New-York tribune., 1876-12-07
THE BALLOEBOX PROFANED.
LETTER FROM DIR. LEONARD BACON.

With this denial the present communication
might end but if the error is important enough to
Justify public correction of it, may be permitted
TO use il as an occasion and for saying more
Allow me. then. to indicate one lesson which the
present anxiety and alarm ought to teach us.
The people of the United States are 'osng-peThaps
| ought to say, HAVE LosT-their confidence in the
ballotbor. What mean is this: The result OF an
election is not accepted-cannot be accepted with
confidence-as expressing the will of those who are
intrusted by law with the power of voting, and
whose will is what we mean by the will OF the
people The result may be submitted to as neces-
sty, for there is no appeal from it save the appeal
to arms What is the trouble at this hourf Nobody
believes that in the three States whose electoral
colleges are to determine whether Hayes OF lllden
shall be President, the returns from the baotboxes
express the peoples will. write while it is not yet
certain which party is to prevail in constituting the
electoral colleges of those States; but write WIN
absolute certainty on one point The great body of
both parties rather of all parties-beleve that
the voting in those States the 9TH OF November,
as given in the returns, did not express the Will OF
those whom the laws of those States invest with the
right of voting.
Bnt il Is not in those three States only that the
ballotbox has lost its sanctty the oracle through
| which the voice of the people is to utter itself.
Who believes that any election takes place IN your
city without hundreds at least of fraudulent ballots
dropped into the boxes and counted in the result
Who believes that the result of an election in Phiia-
delpha indicates save in some loose and uncertain
way at best the will of the people of that ctyf In
my own State of Connecticut there are intelligent
men who seriously believe that on the 7th OF NO
| vember last the ticket headed with the name OF
President Woolsey, and not that headed with the
name of Gov. Ingersoll, was voted for by
of tba
belief rests on the marvellous increase since 1872,
IN the vote land mainly in the Democratic majority
| of certain populous towns, such as New-Haven,
Hartford bridgeport and Waterbury, where the
manufacture of unlawful voters is exceptionally
easy and the detection of fraudulent voting eXcep-
tonally difficult. For many years l have observed
with growing anxiety the growth OF this great point
ical crime remember that when the party which
had nominated James X. Polk carried the election,
in 1874 over the party which had nominated Henry
Clay il was the opinion of many in the defeated
party that their defeat, with its momentous scquel
of annexation and war in the interest of the Amer-
can slave trade, was brought about by crime
against the ballot notin Louisiana only but else
where. and especially in New-YOrk. remember
who that was then cognizant of public affairs can
have forgotten f-what methods of managing cleo
tions were employed in the 6endish attempt to make
Kansas a slave State. Few intelligent observers
have failed to observe that great party in this
country is sure to be in opposition when new laws
are proposed for the protection of the ballot-box,
and seems to regard every such act OF legislation as
an outrage against somebody's natural right to
"v vote early and often" Am mistaken in my con-
viction that crime against the ballot-bOx has come
to be one of the most important factors in every
great eleetoni Am i mistaken in supposng that
the same conviction Is at this moment forcing itself
| unon the people of all the United States
Perhaps some reader may ask what mean by this
phrase "Crime against the ballot-boX." mean not
only the crime of putting into the box ballot which
has no right to be there of counting falsely when
the box is opened but also the equivalent crime OF
| attempting to defeat the will of the people by
| brbng or inti1nidatng those to whom the law has
| given the right of voting. few months ago
read the statement in your columns that elections IN
| New-Hampshire are carried by shameless bribery
and now we read Of "the shotgun policy" in South
Carolina and of bulldozed parishes" in louisiana
All such methods of determining the result of an
| election are simply varieties of what mean by
| "the crime against the ballOt-boX;" and l say
that the crime charged against Secretary Bclknap-
| nay, the crime of the meanest Indian agent
| that ever swIndled a savage Ill the price oil
| blanket or steer-fades into whlteheSS
| when compared with any variety OF this crime
against the majesty of the people. To forge check,
deed OF a will is not greater crime, nor should
it be more severely punished than to vitlate an cleo
ton by fraudulent ballots or by fraudulent counting
| The rObber who with pistol or bludge0n cocrces
traveller into the surrender of his purse Is really not
greater villain than the man who has any part in
an attempt to control election by violence at the
| ballot-box or by intimidation beforehand
1t is the frequency and mpunity of this crime and
the extent to which it is nOtoriously efficient III our
great elections that has brought the nation into the
| peril of the present hour. The people of all the
| United States are losing their confidence Ill the
ballot-box for they finding that it does not ex-
press their will. They coming to the knowledge
of the fact that instead of governing themselves,
they are in the hands of men who live by politics,
whose highest aim is always to carry the next cleo
tion and who are unscrupulous as TO the means by
| which it may be carried.
If there is no remedy for this, we must despair OF
the Republic. But because must not and will not
despair of the Republic | believe that there is
remedy, and that the people will find it, The men
who live by manipulating elections may smile at our
complaining and may ask like Tweed, "What are
Won gong to do about il ?" But am sure that the
honest people of our States able to recover their
seIf-goyernment, and that when they are reused
| they will do IT,
As things now are the great question with all
| thoughtful patriots will soon be, How shall we
have honest elections 1t will be seen that other
| mOmentOus questiOns-such as, How to reform our
civil service How to take away from members of
| Congress their usurped and cOrrupting patronage;
| How to deal with the gamblers who hazard millions
upon every great election, turning II into game OF
rivalry in fraudE-are subordinate and auxiliary 10
this How to guard the ballot-box How TO have
honest elections; How to recover our self-govern-
ment States and as nation. LEONARD BACON.
| -yf,srSn neoE