Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-03-23
PENNSYLVANIA GATHERING
RAMS.''

The Legislature of Pennsylvania, in
which the Republicans have large MAORI
ty-five in the Senate and twenty-five in
the House-has recently laid off that State
into twenty-seven Congressional districts.
As to the manner in which they have done
this work we reproduce here with the testi-
mcny of the Philadelphia Press. That pa
per says in its issue of March II:
"The Germantown Chronicle thinks
that, while the authors the Congressional
superintendent bill passed last week by the
Legislature might have made a worse di-
vision of the wards in this city without
much difficulty, they might also have made
one decidedly better without great trouble.
This remark is also applicable TO the
counties OF the State, and more so. In
Philadelphia, it IS true, the divisions are
often awkward, aud the Democrats are
cheated out of their proper representation,
but in the State at large the divisions would
be ridiculous were it not for the motives
that dictated them. At the risk of having
our RepubliCaniSm impescbed we must ex-
pose some of these. Take Bucks, Mont
gomery, Lehigh and Northampton coun-
ties, for instance. Bucks and Montgomery
properly make one district, geographic
caly, socially and politically. Together
their population is just about sufficient to
entitle them 10 a member But this dis
trict would be Democratic; 70 make it Re-
publican half dozen townships are detach-
ed from Bucks and added to NOrthampi n
and Lehigh, both heavily Democratic, and
thus out of four Democratic counties
which, in the aggregate, cast about 5000
majority for that party, two districts are
formed, ona Republican by thirteen hun
dred, and the other Democratic by more
than six thousand votes. Here, however,
we think rascality has oYerleaped itself.
Bucks and Montgomery, even as patched
up, viii Cftener than otherwise return an
opposition candidate. Then there is Luz
zerne, the Democratic precincts of which
have been thrown into that dark and bloody
ground, the odd Tenth Legion The re-
mai0ing townships are set down to elect a
Republican Congressman by sixty-nine
majority.
"These are samples of the manner in
which the State has been divided and speci-
mems Of the heightened and honest states
manship that presides in the capital. As
whole, the bill is just what the Democratic
papers call tan infamous 'garrymander,'
conceived in caucus and carried out in a
narrow mined and partisan spirit. Last
fall, at the gubernstorisl election-of the
character of which we need not speak
there were 81 ,147 votes cast 10 this State,
of which 353, 3S7, or 81 5 per cent, were
Republican, and 3l7,760, or AS per cent,
Democratic. These figures represent
the relative strength of the two par
ties, and, recognizing the need of them,
should be the basis OF representation. By |
the apportionment bill, however, the Re-
publicans appropriate Y per cent. of the
representation. To consider it in another
aspect, 1869 Republican votes will elect a |
representative, while it will require 1884 |
Democratic votes to do the same thing.
There will be different ways of viewing the |
bill, but even to the ordinary politician it |
must look like robbery"
The men who few months ago grew SO |
eloquent about Tennessee "Dattering rams" |
will never hear of this "apportionment |
swindle." Not they. Their ears and eyes
are sealed to all such outra ges as this.