Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-11-15

The Purity Of The Ballot.
The American people are now passing |
through season OF very serious reflection
While the distractiug information from three
Southern states, every one Of which is doubt |
full, either of which will settle the election in
favor Of Mr.. Tilden, and all of which are nee
essary to the election Of Governor Hayes, sug-
gests the peril to which we are exposed it also
suggests the only remedy possible to preserve
our Republican institutions from anarchy
and overthrow. The peril is obvious. One
of these states is TO determine the result Of
the Presidential election-in fact already
has determined it, but it is not known in
what way. The whole country is waiting
with intense solicitude for full and satislac-
tory returns. The danger before us is that
the ballot may be tempered with, and that
President who has not been voted into office
may be counted into Office. President Grant
has recognized the peril, and has taken meas
ures to prevent or to meet it, His move
ment is significant and every way honorable
ting. Eminent citizens from both parties
have been designated to proceed to these
Southern states and ascertain the exact
facts in respect to the election returns.
Everything is being done to determine the
actual vote in these states in order that no
one may be declared President who has not
received the honest electoral vote necessary
to his election, and in ORDER too, that the
candidate who is entitled by the sulfrages
of the people to the Office may be declared
elected
There are two modes in which the actual
decision of the majority of the electors may
be nullified. The first is by fraudulent vot-
ing, that is, by repeating, ballot-box stufIing
and the use of force by one party against
another party to prevent voting In either
of these ways honest voters are robbed of
the just value OF their ballots. Ii re-
peater is allowed, if fraudulent vote isput
into the box, or if voter is forcibly kept
from voting, then the relative value and the
just weight of true vote is destroyed. An
elector, honest and intelligent in casting his
ballot, is robbed Of his suffrage, if a repeat
ing or fraudulent vote is put into the box
against him. His vote is nullihed by fc-
titious ballot, and not by an honest one.
There have been a great many local cleo
tons in the country that have had the sus-
picion Of this class of frauds attached to
them. No republic can long survive where
such frauds are permitted. A fraud in the
ballot is blow struck at the very heart of
free institutions and popular government.
If a man has the ballot, he wishes to con
tend with those who have a similar fran
chise, aud not with phantoms and frauds.
A fraud at the ballot-box is high treason to
the very idea and principle of popular gov
eminent, and it ought to be punished like
treason. A repeater, perjured voter, a
balot-box stuffer, ought to be shot Ii
there is one crime above another, that
strikes not at individual life, but at the life
or the state, it is fraudulent voting. 1t is
treason.
Another mode in which the people may
be robbed of their sovereignty is by fraudu-
lent returns, or fraudulent counting. This
is not a common method, for SO much pub
LEFTY attaches to the exercise of the ballot,
there are so many thousand eyes watching
the local results Of voting that it is far
more difficult to doctor the returns than to
stuff the ballot-box. And then provision
ought always to be made to ascertain the
state of the actual vote Provision ought
to be made for detecting and determining
false voting Provision ought to be made
to see that, in the first place, no vote gets
into the balot-box that is not entitled to be
there, and then still further, that no fraudu-
lent ballot, if it should get into the box,
shall have any weight in the general result.
The people who are qualified for the exer-
else Of this sovereign power Of determining
the officers and the policy Of the government
should find ways and means sufficiently ef.
fectiye and open and fair, TO guard against
any impurity in elections or in the counting
and declaration of election returns The
first duty of sovereignty is to protect itself
from invasion and destruction.
1t is Of no use now to speak about the
wisdom of that policy which has given the
ballot to all men on the ground Of their pos.
sessing the physical functions Of manhood
and not on the ground of their having the
mental and moral qualifications necessary to
the intelligent exercise OF the electoral
power. 1t has been the policy of the coun-
try, Of all parties in it, 10 extend the ballot
TO all masculine animals of the human kind
on the ground of their masculinity, and not
on the ground Of their intelligence or capac-
ity And so it is the custom Of the country
that voters herd in masses and vote accord
ing to their ideas on other questions than
those which are submitted to them at the
ballot box. Ignorance is massed by design
ing leaders against intelligence superstition
against education, liberty and light. We
have voters who are driven TO the polls in
great herds and their ballots tell us, not
what their views are on political subjects
but only to what church they belong, or
with what social class they affiliate. Aud
this kind of suffrage is the mockery, the
disgrace and the peril Of civil and religious
liberty. A qualification for the ballot, APP
plying equally TO all, is the original and
necessary safeguard Of its purity. Without
wise qualification, ii would be as reasona-
BILE to expect that the Winooski river would
keep pure and clean when all its aifluents