The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-08
TIE REGISTRY LAW.

quires no argument to prove that the existing
system has afforded so many dangerous OPP
portunities for fraud that general elections
were rapidly becoming rather a test
of the ingenuity and desperation of unscrupu-
lous partisans than reliable method of ascer-
tanning the wishes of majority of bonn .fde
citizens For years past every exciting cleo
tion has been succeeded by a series of con-
tests before the courts, the Legislature, or
Congress, in which many frauds and
Irregularities have been proven; and after the
return from the Fourth ward, last November,
of between three and four thousand majority
for Seymour and Blair, no man can tell what
majorities may be manufactured out of raw
material, or how many men in buckram may
be made to do double Democratic duty
AS the Government is based on the idea
that the majority shall govern, it is vitally
necessary to prevent minorities from usurp-
ing power by fraud; and the growth of crime
and population in the great cities, accom-
panied by the development of special talent
for cheating at elections, has rendered the
regulations which preserve the purity of the
ballot-box in the rural districts, where every
man knows his neighbors and fellow-voters,
totally inefficient in the swarming hives of
humanity. Every good citizen feels the
necessity of establishing additional barriers
against the incursions of the ''vicious va
grants, the wandering mobs, the Tartar
hordes" who are ready, on occasion, to claim
citizenship in New York, Baltimore, or Phila-
delphia, and to vote "early and often" at
every precinct where election officers can be
induced to tolerate them.
Whatever may be the merits or demerits of
the new Registry law, it undoubtedly fur
nishes superior facilities for excluding from
the polls men who have no legal right to
appear there; and every year supplies so many
new illustrations of the imperfections of the
present system, that its improvement has be-
come vitally necessary. Mr.. Meredith we'll
said, at the close of his argument before the
Supreme Court, that 1--WE are gradually
but rapidly losing the enjoyment of the right
of self-government, and we are losing it by
the interference in our elections of persons
who have no interest in our public welfare,
no homes among us, no right to meddle in
our affairs"
The Democratic party, through their ablest
lawyers and judges, have made vigorous and
ingenious opposition to this law on the
ground that it is unconstitutional. Judge
Sharswood summed up the argument on their
side of the question, with his usual ability,
in the opinion he delivered few weeks ago,
embodying his reasons for granting an injunc-
ton against further proceedings by the Board
of Aldermen. The subsequent discussion,
however, has shown that he gave to the clause
in the Constitution which requires that cleo
tions throughout the Commonwealth shall be
free and equal false and forced meaning,
and the demonstration of this fact sweeps all
his reasoning away. If the Constitution had
required that the mode of conducting elec-
tions should invariably be uniform in
every district of the State, his
opinion would have been correct but he
erred in assuming that equality implied uni
formity; and the web of the Democratic argl-
. ment is woven, principally, on the woof OF
this error The Constitutional Convention of
1878 defeated, by a vote of SO to AZ, @
proposition to make election laws uniform;
and it has been the constant practice of the
Legislature to vary the details of the mode of
conducting elections by special regulations
applicable to special districts. The WORD
4'equal, as applied to elections, has meaning
entirely different from that impaired to it by
Judge Sharswood, foritwas evidently designed
to secure fair apportionment of representa-
ton, instead of the lesser object of uniformity
in election regulations, which has never existed
in this State, never been desired and which
in reality, is incompatible with equality, ever
if the word is used in the sense ascribed to il
by Judge Sharswood, on account of the
diversified social and industrial conditions Of
the citizens of various portions of the Com
monwealth.
The legal battle over the Registry law ha
been well fought on both sides, but the arpu
ments of its champions, combined with Judg
Agnew's opinion, prove that the victory ha
been Justly won, and that there are no suffi
cient reasons for pronouncing it unconstitu
tional The next step will be to set the ne,
machinery in motion. In doing this, we hop
that the Board of Aldermen will dschare
their important duties honestly and faitl
fully. The great end to be gained is a ia
election. We want no cheating on eith'
side, and no partisan victories acquired |
disgraceful and illegal expedients Let ever
bona tide citizen be enrolled, every hone
voter afforded convenient opportunity
enjoy his political privileges, and let IL
purity of every ballot-box be sacredly mail
tanned General elections only possess the
true meaning when every man who has IL
right of suffrage is allowed to vote, and evel
illegal claimant of freeman's privilege
prevented from falsifying the official recoi
vi public opinion.