The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-01-04
4 Sign ,of the Times.

1t is II startling testimony Of the extent
to which some years Of Radical ascend.
ancy have acbs@ched yheeT Tiininds s'of the
people of the uhiea .sEta, tl,at it has
ever been claimed, much less insisted on,
that n Returning Board can lawfully ex.
ist.' The fundamental principle of repub-
lican government is that the will Of the
i,,@;::::fi,.=s i,,@;::::fi,;.=s = :h: .:r.e:na ..h:ss- &C =hs.
niensurcs Of public policy shall be car
ried on and what men shall conduct those
measures. This will, it is further prin-
clplc, is to be manifested BY the votes Of
the people, and all that any government
al power can rightfully do 4. to such
votes, is To decide as to the day on which
they shall be cast and the machinery by
which the voice Of the votes shall be
made known. OF themselves 1000 PIECES
of paper in Il box are, Of course, nothing
but 80 many pieces Of paper; they can
not declare the general conclusion at
which all the votes have arrived, al
tli9ugh each particular ballot uDmistnka-
bly, nalifests its wish. Hence the una
voidable necessity Of one set of officials
to count all the votes in each box, and Of
another set to compute the genera! result
of all the boxes. Out of tais necessity
arises the Opportunity of Returning
Boards, the ;iiiI;fatsiig principle OF
which is, that the ballots are to be count
| cd not rs cast, but as the Board thinks
| they ought To have been cast. Such an
| assumption is so absoiu:.l; destructive
of the basis on which republican govern
nrnt exists that it ia amazing the idea
| should ever have been tolerated for an
instant III country pro res-:ag to possess
| free institutions. To sa,, ~ i'm Florida
| Tor instance, that three men are To be the
| final arbitcrs Of each election is really to
| erect Il government of the triumvirate, as
fully as q pOlity of that sort once existed
in Rome. And to rcpose II like power in
| five men, rs in Louisiana, /. halfa
| dozen, as in this State, is simply " vary
the form, without changing the substance,
of the oppression.
The true idea Of republican govern
ment may, in fact, be illustrated by u
| device which is said To have been pro-
posed for use in legislative assemblies, as
| follows: Over the Speakers chnir il II
dial, and connected therewth are wires,
operated on the principle of the tclc-
graph, running to each members seat.
When the member votes aye, he presses
the knob nyc on his desk, or il he vote no,
the knob no, and corresponding result
appears instn .,ncously on the dial ut
tie Speakers desk. This photographs
the will %! tli,. assembly on the pending
| prouositiOn, and affords no opportunity
for Il corrupt or laundering clerk to an
nouncc wrong result. In popular clcc-
tions, of course, this idea could hardly be
operated, but the illustration will serve
- show what republican government
really means. The ballot should be as
free as air when being cast, and rs in
.''f.ccablc as adaniant when cast
Thcsc principles are 50 elementary that
il astonishing, we repeat, that Il single
vycc has been raised throughout The
United States in favor of such II right us
'nnt claimed by Returning Hmrds- he
right. namely, 10 re-nrrangc the vote to
nit themselves. This is such palpable
snavcry, such gross, open, declared swim
ding. that 1t could never hive found an
"lvocate unless some great corrupting
cause had first broken down the barriers
oetween the conception of right and
wrong, 0f honesty and dishonesty. nf
good government and despotis.n. II will
stand in American history rs q most
shameful page that such a question was
actually litigated in two of our State
courts. II is us if some CORY rutiinn were
seriously TO contend that murder was no
crime, and insist upon the court, ut the
bar whereof no WIS arraigned, passing
on the point. 1t is u crime, forsooth, to
steal u hog, Il fowl, yard of cloth, but
no offence to rob men of their participn-
ton in their own government, as mani
Tested in their votes.
The Supreme Court of South Carolina.
and the Supreme Court of Florida, fol.
lowing it, has pronounced any such claim
absolutely groundless, and refused with a
proper contempt to permit such front
less defiance of law to clothe its naked
ness with one single legal rag and in SO
doing has spoken the plainest dictate of
common honesty, common right and
common sense. A Returning Board is
like pirate, hosts humani generis. the
enemy of mankind, and it is u reflection
upon the capacity o: Americans for self
government that the claims OF such
buccaneers have ever been made the
themeof legal controversy. This could
never have happened if long prcva-
!ence of Radical rule had not, to some
degree, sapped the foundations of the
public honesty. No man, says the
proverb, becomes q villain all at once.
and there would not have been anywhere
in the United States such sign of tur-
pitude as defence or palliation of these
scoundrel Boards, if preliminary pro.
cess Of prostitution had not been carried
on by the brigands who lead the Repub-
lican party.-Ch Charleston Journal of Com
merce.