The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1871-09-23
''Strike While the Iron is Hot.v

As we have stated more than once before
there are $3.50 registered voters or Whereabouts,
in Baltimore county who refused to take any
part in the election last fall, and the most of
whom have taken little or no interest in the
politics of the county, State or nation for the
past four or five years. Many of these people
were Old Line Wings before the war. Many
of them were Union men at its beginning
Many of them were then, and are now, men
who were not passionately attached to any
party, but who, when they voted, voted for the
best men that the respective parties offered for
their suffrages. Such people have always been
in the habit of voting for some candidates on
both tickets, selecting those they considered
best suited and qualified to defend, protect and
preserve the peoples interest and secure the
best advancement of the public good. Many
of these people have absented themselves from
the polls because they were not satisfied with
the men or the measures put forward and ad-
vanced by either party.
During the war there were many questions
brought up in rapid succession by the inexora-
BILE exigencies of the circumstances springing
out of the rebellion and many leading, radical,
unavoidable issues forced upon us by circum-
stances that none could control or avert and
which but few could comprehend without con-
siderable thought and information. These
necessarily forced a considerable number of
people to remain quiet or take sides against the
Union party.
The number thus disafected with the Re-
publican party has always increased as new
campaigns have brought up new issues-the
18th, 14th and 18th Amendments, being the
chief. They have been dissatisfied mainly with
the measures and not with the candidates of
the Republican party. Since the advent of the
Democratic party to power in the State, a vast
deal of these people have been dissatisfied, and
in many instances disguised, at the course that
party has pursued, and in many instances at
the men they have elevated to positions of
trust and profit. This dissatisfaction has be-
come so universal that only about two-thirds
of the vote of the county was polled last fall in
the face of a vigorous canvass by the Democrats.
The home vote is one half as large again as
was the Democratic majority in the county.
The vote of the Democrats at the Primary
Meetings when .hey had II candidates to
nominate, for which there were not less than
40 candidates vigorously at work, with 13 tax
collector-appointment depending upon the
nominations for Commissioners, with Is dele
gates and executive committee men from each
of 13 districts, reached only ALA. Out of these
there were not less than 500 Republicans who
voted to crafty the wish of friends and neigh
bors. 1t is entirely safe to say that there were
400 interested aspirants for some sort of a posi-
ton, vigorously at work in this county for four
weeks prior to their primary meetings, using
their influence and money to solicit heir
friends-Republican as well as Democratic--to
60 to the polls and vote for delegates favorable
to themselves or the friend or friends &c VII m
they were energetically at work. The nrm1er
of votes at the primary meeting is not extra ~
binary when we consider the innumerable ap
planes and influences brought to bear upon
it. Take the Republican vote from those polled
and the vote that staid at home, leaving the
Republicans of the county out Of the question,
is at least equal to the Democratic vote that
was out.
We now give this stay at home vote an OPP
portunity to bring out a ticket that shall be
satisfactory to themselves. If they do not act
in the premises, it is no fault of ours. We have
done all that lies in our power to give them a
voice in the control of our county affairs. Any
ticket of good men that theygea fit to put before
the voters of the county and support by their
own votes will be certain of a triumphant sue
cess in November. Strike at once Every day
is month to you.