Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-10-08
The wheeling Township BaIIet-BoI
Suffers Again.

To our surprise, the last Gazette pub
fishes an article in the editorial columns,
villifying our District Court for decid-
ing that the ballot-box in Wheeling
Township was tampered with last
Spring. We were not surprised that the
Gazette was dumb ON the subject, the
week before, but did not suppose that
effrontery could ever go so fer as TO in
duce .'the ring" in the face of the con-
elusive testimony in that case, to under
take to defend and vindicate those who
participated in the fraud The account
given of the trial is tissue of falsehood
from beginning to end.
We do not propose to occupy the space
necessary to report the testimony III full.
1t is enough to say that the Court, con-
sisting of four Judges, of both parties,
unanimously decided Tat thirteen Re
publican tickets had been frauduiently
taken out of the box and seven Demo-
cratic tickets had been fraudulently put
into it, and that the opinion of the Court
in deciding the case, was delivered by a
Democratic judge.
To give any plausibility whatever to
the Infamous attack of the Gazette upon
the Court, it must be assumed that 13
Democrats came on the stand as witness
es and committed perjury by swearing
that they voted the Republican ticket
Ill witnesses whose names appeared on
the poll book swore that they did vote
the Republican ticket, and these Demo-
cratic trustees only counted out SO of
these tickets, while they counted out
lis Democratic tickets. There were 2l6
tickets in the box and ODD names on the
poll book. No effort was made to prove
that Ill Democratic tickets Were voted.
A number of Democrats, who listened
to the trial throughout declared that the
fraud was clearly proven, and that the
decision of the Court was undoubtedly
right.
A miserable attempt is made 10y the
writer of the Gazette article TO account
fer the deficit of tickets by the statement
that Justice was voted for al the same
time; that the names were called; that
the voters may have neglected to vote
for township officers, and yettheirn names
may have been by mistake written on
the poll book. The author of this infa-
nous pretext has drawn largely on the
credulity of lis Democratic readers. Can
anybody who has sense enough TO read,
or understand the Gazettee article, be
such dolt as not to know that if any
such mistakes had occurred the witness
es could and would have been produced
to prove it? No attempt was made to
prove that any one person whose name
was on the poll-boOk did not vote, and,
il such thing had been proven, it would
have increased to that extent, the Re-
publican majority.
1t is asserted in the Gazette article
that it was the legal right of the defend
ants to have the 113 witnesses who were
examined for the plaintiffs, separated,
and the trial of the case is called a mock
trial" because they were not separated.
The nominal editor of the Gazette is a
member of the Ohio bar, and the real
author of the Gazette article is believed
to be practicing lawyer of this County,
and we assert that he is either a Knave,
or grossly ignorant of the irst principles
of law. Parties have no such legal
right. 1t is question entirely within
the discretion OF the Court. 1t was en-
tirely improbable, as any one can see to
separate SO large a number of witnesses,
and the Court could not possibly have
tried the case during the term, if a sepa- |
ration had been allowed.
Gentlemen of the ring! The wise as
well as honest course for you to have ta- !
ken would have been TO denounce this
gross fraud, when it was exposed, but
you persist in defending it, and thus
disclose your own infamy BalIot-box |
stuffing, however, is ''piayed out" in
Belmont County. The patron and fol-
lowers of the rim, will be watched this
fall, and if there is anything in vigil
ance, and any attempts are made to re-
peat these frauds, we will be able to
prove not only the frauds, but the precise
persons who perpetrate them. Shame
on the miserable clique, which, through /
the recognized organ of the Democratic !
party of Belmont County, attempts to
bolster up men who are convicted of
this great crime on the great right of
ballot. by such upright judges as Brink
erhoff, McIlvain, Granger, and Way.