The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-02-05
MR.. HARRIS WITHDRAWAL.

Mr.. Harris has Withdrawn from tne lluiI-
less contest of Mr.. Carroll's seat Left
without remedy by the unrelenting policy
dictated by the Ring masters at Annapolis,
he leaves Mr.. Carroll to the undisturbed
enjoyment of his honors. The Democratic
managers have fulfilled to the letter Mr..
Wallis's declaration made last Fall. that
the Democrat party in the State had
numerical force enough to dispense with
"the good opinions, and the ballots OF the
"best of its voters, and it has accordingly
treated their opinions with contempt. 1t
"has had official control of the elections,
"and when its nominations have driven
"voters disguised from the polls, it has
"stuffed the ballot-boxes and elected its
candidates, or magnified their majorlties
cat it's pleasure by fraud Is there a
candid man in Maryland who does not con-
fess the force of Mr.. Wallis words? Is
there prejudiced partisan of Mr.. Carroll,
who does not know that his majority was
magnified by fraud? Does not an actual
recount of the ballots cast in the city of
Baltimore amply demonstrate this fact at
leasta Is it less the fact that Mr.. Carroll S
election was assured, if not actually accom-
plished, by the political dishonesty Of those
to whom it's management was entrusted,
and that they now make their undisputed
demands upon him in recognition of the
service rendered. Politics aside it is diff
cult to reconcile the unhesitating accept
ance of an elevated position, procured by
a tainted election, with heightened personal
professions. tits no less difficult to accept
the plea of individual responsibility, as an
apology for the want of decency upon the
part of any mans political supporters, par
ticularly so, when an Office as dignified and
honorable as the Chief Magistracy of Mary
land is involved. Certainly had Mr.. Car
roll desired the good opinion of the people
of the State, outside of mere political pref
erence, the manner of his election should
have raised in his mind, very serious doubts
as to the propriety of the acceptance of its
questionable result, until it's legality and
regularity had been fully indicated before
the only tribunal in the State authorized to
institute the inquiry. If, as claimed for
him, outside of the illegal and fraudulent
votes cast at his supposed election, he still
could show an undisputed majority of legal
votes in his favor, what had he to lose by
an unlimited exposure of fraud? Nothing
certainly. On the other hand he could have
repealed the imputation of suspicion that
now rests upon the commences of his ma
jority, and which the withdrawal of Mr..
Harris from an unequal contest in no wise
dispels. A demand from him of a thorough
exposure of the fraudulent acts incident
upon his election, would have placed him
upon higher ground, so far as public opln-
ion is concerned, than he can possibly attain
by any subsequent redeeming act of his
administration. Suppose Mr.. Carroll had
said to the Legislature of Maryland imme-
diately upon it's assembling, that his self
respect forbade his qualification as Gov
ernor, until the fact of his election, of
which he was morally certain, but concern
ing which serious question had been raised,
was fully and satisfactorily established by
the refutation of all charges of alleged lle-
gality and fraud. Veteran politicians of
the Bannon school would, doubtless from
sheer want of gentlemanly instinct, have
.ridiculed Mr.. Carrolfs simplicity, yet the
manlness of the act, while it left him no
less master of the situation, would, to a
great extent, have disarmed ceusure and
silenced criticism. AS it is, the vilest po-
litical trucker, whose party service fails to
realize at Mr. Carroll's hands its most in
solent demand, can throw back into his
respectable face, the reproach of disreputa-
BILE acts of which he indirectly shares the
benefit. Mr.. Harris withdrawal then is no
concession of the justice of his cause, or
denial of the gross injustice of the act, that
denies through him to SO large body of the
citizens of the State the redress of papa-
BILE and fragrant wrongs. Although aban-
doned by him, the contest will go on, until
the corrupting and debasiug influences that
now degrade the politics of the State shall
be destroyed, by the transfer of political
power to able and purer hands.