-
tons Of taxation and of tariffs, and make
the most urgent and eloquent appeals to
the sublime spirit of fanatcsm and heroic
patriotism Of New England to concede
something to the demands of the tax pay
srs and producers Of Wisconsin-to con
sent to some modification of the tariff
which has enriched them, and to the taxa
ton Of their millions Of capital invested in
Government bonds
VIII these men longer trust their inter
eSts as citizens to the hazard of such con-
tingencics, or will they not, at the first op-
portunlty, force change Of measures 50
imperiously demanded by the people, by
elccting 20 Office the men nominated by the
Democracy who can be relied upon to use
their best endcavors to bring about the
needed reform.
If any man honestly oppose the tariff,
the exemption of capital frcm its due pro-
portion OF taxation, and the prob ibitory
Temperance and Sunday laws, we can hard
IS conceive how he can make it consistent
with his ideas OF duty to vote longer with
the party which has foisted all these odious
measures upon the people, and has refused
to instruct or pledge it's candidates to vote
for their repeal, modification, or change.