The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-12-11
AN OPPORTUNITY.

Of all the men who will sit as members
of the coming Legislature, no one, we take
it, will have better opportunity to elevate
himself in tho estimation and to receive
the appreciation of the upright citizens Of
the State, than Mr.. Albert Constable
Fearless and incorruptible, as We believe
him to be, and with ability to support those
qualities, he can, if he so selects, brave the
Ring in its citadel, and by an earnest, out
spoken course in connection with the hon.
est, reform Democrats insure halt in the
reckless expenditure of the peoples money,
institute measures looking to the purifica-
ton of the ballot. box, and mete out exact
Justice to the scoundrels who have been
tampering with the fair name of the State.
This course is open, and every dictate OF
duty urges its adoption. A great wrong
has been committed against the sovereign
people by combination of political tricks
tiers and demagogues utterly devoid OF
principle, set of men who represent all
that is repugnant in morals and dishonest
in politics. That wrong, regardless of mere
"party welfare" should be righted. In
deed, upon the plotting out of the infamy,
depends the future supremacy of the Dem
ocratic party in the State. We pretend to
no anxiety for that supremacy. This Jour-
nal has ever been, since the rise OF the
Republican party, an earnest advocate of
the principles enunciated by that party,
- - Jacoryinr will cpntjnna
to labor for their extension and for their
final and complete triumph But the ques-
ton which meets us to-day is not simply
question for the support of one political
BODY, and the opposition of another. 1t is
a question in which all good citizens are
interested. "It is none other than the
maintenance of the purity of the ballot
box" And whatever party arrays itself
against it, either by express declarations or
by its actions will be doomed to certain
and overwhelming defeat. The response
bility for the onslaught lately made on the
freedom aud the privilege of the elective
franchise, rests solely and exclusively upon
the Democratic party, for the reason that
it was planned and directed by men high in
it's favor, and carried out by the abandoned
ruffsns who are enlisted under its banners.
It received the sanction of and was perpe-
trated under the party name, and the re-
sponsiblity can be diverted or removed
only by all outspoken condemnation on the
part of the honest leaders, and by the
adoption of such vigorous measures as Will
remedy the injustice. We're we striving
simply for the good of the Republican
party our pen never would have traced
these words, and nothing would be more
satisfactory and pleasing to us than
hands off policy ON the part of the upright
men of the Democracy. For were they to
adopt such line of action, the time would
come, and that shortly, when the thinking,
independent citizens of the State, goaded
to desperation by the burdens and insults
heaped upon them by Ring of corrup-
tionists, would rise in body and seek
relief at the hands of whatever party should
be in opposition, be its name Reform or
Citizen or Republican-and they would do
it in such a manner that all the repeating,
and all the ballot-box stufing, and all the
outrages of Pinkney Whyte's henchmen
could not defeat them. We are not striv
ing, therefore, in this instance for the vel
fare of the Republican party.
The Democratic party of Maryland con-
tains within it's ranks-through ignorance
and prejudice-a majority of the voters of
the State, and, by virtue of that majority,
is entitled to govern. But we demand that
it govern in an economical way, and in
accordance with just principles. We de-
mand that it retire to the rear the cormor-
ants and plunderers who have been preying
upon the vitals of the Commonwealth and
trading upon her good name. And, more
than all, we demand that it ensure to every
voter the right to deposit one ballot, ard
but one, and that it protect him in the exer-
else of that privilege, so that when he steps
to the box to express his choice for who
shall rule him it shall not be with his life
in his hands, or at the mercy of Ring judges
and Police Commissioners. These things
we demand, and we have right to de-
mand them.
In the contest for the realization of the
objects of these demands, we trust Mr.. Con-
stable will see his opportunity to help on
the cause of order, and that, in consistency
with his known opposition to corrupt rule
of any description, he will place himself
squarely upon the side of honor. His ideas
of truth and justice and fair play are quite
up to, if not above, the average, and he
knows, as does every other man in the State
who is not wilfully blind, that there has
not been fair play, that justice has been
trampled under foot and spit upon, and
that as for truth, the Baltimore Ring is
totally ignorant of its meaning. We do
not ask him to abate one jot or little of bis
attachment for the party to which he be-
longs, nor to say ono word or perform one
act which, in itself, will rebound to the
benefit of the Republican party, but we do
ask him to say such words and perform
such acts as will rebound to the benefit of
the whole people. A fearless, an upright
and an outspoken course on the part of any
member during the ensuing session of the
Legislature can effect incalculable good,
and will receive and deserve the plaudits
of the honest citizens of the State. The
opportunity is, peculiarly, Mr.. Constables.
Will lie take advantage of it?
In making these remarks we have pro.
ceeded upon the superstition that Mr.. Con-
stable intends to consider himself the dele
gate, not simply of the Democratic party,
but of all the citizens of the county, and
representing, as we do, large portion of
those citizens, we have deemed it a right
of ours to hold the language that we have.
B The champion thief of the century,
William NJ. Tweed, formerly Grand Sachem
of Tammany Hall, more recently of Black
we'll Island and Ludlow street Jail, satiated
with the pleasures of prison life and anx-
ious to be, as most Americans are, "free as
mountain air." strolled away, in company
with his keeper on SATURDAY. last since