Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-11-14
pyeIsrRArroN OF VOTERS.

We have tried the system of register
ing voters in this State, and while in
some respects It is admirably adapted to
prevent fraud at the ballot-box, yet it is
a power in the hands of the controlling
majority, who may commit the most
stupendous wrongs and outrages. As
for instance, the party in power can re-
fuse to register voters publicly until
within few days before an election, not
giving time to every one to obtain their
certificates Of registration, when at the
same time clerks are employed day and
night preparing blanks, the Register sign
ing them for his own partisans, and
on the day of election are seen to
circulate as freely as did Confederate
money after the surrender of General
Lee at Appomattox. This is one of the
modes of defraudipg, and is not the only
objection to registering voters. 1t is
Welding too much of the sovereign power
of the government into the hands of one
or two men, that can be tempted to do
wrong; for human nature is not proof
against all the wiles Of the devil, who is
certainly more conspicuous in elections
than in anything that can be imagined
in this world. The more restraints that
are thrown IN the way Of the voter,
the greater difficulty there is in getting
men out to the polls to vote. And at
the lowest calculation there are thirty
per cent. of the voters under the require
ments of the registration law who never
take the trouble and go through the an
noyance of having their names placed
on the Registers books and obtaining a
certificate Of the fact. The aggregate
of votes is thereby decreased whenever
men are required to go forward before
elections and register their names. BY,
the new constitution Of this State, all
tests are abolished, and there is no
qualification attached to the right
of suffrage, except that each voter
shall give to the judges of cleo
tion. when he offers his vote, salts
factory evidence that he has paid
the polltax assessed against him
for such preceding period as the Legis-
lature may prescribe, and at such time
as may be prescribed by law. This is
nothing less than species of registra-
ton with the disagreeable odor of prop
erty qualification surrounding it, Since
universal negro suffrage has been fast
ened on the country by the Fifteenth
Amendment to the Constitution Of the
United States, and the word white
stricken from our own State constitution,
we are in favor of the greatest latitude
to the privilege of voting,
that honest men may not be
deferred from going to the polls.
The dishonest part of the community
need no encouragement. The only test
we would favor for those wishing to ex-
ercise the privilege of the elective fran
chise would be that the man be required
to live in the State twelve months, the
county six months, and have attained
the age of twenty-one years. As to these
facts his simple oath, if questioned at
the polls, would be sufficient to establish
their correctness We have felt the
oppression of the registration system
in this State, and the people Of
Arkansas are grooming under it to-day, as
well as those of South Carolina. And
New York came near being precipitated
into civil evolution and into collision
with the Federal Government on account
of the principle OF interference with the
registration Of voters in the city Of New
York. 1t can be made a gigantic ma
chine of oppression in the hands of cor
rupt partisans, who would not hesitate to
take from the people the blessed boon Of
electors that power might be retained
4 4. a.