The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-11-21

No man in the State is more earnest,
and certainly no more eloquent in his ad-
vocacv of the new constitution than Col.
X. Mcclure. As a member of the State
Senate he has been thorough advocate OF
reform. both in State and municipal gov
ernment. and the lew constitution being
the sure guarantee of both, he is devoting
HE time and his acknowledged abilities TO
secure it's adoption. There is not fair
minded Republican in the State who does
not admit that the registry law for the
CITY OF Philadelphia is the fruitful source
Of all manner of fraud on the ballot-boX.
Under its famous operation an honest cleo
ton in Philadelphia has not been known
since William B. Mann forced the LegIsla-
ture into its passage. The members OF
the convention were so fully impressed with
it's glaring injustice that they dealt 1t
death-blow in the new constitution, by re-
curing the judges and inspectors of cleo
tion in that city to be elected precisely as
they are in every other district in the state
No true friend of the purity of the ballot
box will say that this ought not to be SO.
In lengthy and able speech delivered
by Col. NJ FClure before .he citizens of the
twentieth ward, one evening last week, he
smoke of the new constitution and the
Philadelphia Registry law as follows:
ssWith the adoption of the constitution
the registry law ends, and the question OF
election returns to the control of Judleious
and uniform laws. The vocation OF the
repeater viii be gone, for each voter must
reside sixty days preceding the election IN
his district. Presentations are made al
most impossible by the numbering ot tick
cts voted to correspond with the numoef
of the name on the poll list, and the reduc-
tion of precincts to tive hundred and hity
voters. and any voter may write his name
on his ballot. The attempt TO corrupt an
election forfeits citizenship, and the candl-
date who sanctions fraud is maze lnellgl-
BILE to any Office of honor and profit. lhe
whole machinery Of fraud that has so long
perverted the expression of the popular
will and that has made pTofhIGacy the rule
in the administration of our affairs can now
be utterly destroyed, and if it now falls, 1t
will fall, like Lucifer, to rise no more
This appalling debauchery in our elections
was the necessity that calico forth the cleo
tion ordinances of the convention by the
overwhelming vote of 9S to 10. The oTdl-
dance was no accident or by-play. The
men who control the machinery of the
registry law, and whose continuance IN
power depends upon perpetuating that
law, made merry over the efforts of that
convention to attain constitutional reform
while they make up the election returns.
They Haunted their insolent defiance into
the face of the convention, fOrgetful that
they might call into the struggle the SOW
ereignty of the people. The notice to the
citizens of the city and State was There
shall be no election in Philadelphia. How
much majority must we return to defeat
the constitution p The answer Of the
convention is: In :he name Of the SOW
ereign authority of the peoPle.Of the COM
monwealth their shall be an honest cleo
tion and fair return in every city and
county in the State y One honest election
is thus assured in Philadelphia. That one
election must give US the new constitution,
and the new constitution will give us hon
est elections thereafter"