New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-04-13
THE FIRST LESSON IN REFORM.

One of the weaknesses alike Of the Re-
formers and the Democrats is that they
demand free and fair ballot while de-
manding the repeal Of the very laws that
secure these blessings. The law Of the
Legislature OF 1870, which has been SO
violently denounced from one end of the
State to the other, was framed to secure
perfectly fair elections. Its provisions
are more stringent against unfairness in
voting, counting the ballots and making
the returns than any law We ever had in
Louisiana. And yet the men who demand
pure election commit the inconsistency
Of asking for repeal Of the law that pro-
vides for the very object they are solicitous
about. The mistake these parties commit
is in attributing to the law the evils that
the officers perpetrate. And another error
that they fall into is in holding the wrong
parties responsible for frauds that the
judges and inspectors commit in making
their returns. And another still more
culpable weakness of theirs is in suppos-
ing that the ballot box is tempered with
by the opposition only. Our experience
| is, that the Democrats and Reformers
were in the habit of committing frauds
upon the ballot long before the Repub-
lican party was ever heard Of in the State,
and that they. have never cured them
selves of the habit. They boast now, in
private, that they stuffed the boxes in the
election in this city in 1868 and in 1870,
and that if they ever get a chance the
custodian Of these treasures will have to
keep his eyes open if he prevents them
from doing it again. We never had a
fair election under Democratic rule, We
need not expect one under the Reformers,
and it is not doing injustice to our own
party to say that it has some men in its
ranks who know how to play an even
hand in this matter with their smartest
opponents. 1t is just because we know
these things that we insist on having
strong election laws, for under such the
people who are really wide awake and
determined to do so can protect their own
ballots, while under loose statute they
have no protection whatever. Where the
people do not take care Of themselves it
matters but little to them what sort of
law regulates their electoral privileges,
for they are sure to be victimized by the
professional election managers. Reform
ers and Democrats are all tarred with the
same stick in this respect, and the sharp
est wit and the quickest hand wins the
day.
What the people should have is their
own senses. So long as they carry about
with them the promises of some anxious
Office hunter, and trust for reform to the
rampant orators of the club meetings,
they had better submit to the enactment
of the strongest laws that can be made, for
the promises upon which they base their
reliance are worthless, and the chances Of
reform that they hope for are the veriest
moonshine. As we said before, the sound
sense of the people is their first best
protection; their second best protection is
to keep their eyes open and their passions
and prejudices under control; the third
best protection is to watch for themselves
and not to let their friends or their enc
mics cheat them. These are much easier
tasks under a strong law than under a
weak one and their own returning officer
is the man to look after and not some man
at a distance. Every citizen should be
especially vigilant to prevent his own
party from doing wrong, for in this he
keeps his own conscience clear, and the
opposition can not retort that he COM
mitted the first fault when he is accused of
perpetrating a fraud. These general re-
marks teach the first great lesson IN politi-
cal reform.