Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-10-02

it may be said then in Ohio persons are
disfranchised for idiocys insanity, felO-
ny, and for going to SCHOOL,
This law introduces the singular pro
position that the eleetor, to be duly
qualified, should have been a legal voter
at the tfnse he commenced his occupation.
IN The t0igaG1lp. Er post Iaeto laws are,
said to be oppressive and dangerous,
aud they. certainly contrayeue the high
ast organic law Of the land. This act is
eE post fGcto in assuming that for man
TO be qualified voter now is not suffi-
cient to entitle him to vote unless he
was also qualified at some remote per-
fod in the past. The General Assembly
has confined the application OF this
novel rule Of voting to students only,
probably by way of experiment. But
how absurd it would be for judges OF
election to refuse the vote Of the farra-
er, the merchant, the shoemaker, law
yer or doctor, because, forsooth, he was
not qualified elector of the township at
she time he commencsd his business
thereinl The credit Of an Idea 20 novel
ought to be secured 10 its authors BY
patent right. If were applied to other
classes as Il is intended to be to .sruA1eHte,
il wORld hOpelessly disfranehise during
their nataral lives more than haIfOf all
the voters Of the State.
The purpose Of this singular proyis-
ion is TO preveEE the student from gain
ing a residences while he remains such
Let him leave school and become an
idle vagabond, and that moment it
ceases to operate against him. Out Of
school, doing nothing, he can gain a
residence in one year, bIst in school, in
dustriously eultivatIng bis intellect, he
cannot gain one in five. The man who
comes into the village to retail liquors,
having no other place of residence and
no present intention Of removal may
become voter in thirty days, bat a
man who comes under precisely the
same conditions to attend school can
not become one in i've years. If, b0W-
ever, the student were to leave school
and engage in retailing liquors he could
acquire all the rights aecruing from
residence in the ordinary time. 1t Is
only the difference of occupation. Or,
if the student were to simply misbehave
in school, so as to secure his expulsion,
thirty days before a general election,
and remain in the same town, (Dela-
ware, BGarietta,o or wherever the location
might beJ ashamed or too vicious to go
home to bis friends, and should spend
the whole time in drinking, gambling,
and riotous living, he would be entitled
under this law, if twenty-one years Of
age,( ,(and with no'eyisible Admixtureg'')
to vote; while, il be remained in the in
dustrious pursuit of his studies, he
would disfranchise himself.
This law assumes that man seeking
an education, though twenty-one years
of age, cannot change his residence
without the consent Of his parents. 1t
requires absolutely of such persons one
or the other of these two conditions OF
voting; /, That his parents should gain
a residence at the. same place before, at
| the time, or after he commenced his
course of education; or 2, That he shall
swear that he intends to make there his
permanent residence. In nine cases
out of ten both of these conditions are
impossible. There are very few men
whose. parents would be willing or able
to accompany them to college, and few
er still, if upon the condition that the
ancestral home shall be there perma-
nently fixed. Nor is the justice or pro.
priety of disabling a man of full age
and sound mind from gaining resi-
dence in particular place unless his
parents, HoleuS UoleRS, gain one there al
so very apparent. In the first place his
| parents may have no desire to govern
his residence, and in the next place,
/ the person is over twenty one years o
4 age they have not the legal right But
the absurdigy Of this requirement be
comes still more patent when we come
to apply it to men Of other occupations
Who would think of making it a eondi
tion for an accountant or a wheelwrigh
to vote that his parents should gain
residence where he is engaged in his &C
cupation9 II such principle were ap
piled impartiaEly to all, not many meI
whose parents are living could vote
and none at all whose parents arr
dead.
The second alternative offered the stu
dent is to swear that he intends makins
the place where he pursues his studies
his permanent residence. The law hai
hitherto gone no farther than to requirl
that the voter should have an actlta
residence without present intention o
removal. And this would seem to b.
the proper limit, for there are compare
lively few persons who can eOnscien
tfousIy swear that their minds are fully
determined never to change their pres
ent place OF residence. Thousands ever
of those who have large estates anC
have cultivated attachments of long
residence consult in theirown minds tn,
contingency of removal. Every day
families are migrating from State t.
State, and from county to county
seeking new homes and fortunes. AnC
while this is the case with the more
stable classes of society it is true in 8
far greater degree Of the thousands o
tradesmen, laborers and others engaged
in the miscellaneous pursuits of life
the majority Of whom have no perma
nent attaehment to the soil. How un
reasonable then to expect the young
man at school, whose future must b
yet an enigma, to forecast his destiny
sufficiently to determine where he vii
fix his permanent residence! Though
having no present intention of chang'
it may be impossible for him to take az
oath that his mind is fixed upon "a ak.
ing the abode of his parents the place o.
his studies, or some other locality his
permanent home. and in the msjorit5
of cases he would be unable to vote
anywhere If compelled to take such an
oath.
such a condition of voting applied to
ministers of the gospel would scarcely
leave one in Ohio not disfranchised. It
is we'll known that among many de-
nominations elergymen are assigned to
their pasforates for number of years
after which they are sent elsewhere,