The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1870-03-17
Mr. Dawes on Contested Election Cases

All traces of judicial character in these
proceedings are fast fading away, and the
presidents are losing all sanction. Each
case is coming TO be a mere partisan
struggle At the dictate of party MAORI
Ties the committee must fight, not follow.
the law and the evidence, and he will best
meet the expectations OF his appointment
who can put upon the record the best rea-
sons for the course thus pursued This
tendency Is so manifest to those i'm a situa-
ton to observe that it has ceased to be
questioned, and is now but little resisted.
There Is 10 tyranny like that of maiOrities,
anu Efforts IN the past to resist them, and
u hold the Judgment of the Committee of
Elections UP above the dirty pool of party
politics, have encountered such bitter and
unsparing denunciations and such rebuke
10 party fealty that they are not likely
often to be repeated The fruit that fol
lows such seed IS too certain for doubt.
The whole proceeding must sink into con-
tempt. Seli-respect as well as legal at
tainment will soon retire from service on
committee required in the name OF law
and under the cloak of judicial sanction To
90 the work of partisans. But the work
Itself is sure to return to plague the in.
Ventors- What one party does through
such machinery can be done all the easier
ior 1t by any other which nay come after
1t, and that which needs such support will
soon become worthy of no other. When
political ends are To be gained through the
forms oil contested election there Will be
no lack. OF material or disposition, and
nothing more certainly attests the prost-
tuition oil tins tribunal or is more Justly
ca'cul itet to awaken apprehension, than
soH e a
contests within the last few years. While
the record disclOses but sixty cases during
the first siXty-tiVe years of the govern.
ment, there have been more than that
number within the last ten years; and it
Is understood that twenty cases are pend
ing at this time in the present Congress.
Another fact disclosed by this record
finds no other explanation than is here
gwen. Those with the minority in Con
sress seldom contt st. The belief that the
court IS packed with ruling majority,
ana has Its work to do, tells plainly
enough upon the number and political
Affiliations OF contestants, usually in
creasIng their number from the one side
ana In IKE manner diminishing the list
from the other. What was said bv Mr.
Granville on Introducing into the British
Parliament the bill for regulating con.
tested elections, which has since borne
his name, is to-day as true of contests i'm
the House of Representatives as it then
was of those in the House of Commons:
Instead of trusting to the merits of their
respective cases, the principal dependence
OF both parties is upon their private in
terests among us, and it is scandalously
notorious that We are as earnestly can
vassed to attend in favor of the opposite
side as if We were wholly selfelective, and
not bound To act by the principles of JUS
tice, bat by the discretionary impulse of
our own inclinations nay, it is well
known that in every contested election
many members of this House, who are
timately to judge in kind of judicial
Capacity between the competitors, enlist