Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-11-19
WHAT MONEY Has DONE.

WHAT MONEY HAS DONE.
We said the other day that the late cleo
tons have demonstrated the fact that we
have in this country large class who re-
gard the franchise as a merehantatle COM
modify, and that elections have become un-
certain in consequence of this commercial
vote" We have before us in two papers
printed in widely, separated districts Incl
dents illustrating this fact. The Middletown
IN. " Mercury says;
.The most open and unblushing frauds
were perpetrated by the Republicans at the
polls in this town Tuesday. Men were
openly bought and sold like cattle, In the
interest of the Grant and st. John party"
The Eureka (Nevada) Sentinel of the
9th inst, says:
ut is patent to sill close observers that
elsctions in this State are fast coming down
to q commercial basis. The Republicans
inaugurated the disgraceful practice four
years ago in Virginia City, and since then
the plan has been extended to all parts of
the State. Even away out here in Eureka
we hear of numerous cases where votes
were openly and indecently purchased by
the Republicans at the recent election. In
Virginia City and the western counties gen
orally the corrupting influences employed
on election day, according to our adVices,
simply beggars description. To give our
readers some idea of the wholesale man
nsr in which votes were bought and sold in
the full light of Gods blessed sunshine, we
extract the following from the Gold Hill
Nel0S Of tie 9th inst
"sTo the eternal disgrace of this commu-
nifty be it said that nobody ever saw such
buying and selling ofvoters as was done yes
terday in both Virginia and Gold Hill. Men
sold their votes publicly in the most
unblushing manner. They were bought by
squads and clubs, wholesale aid retail, the
price being from 81 80 apiece to 500, the
average price being about $40. One club
of seven was bought for 500, and another
club of twenty was bought for $50. One
large club at Virginia, consisting of 100
men, were for sale at $500 apiece. They
were holding meeting in the afternoon at
Miners Union Hall on street, waiting to
be bought, when one of the directors in
charge found out the true character of the
meeting, and ordered the whole crowd to
vscate the premises. They refused to go,
but a reinforcement of numbers of the
Miners Union finally made them leave
in hurry. They went tn another hall,
but had to get out Of that also. Before
dark they had dropped their price
from $500 to 81 so apiece, aud
not more than half of them
made out to sell, or even to vote.
When the polls closed there were probably
300 or more who waited to be bought who
found they had waited too long, for they
crowded about the polls most anxiously in
the second aud third wards, keeping quite
a number of good, honest workingmen
from voting, who could not come any soon
er. One Spanish woman on South Q street
was out with plenty of money, buying votes
for Jones. All sorts of Tammany tactics
were resOrted to, and money was plentier
than water. 1t was literally money fight
money regardless Of merit"
Now when it is known that this system
was extensively practiced all over the coun-
try, does the reader wonder that Grant was
reelected? This election demonstrates the
fact that it is only necessary to spend few
millions to secure the election of any per-
SON. There must be cessation of this sort
of thing, CT our free Institutions will soon
come to an end.