Weekly Trinity journal., 1877-01-27
HONESTY IN POLITICS.

1t is probable that the question of the
Presidential succession will come from
the hands of those to whom it has been
committed in form which will insure
the acquiescense Of the great majority Of
the people. 1t is very true that. the So
luton will not be so satisfactory as it
should be. It will be hard to convince
great portion of our people that our Pres.
Ident was not bull-dosed >" in by the
Rife clubs, or " counted in " by the e" Re-
turning Boards" ss these two accusations
have been freely banded, and in a great
degree are believed.
Behind the decision of the tribunal Gre
ated will always arise the question, was
the election a fair one ? Which Of the
two candidates, If either, or were neither
Of the two honestly elected ? 1t matters
little what the answer to the subordinate
question may be, il these can be answer
ed satisfactorily. For if the people have
failed to elect the man Of their choice.
whether it has been done by intimidating
voters and compelling them to vote
against their judgment and incinations,
by the system OF repeating by which IL
legal votes in one part of State have
nullilied legal ones, or by the action Of
officers who exceeded their powers and
prostituted their positions to reap party
| advantage, it is the same in effect our
system Of popular elections is a failure.
/ The tactics once successfully resOrted to
will become precedent for future action
The intimidation, repeating, and fraudu-
lent counts once resorted to to thwart the.
honest will Of the people, will again be
called into play, and we be at the sport
and mercy of the designing politicians.
1t will he admitted that if the election
had been perfectly fair, there would be
no reed Of the creation of a special tribu-
nal to determine the question of who is
elected. But it cannot be denied that
both the parties are open to the accusa-
ton of political dishonesty. Republicans
confess with shame that some of the par
ty leaders do not act up to that standard
Of political morality which should gov
ern, and though it is hard to get Dem
ocrat to admit that his perty is, or can
be wrong, any unprcjudiced, intelligent
observer cannot fail to see its corruptions. |
Under our system it seems next to i'm !
possible to do without parties. Yet it is |
in the dishonesty of parties, and in the |
disposition OF the rank and file of each 10 |
disbelieve in the accusations Of it. that
the secret Of our present national cCAhpli- |
cations, which will call for a spirit of
forbearance and concession on every |
hand, had their origin.
Before we can hope for perfect fairness
in elections we have got to recognize GER
tain facts, no matter how unpalateable |
they may be. The past decade has wit
messed great changes in the status of peo-
pie, and endowed large class with the
privilege Of the suffrage who were total |
ly unqualified for its exercise. Expert
ence has taught that this was error, but !
it is not error that can be remedied easi-
ly, we can only strive to guard against
its consequences. The spirit Of our laws
require that this class have the same free
dom Of exercise Of their newl y-acquired
right as those who have always rejoiced
in its possession. Whether intimidation
come from Rife Clubs, or from the So
cial astracism Of their own race, it must
be stopped-the American people owe it
to themselves to see that it is stopped.
The same is to be said of every other ell
ement Of political dishonesty. We can
not afford to wink at an infraction Of law
because our party is to reap the benefit of
It, if we do, the value of our franchise is
irredeemably gone. If fraudulent votes
are to be counted unquestioned the sup
ply will always be ready to meet the de-
mand, or if Returning Boards can ex-
ceed their rightful powers and reject le-
gal votes, the struggle will be to retain
the control of those boards rather than to
cast the minority of legal votes. We do
not say that any of those things have
been done, but grave changes are made
in reference to the late and previous cleo
tions, which show that there are serious
grounds for believing the charges to have
foundation.