The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-31
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
Upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Dnv for the Evening Telegraph.


FRAUD IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.
From the N y. Times
Mr.. Charles Francis Adams Jr, called at
tention, in his paper read before the Social
Science Association on Wednesday last, to a
danger which large number of our thinking
men perceive but which, as it is not con
slant but an intermittent danger, presenting
itself only at intervals Of four years, it will
probably he difficult Go get the country at
large to fix its attention on. much less pro
vide against. 1t was brought into notice, not
first, but for the first time prominently. by
the way in which the Democrats carried this
State for Seymour and Hoffman at the last
Presidential election; and the exposure of the
frauds which they perpetrated on that occa-
sion was mainly valuable as an indication, not
of Democratic depravity--we knew all about
that before-but of the evils attendant on the
present mode of electing the President.
Nobody needs to be told how the present
system of choosing the Electoral College by the
popular vote, and leaving the college to choose
the President afterward has degenerated into
q sorry farce. The Electoral College has now
nothing whatever to do with the choice of the
President, beyond carrying the result of the
popular vote to the State capital to be counted
and recorded. The people in reality choose
the President directly, and simply use the
electors, provided for by the Constitution as
the thing The votein each State simply goes
to elect the electors, one for each Senator and
Representative sent to the State by Congress;
and these electors always represent simply
the State majority. If the Democrats poll one
thousand more votes than the Republicans
at any Presidential election in this State, it
does not give them simply little over half the
State vote for the President-it gives them
the whole of it. The minority disappears
from view, and has no further part or lot ia
the election; it does not go to help the vote
of either candidate in any other State, as it
would if the President were elected by the
direct vote of the whole people. The contest
in each State at the Presidential election
therefore decides which of the two
great parties shall cast the whole State
vote. Il one side of them wins in
this State by one cote, it obtains thirty
three votes in the Electoral College; and
thirty-three votes are a great deal. They
may, or q much smaller number might, any
day, turn the scale. 1t will thus be seen at
a glance that the temptation to fraud is
enormous, and we all know that the facilities
for frauds are enormous, and increase in all
the large cities. The Democratic managers
may, at any Presidential election in which
the contest is close, win the day by simply
doing enough personating, and repeating,
and forging, and ballot-stuffing here to carry
this State or Pennsylvania over. They
might in this way neutralize the whole
honest vote of Ohio, or Minnesota OF Califor-
mia; the fact that they had done SO might
be notorious, but for offenses of this sort
there is absolutely no constitutional remedy.
Ohio OF Minnesota or California thus cheated
out of the legitimate result of her majority
would have nowhere to go for redress. Even
If there were q tribunal competent to hear
such plant, party passions would run far
too high to render it possible for it to decide
it. There would be but one alternative open
fighting OF submission, and as men do not
lightly enter on civil war, the victims of the
fraud would probably-may we not say will
probably ?-for some time, at least, sit down
under it patiently. The Democrats know this,
and we have little doubt will govern themselves
accordingly. If it should ever appear, and it
may appear any day, that the vote of New
York or Pennsylvania is all that is needed to
put the Democratic candidate in the White
House, we may feel sure, Judging from what
happened last year, that it will be secured for
him to certainty. Supposing it to be DONE
and supposing the whole country to know it,
what should we do This is a good question
for people to ask themselves, and the time to
ask it and get the answer ready is now, in
the midst Of peace and quietness, and not
after it comes up and presses for instant
solution.
Suppose, on the other hand that the Presi-
dent were elected, as many people would like
to have him. by the direct popular vote and
the victory be thus awarded to the candidate
obtaining majority of the total vote of the
Union Suppose the contest should be, as it
may be at any time, very close, and the ma
jority claimed were not over ten thousand
votes; and suppose that we had positive proof
that this majority had been obtained by the
forcible driving away of the weaker party
from the polls in such States as Texas or Ar
kansas, or Georgia-what should we do about
it? Should we quietly install this product of
ruffianism in the White House, and go on as
if nothing had happened, thus tempting the
perpetrators into a repetition of it every four
years ever after? Does not the mere asking
of such question suggest a difficulty of the
most awful kind to every thinking man?
How, then, are we to coniure away this
shape of dread which now hangs constantly
before our eyes? There is only one way, as
Mr. Adams pointed out on Wednesday, and
that is by breaking up each State of the
Union into equal electoral districts, but SC
small that frauds perpetrated in any one spot
would only affect at best a small number ol
votes. At present. each State constitutes
for the purposes of the Presidential election
a district in itself of enormous size, which
can be lost or won by a single throw
MIR. Lawrence, of Ohio, as a result of hi
examination of the New York election frauds
introduced into the House last session
an amendment TO the Constitution whicl
provides that each State shall be divided
b into the districts, each containing q
nearly as possible the same amount of popu
lation. In this way, when the Ring began t,
cheat, instead of being able to carry tn
whole State by cheating in three OF fou
.r oit fhayr