The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-22
srzRxx or xzz PRESS.
Editorial Opinions OF the Leading Journals
spon Current Toplos-compiIed Every
DAY for the Evening Telegraph.
pRoTEoT THE RIGHT or SUFFRAGE

PROTECT THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE !!
From the NJ Y. Tribune.
Less than two weeks of the present Con-
gress remain, and many bills are pressed
upon the attention of either House, whereof
the greater number must fail to be deinitively
acted on. With regard to many of them, the
disappointment of their promoters involves
nothing like national disaster. But there is
one bill, which, before even the appropria-
ton bills, should be enacted into law; and
that is the House bill further to protect aud
secure the rights of legal voters by prevent
ing and punishing frauds at the ballot-box.
This bill passed the House by the votes Of
nearly or quite every Republican present,
and will doubtless pass the Senate by like
vote if the final yeas and nays shall be taken
on it, But the Senate is garrulous with no
previous question, and this bill can only be
passed by fixed predetermination of the
Republicans to sit out debate and defeat
every motion to adjourn till the Chair shall
have announced its passage. Let it be dis
tinctly announced that this course has been
resolved on, and an all-night session may be
avoided The minority will not persist in at
tempts to weary and worry the majority into
giving up the measure, if they are we'll
assured that their tactics cannot prevail. But
let this week pass without final vote on the
bill protecting the right of suffrage, and we
shall apprehend its conclusive failure.
Republican liberty can only be maintained
so long as elections are decided by legal
voters, each voting once at each election.
Let it be understood that the votes of aliens,
minors, repeaters, etc., are to stuff the
ballot-boxes and there is no more vitality or
value in voting, and few will consent to dig
Nifty the farce by Offering votes at all. He
who seeks triumph through the polling of
illegal votes may call himself Democrat,
Republican, or whatever he will he is in fact
a hypocrite, a villain, and deadly foe to
government by the people. OF all despo-
tisms, government by illegal or miscounted
votes is the most execrable.
The act passed by this Congress at its
former session did great good. We cannot
doubt it prevented the polling of at least
twenty thousand fraudulent votes by repeaters
and felons in this city alone. It was an ex-
pertinent; and trial has proved that it needs
amendment to render it thoroughly efficient.
The House has framed and dIenacted such modi-
fcations as experience has suggested. They
need the concurrence of the Senate, and we
pray that it be not withheld.
The act of last session has been denounced
mathematical, execrated by the Democratic
oracles in Congress and the journals. They
naturally hate it, for it curtails their facilities
for cheating But to our questions-"What
single legal voter did this a,t disfranchise or
deprive of his suffrage9 What single legal
voter was by this act deferred from voting ?
What single legal voter was subjected by this
act to loss of even ten minutes, whether in
registering or voting ?'-the answer is dead
silence. They can rail at the act as usurp-
ing and tyrannical; they can prate of bayonets
controlling ballots; but when we say to them,
'''Please specify one legal voter-barely one
who was prevented from voting, or impclled
to vote otherwise than as he wished to do or
who voted in fear of any bayonet or deputy
marshal"-they confess the falsehood of their
railing accusations by declining to answer.
Thousands of legal voters in this State
habitually shun the polls. They refuse to
vote because they apprehend that illegal
voting and dishonest counting will render
their votes of no avail if cast. We do not
say that their excuse is sufficient; we only
know that it seems so them. They need to
be reassured and reinvigorated. Our State
gave 419, 883 votes for Grant and Colfax cleo
tors in 1868, which was large maj ority of
all the legal votes cast at that election-a
larger vote by thousands than our opponents
ever did or could cast; and yet our thirty
three electoral votes were, by wholesale, sys-
tematic fraud, turned over to Seymour ane
Blair.
We ask of Republican Congress that it
protect US against repetition of that villainy.
Unless this be done, we cannot call out the
four hundred and fifty thousand Republican
votes that our State will have to poll in 1872.
And while it is quite possible again to carry
the Union without the vote of New York, il
is ever so much easier and safer to do it with
her powerful aid.
The argument on this subject is exhausted
S'Will Congress allow New York to be again
wrested from the Republicans by fraud p
Only let the vote be taken, and we have nc
doubt of the Senate's response.
PHILADELPHIA CHARITY AND ENTER
PRISE.
From the n. Y. World.
We have the kindest feeling towards Penn
syivania, IN spite of protected ''pigs, and as
to Philadelphia, in courtly phrase, sister
city, where the great event of the week has
been the conservation, with appropriate
solemnities, of a police station, ffty-sever
feet by thirty, our sympathies are acute. We
trust fervently she will sell the balance of hel
steamship bonds, and for few weeks o.
months before they are transferred hither
that she may have the steamers. We should
be glad, however, if the City of Brotherly
Love could spare few dollars to famishine
France. 1t was in Philadelphia that, wheI
we needed help, the first French Amb assadoi
was received. There lived Gerard anc
Luzerne. There married Barbe Marbois
Thither came Lafayette on his first arrival
and there he saw the American army, will
green bushes in their hats, march to Brandy
h. mil