New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-09-20
The Election Law,

In vindication of Attorney General Taft's
Instructions to United States mafshals, and
in reply to the attack Of Senator Rayard,
Hon. E. w. Stoughton has written . letter
answerable. He holds that the legislation
of Congress was not only constitutional,
but absolutely demanded by the circum-
stances of the case, and says: 1.-The acte of
Congress which were designed to secure the
rights OF the citizens to vote, to preserve
peace at the polls, and to prevent fraudu-
lent voting, were passed on tho thirty-first
of May, 1870; on the fourteenth of July of
that year; on the twenty-eighth Of Febru-
ary, 1871; and ON the tenth of June, 1872,
and these as modified by each other lex.
cept that of July, which was substantially
repealed), are Incorporated IN substance
into the Revised Statutes of the United
States, in title twenty-six, under the head
of The Elective Franchise
IAN examination of these acts" says Mr.
Stoughton, Twill show that it 10 only for
the purpose of securing . fair election of
officers whose duties are national merely,
that supervisors are appointed and the &C.
tive duties of marshals and their deputies
required, and when We descend to the
principal moving cause which led to the
passage of these etatutes-sO OdiOus to the
Democratic leaders-we find it in the frauds
perpetrated by Tlden, Tweed and others
| in the city of New York in 1868, when the
| State of New York, which they hoped
l Seymour and against Grant, was carried by
| tho most gigantic and wicked frauds ever
perpetrsted in country b0aAting Of rep
resentative government, and 30 gross and
| palpsble were they that, had their authors
| succeeded in their unholy purpose of Civ.
| ing an apparent majority throughout the
United States for Seymour, the people o.
| the North might not have sumitted to such
| . result, for it will not, think, be denied
| that an election carried by ballOt-box stuff.
| ing or by the fraudulent manufacture Of ap
| parent votes is much more dangerous to the
| existence of . republic than An effort to
| change its rulers by open violence"
Mr.. StOughton then goes to show that for
many years prior to 1868 Tilden had been
prominent in the management of New
| York politics, in connection with Tweed
Sweeny and Tammsny Hall. He it was
who, by his private and strictly conf
Dental" circular, dated October q, 1868
| requesting early news of rural votes to be
sent to William NJ. Tweed "at the minute OF
| closing the polls, not waiting for the vote,
overcame the majority outside of the city
by means of fraudulent count here. This
| was the occasion of Tilden's terrible ar
| raignment by Greeley.
In respect to the duties imposed on super
visors Of election, Mr.. Stoughton argues
| that they are not such as should be 0bjec
| tionable to those who desire an honest e. ,
! ton, that their powers are the least that
could have been conferred for the purpose
and might constitutionally have been made
much more ample. The same remark ap
| plies to the powers conferred ON Unit
States marshals and their deputies. Nc
honest man can object to them, and no onf
who wishes the suffrage protected will oh
| ject to the government standing up for the
| purity of the ballot box. On this, as, in
deed, on all other constitutional points, thu
circular of Attorney General Taft and tn.
letter of Mr.. Evarts, when Attorney Gen
| eral, are as one. Az for the soldiers, when
| ever and wherever the msrshals who repre-
sent the law of the land are permitted T.
| perform their duties without interruption
| by violence, there will be NO need to aum
mon their aid to keep the peace.-Neu Yorj
| Commercial Adrertiser.